Becoming a Morning Person

In my quest to get it together I have been researching becoming a morning person.  Happily I have found a wealth of information on the subject.  There are many clever tips and ideas out there.  They have worked so well that I have been getting up at 7 am or earlier almost every morning for the last week.  I thought recording them here would be the best way to imprint them on my brain and maybe benefit a couple other people too.

On article on how to become a morning person pointed out that morning people tend to: make more money, be more productive, be healthier and live longer, and be more happy and satisfied in their lives.  That is a good little boost of motivation to try to make getting up early a habit.  This page has some good reasons for being a morning person and good tips on how to achieve it.  Here are a few tips I have found that I want to apply.

1) Making a list of what you can accomplish by becoming a morning person and then another list of what you risk if you don't.  I love lists.  This is a good way to get excited about something and make it solid and then can be useful to review it later when the initial burst of enthusiasm has died.

2) Turn on all the lights when you get up, a way to trick your body into thinking it is full day.

3) Set out your clothes the night before.  No decisions to make in the morning about what to wear when you are miserable and groggy.  Getting fully dressed reduces the chances of crawling back under the covers.

4) Put your alarm clock somewhere you have to get up and walk to in order to turn it off.  I've been leaving mine in the living room.  It is loud and we have neighbours above us so I get my butt up and out of bed quick to try to avoid disturbing them.

5) Get out the door and go for a walk immediately after waking up.  This one is really ideal for me with my goal of 10,000 steps a day.  It would give me a good jump start on my steps.  Also Danger dog would enjoy the walk.  If I can get him up, he is always the last one out of bed.

6) Dim the lights several hours before bed.  One website even suggested wearing glasses with yellow lenses to block out the blue spectrum light that makes you alert.

7) Be rigid with your wake up time, even on weekends, until you really are a morning person.

8) To help you get to sleep at night have a hot bath or shower to relax you before bed, write down anything that is worrying you so you can put it away until tomorrow.

9) If after half an hour in bed you are not yet asleep get up and do something quiet like reading (not some heart pounding suspense novel, something you can put down any time).  Avoid turning on any overhead lights, use dim desk lights.  Go back to bed when you are drowsy.

10) Start getting up an hour or two earlier than you are used to and then start getting up an minute earlier each day until you are at your goal time.

11) Give yourself a get up incentive.  Promise of a nice breakfast.  Reading a book that you're excited about.  Pick something you love.

12) Write, with pen and paper, three pages of whatever goes through your brain. Wakes up and primes your mind.

13) Have a glass of water with lemon waiting for you in the fridge to down just after waking up.

14) Exercise.  The one day last week I did cardio in the morning I was obnoxiously alert for the rest of the day.  The obnoxious part I will have to work on but the alert part was wonderful.

15) Eat a breakfast with protein.  Avoid processed foods and sugar.

16) Splash cold water on your face, several times.

Those are the highlights so far.  If researching and writing things down works for me I should be a morning person within a month.

Knowledge is power

So I'm thinking that I must be missing something here. Something that will make my goals realities and see me constantly improving on the past. As if there is a big chasm between having a desire to accomplish something and then actually getting it done. I have come to the conclusion that desire is not enough. Wanting something doesn't make it happen. Staggeringly insightful, I know.

Why has it taken me thirty odd years to figure out that just wanting something bad enough isn't enough? It isn't that I've failed to realize you need a plan to reach your goals. I've made such plans and I usually have more success when actually I follow my plan. But somehow I have only had a hazy idea of where knowledge has fit into all this. For years I have been making up schedules to manage my time and be more productive. They are very nice schedules, include everything I could possibly want to do, often color coded, and if I only followed them I would be an amazingly organized and efficient person. Where is the gap? How can I make such great plans and absolutely fail in following them?  Simply put I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

Recently I sat myself down and had a nice chat with my brain about what successes I have had lately and how I achieved them:

My step goal last summer; I looked up a ton of information on walking, pedometers, and having a step goal. Then I acted on that knowledge. Knowledge is power. I met and surpassed my step goal. Felt great doing it.

Started living on a tight but reasonable budget; watched Gail Vaz Oxlade instruct dozens of people on how to live on a budget (spent a whole weekend watching a marathon of "'til Debt Do Us Part" on Slice TV). Read her website, used her suggestions, read other sites and success stories. Then put these into practice.  Knowledge is power. We now live on a budget without even giving it much thought. It is second nature.

