So this last weekend threw me off just slightly, I'm not going to lie. Although it was absolutely worth it :)
I spent the weekend in Massachusetts with my family which was awesome as always. The reason for the trip, although sad, ended up being a really special experience. My grandfather passed away in December and decided to be cremated. My grandmother wanted to wait until it was a bit nicer out to have a memorial service and place his urn at his cemetery plot so Easter weekend was picked. I left work early and got into town Thursday evening and had dinner with my Grandmother at one of my favorite restaurants ever! Gibbet Hill in Groton, MA. It is a farm to table type restaurant with its own garden and even their own black angus cows...which happen turn into delightful filet mignon as I found out at dinner :)
Normally when I go to MA, I can count on at least one evening staying up way too late with my grandmother <--one of the most amazing women I have ever known, and who never seems to sleep;-)--and a bottle of wine. We got a bottle at the restaurant and ended up practically shutting the place down after we were done eating. Dinner was delicious & the conversation as always was inspiring, motivating and lovely!
I woke up around 7 the next morning and went downstairs. I tried....I really tried to want to do something productive. Instead I was up for about 20 minutes and then went back up to bed for a little longer and read. The night before was really wonderful and we were up until about 1am so I didn't feel too bad about resting a little longer.
The rest of the weekend was pretty busy helping Gram to get ready for the memorial, the memorial itself and then traveling to a beach in Maine to spread some of his ashes<--which by the way, was one of the most beautiful and spiritual things that I have ever witnessed. (I will probably write more about this in the HighHeeledHoney blog). The next morning I woke up early but not by choice....I had a flight to catch to make it back for the Easter Egg hunt with bf and bf's son. Then later that day, I had a TON of hw. All in all and exhausting weekend! Great but exhausting!
This past week I have been waking up around 7 with the exception of today. Bf and I watched 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' which was really good but REEEEAAAAlly long so I slept in a little today.
I am hoping my yoga dvd come in today so in the morning on Friday I am planning to do some physical activity which means I will need to go to bed at reasonable time tonight. Wish me luck!
Some funny stuff happened throughout the weekend and even this week that I wanted to include in this blog but I figure at this point it would be difficult to pile it all in. This was just a quick update and tomorrow I may return to my attempt at witty banter regarding the horrors and the successes in trying to be a morning person :)
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Breeeaaaathe...
Well, I did what I had planned in a general sense.
Not exactly how I wanted but it was a start :)
-Wake up earlier--check! (about 6:40am)
-Do yoga--kind of check!
-Make healthy breakfast--check!
I woke up this morning with no alarm (which is amazing btw) around 6:40 am. I got up slowly and brushed my teeth keeping the light off but the door open. Then I went out into the living room and kitchen and opened the blinds. It was cool because even just a slow introduction to light after having my eyes shut for over 7 hours was waaaay more relaxing than shocking my body awake with alarms and bright bathroom lights.
Once I was in the living room and ready to begin some stretching/yoga, I realized that video I found online would need to be viewed on the computer....which is in the kitchen. Great. I have been on a semi-ban of against all of my bf's fancy schmancy techno-gadgets for so long and now if I wanted to follow through with my morning plan, I had two options.
1. Turn on the slow as molasses laptop, dig up the hdmi converter cable, plug the laptop into the tv, figure out the input/screen configuration/volume, and go from there. This could add a whole extra 30 minutes to my plan and I didnt get up THAT early. :/
2. Succumb to the inevitable and use the Kindle Fire....ugh.
After a few minutes of thought I decided to use the Kindle Fire. "Hmm, maybe if I start now, I can be done before my bf wakes up and he will never know that I used it!" I found the video, put it on full screen, turned up the volume, propped it up in front of me and pressed play. I began to hear the soft crashing of waves on the white sand beach and a calm voice began to speak to me from the ocean on the screen talking me through quiet, deep breaths. I began to really relax...breathing in and breathing out...breathing in...and breathing out....breathing in...
STOP.
What the heck? The video just stopped and totally interrupted my calmness. I had to hit Pause and then Play then follow a few calm yoga breaths/moves then stop. pause. play. Just about every couple minutes. O.M.G. This is not relaxing. And not especially easy when you are in Downward Dog trying to keep your neck and back in line. With a couple minutes left in the video I decided this wasn't really working so I stopped....just in time for my bf to see me holding the tablet and scream "Ah-ha! I knew you would use it eventually!" Damn. Oh well.
I went into the kitchen and made the breakfast that I planned which was delicious (Egg whites, green onion, salsa, ground turkey). I normally don't eat breakfast but this was pretty light and once I was done, I actually felt great. I finished a bottle of water and watched the Today Show for a bit. I felt much more relaxed than I ever do in the mornings! Maybe the little bit of yoga that I tried to do actually helped! I did not feel the need to rush at all. I was ready with enough time to get a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop, get to work and calmly start my day without any stress. What a notion...start the day stress free. I didn't really realize how much stress I impart on myself before anything even happens by not giving myself time to properly wake up.
All-in-all this morning went well. However, I will be buying a yoga dvd so that I dont have to count on our internet connection or the lack of memory on a tablet to affect my concentration while achieving calm enlightenment. Going to try the same thing tomorrow but hopefully figure out a different solution for the yoga stuff. Any one have a good DVD I can borrow until mine comes in? :)
Not exactly how I wanted but it was a start :)
-Wake up earlier--check! (about 6:40am)
-Do yoga--kind of check!
-Make healthy breakfast--check!
I woke up this morning with no alarm (which is amazing btw) around 6:40 am. I got up slowly and brushed my teeth keeping the light off but the door open. Then I went out into the living room and kitchen and opened the blinds. It was cool because even just a slow introduction to light after having my eyes shut for over 7 hours was waaaay more relaxing than shocking my body awake with alarms and bright bathroom lights.
 |
| although my instructor today was a stupid tablet that I didn't want to use anyway...breeeeaaathe |
Once I was in the living room and ready to begin some stretching/yoga, I realized that video I found online would need to be viewed on the computer....which is in the kitchen. Great. I have been on a semi-ban of against all of my bf's fancy schmancy techno-gadgets for so long and now if I wanted to follow through with my morning plan, I had two options.
1. Turn on the slow as molasses laptop, dig up the hdmi converter cable, plug the laptop into the tv, figure out the input/screen configuration/volume, and go from there. This could add a whole extra 30 minutes to my plan and I didnt get up THAT early. :/
2. Succumb to the inevitable and use the Kindle Fire....ugh.
After a few minutes of thought I decided to use the Kindle Fire. "Hmm, maybe if I start now, I can be done before my bf wakes up and he will never know that I used it!" I found the video, put it on full screen, turned up the volume, propped it up in front of me and pressed play. I began to hear the soft crashing of waves on the white sand beach and a calm voice began to speak to me from the ocean on the screen talking me through quiet, deep breaths. I began to