Comparing these successes with my flops in getting on a schedule I tried to see what I could translate across to finally get a grip on how I use my time. One thing became quite obvious. I have no idea how to work up a proper schedule and even less of a clue as to putting it into effect. I am lacking the knowledge. So now my plan is to educate myself and then attack this scheduling problem with overwhelming force.

Stepping back in.

I made my step goal last summer. It really was an effective and enjoyable way to get myself moving. But then me pedometer died on me and somehow my motivation followed suit. Winter is not great on the motivation. The cold seems to kill it dead. Now I have let things slip. Including my routine of walking and as a result my fitness level has plummeted. My weight hasn't done very nice things either. Not that I have weighed myself lately. Batteries are dead and my measuring tape has gone AWOL so I have no solid stats to post tonight but once I get my act together they will come.

Walking in the winter is hard!

Since my pedometer has resurrected itself after an unfortunate dunk in toilet (clipping it to my skivvies has its risks) I am going for another step goal.  This is another California goal. I have 169 days to get my butt in gear this time. 10,000 steps a day makes that 1,690,000 steps. That is about 845  miles. A pretty fair goal. I don't have a goal weight since I really think I have too messed up an idea of what that should be. I am still hoping I will know it when I get to it.

So here goes my goals:

1 - walk 1,690,000 steps by July 18th
2 - wear my old black dress to the convention
3 - swing kettle bells 3 days a week
4- eat clean 90% of the time (clean, for me, being whole unprocessed foods)
5- get a good 8 hours sleep a night... Starting tomorrow night...

Am I Making Progress?

After weighing and measuring myself this morning I have to wonder: am I making progress?  I have once again recorded no real loss.  My weight is 180 and my measurements have all pretty much been wavering in the same range for the past few weeks.  But I have been walking my 10,000 steps or more everyday and I have not missed a single workout.  But then again this past week has seen some pretty terrible eating due mostly to our road trip.  Herein lies one of the most stressful parts of trying to lose weight... the self doubt.

The doubt can be crippling and even eventually make you give up.  There are so many books out there telling you that there is only one way to lose weight and get in shape.  Their way.  They are filled with so much convincing reasoning and supported by so much evidence.  How could they possibly be wrong?  Especially since they are packed full of real life success stories.  If you just follow the plan they lay out exactly then your story can be just as successful as theirs.  Therein lies the rub: Following the plan exactly.  I'm not so great at that.  The stress of it all makes my hair fall out.

So that's it.  I can't follow a program.  But if I don't follow a program I will fail.  Seems like a hopeless case. Except I refuse to give up.  I am going to eat right and exercise.  That is it.  I will succeed by simply eating right and exercising.  There is no magic formula.  No one path to fitness enlightenment.  If you "eat food, not too much, mostly plants" and exercise you will be healthy.  It does not have to be complicated.

Despite what the scale and measuring tape have been telling me these last few weeks I see a different person in the mirror.  She is smaller and healthier looking than the one I saw in there a couple months ago.  We ate out everyday for almost a week, with getting ready for our road trip, road tripping, and getting back from our road trip.  The result is to be expected.  In fact I am shocked that I have not gained 5lbs from such bad eating, even from water retention alone.  This tells me I am doing good.  I am making progress.  Which motivates me to keep on doing what I am doing.  Trying to make good food choices and exercising.  No strict diet plans or workout routines.  Just keep picking away at it.  A few weeks stalemate in comparison with a year long goal is nothing to discourage me.  I will not give up.

Here are my stats for the week:

Weight: 180 lbs up 1 lb
Total inches: 202 up .75 (measured 7 spots)

Aug 4: 10,253 steps ,
Aug 5: 10,838 steps  
Aug 6: 10,710 steps + kbells 20 mins 

Road Tripping

I am so excited to welcome my sister to this blog!  It is going to be a whole lot more interesting to have another voice join in on the fight to fitness.  It has been a fight these last few days.  We have been on a road trip and driving all day long makes it a bit more difficult to get the 10,000 steps a day.

Starting our first day of driving after work meant that I got my steps in even before we left.  The next night we made it to our destination, Minneapolis.  We did a little shopping along the way so that gave me some steps.  But at the end of the day I still had about half my steps to go.  This was our first time visiting this city so finding that all of down town is connected by pedways was pretty exciting for us.  We wandered the closed malls after hours and followed the maze-like course as far as we could.  When we got back to the hotel I finished up my steps by quietly walking around our floor.  Although we didn't bring our kettleballs along there was a workout room at our Minneapolis hotel.  It has been years since I lifted weights regularly and so I didn't have a great workout, but I didn't miss my workout and that is the most important thing.

Tonight we went for a walk after checking into our hotel.  We were happy to find that our hotel is in a non-scary neighbourhood and enjoyed being able to stretch our legs after being in the car for a few hours.  Tomorrow we will finish our drive home and be there in time to do our regular evening walk.

This week I wasn't super excited about my progress so I've dragged my feet about reporting my stats for this week.  But here goes...

Weight: 179 lbs no change (was actually 180 on Tuesday, but I weighed myself again on Wednesday)
Total inches: 201.25 down .75 (measured 7 spots)
July 28: 10,477 steps 
July 29: 10,903 steps 
July 30: 11,717 steps + kbells 20 mins 
July 31: 12,404 steps
Aug 1: 17,817 steps  + kbells 20 mins 
Aug 2: 11,371 steps

Aug 3: 10,153 steps + weights 20 mins

I can tell you right now with all the eating out we have been doing on this road trip I am not looking forward to my next weigh and measure session.

Let Me Introduce Myself!

Being as persuasive as she is, my sister has convinced me to join her in this journey to getting fit. Life seems to get busier by the minute so finding some one to workout with has been challenging. Everyone has such different schedules and as a result, as well intentioned as they maybe, my plans never seem to come to fruition. So when Liv suggested we get fit together it sounded like it was worth giving it a go. Did I mention we would be doing this from opposite sides of the country?  


Unlike many other people I can not say that I have tried all sorts of things to get in shape and nothing seems to work for me.  Until recently I hadn’t really given it much thought; but my gradual weight gain of about 5lbs / year over the last 6 – 7 years has been entirely due to lack of motivation to do anything about it. Add to that a job where I sit on my tookus all day long and you get an extra 30 some unwanted pounds. The worst part for me has been the storage of some of my favorite clothes because they just don’t fit any more. 


I’m not a big fan of diets and I don’t think mine is a problem area. I admit to indulging in the occasional treat but my portion sizes are moderate and I rarely eat to the point of being overly full. I try to stay away from too many processed foods but again I make no claim to being perfect on that side of things either. So basically it comes down to something that sounds oh so simple… GET ACTIVE!  


And so begins my accountability to you dear readers and dear sister.

The Things You See

Walking 5 miles a day means you come across all sorts of interesting sights, like this "Bubble Blast" machine that brightened our day by scattering bubbles across our path.  Our walks at night usually result in some animal sightings.  Raccoons almost every night, an occasional possum, and one night we even had a skunk cross our path, but thankfully it didn't cross it too close.  Wondering what we'll see around the corner helps keep us walking 10,000 steps a day.

Today I sat down to see how long it will take me to reach my weight loss goal.  It is a little difficult because I don't know what my ideal weight is.  I have a picture in my head of what I will look like when I reach my ideal weight.  So when the image in my mirror matches the image in my head I'll be at my ideal weight.  I weighed 125lbs before I got married.  But I wasn't fit.  Just skinny, probably a bit too skinny for a woman who is 5'8".  I plan on building a strong body and muscles weighs more so I don't plan on getting back down to 125lbs.

With all that in mind I decided to set my goal at 145lbs.  When I gained 20lbs and was at 145lbs the first time I was mortified because it was all fat.  According to a fitness tracking spreadsheet my sister found 145lbs would take me down to an athletic 20% body fat.  Checking out the Wolfram Alpha data crunching site reveals my ideal body weight to be 145lbs.  This leads me to think that it would be a good goal to aim for.  If I continue to average a loss of 1lb every week I will reach my goal of 145lbs by March 19th, 2013.  That's pretty exciting to consider and another thought I'll hold in mind to keep me motivated.

July 24: 12,392 steps 
July 25: 16,216 steps  + kbells 15 mins 
July 26: 14,869 steps
July 27: 11,081 steps  + kbells 20 mins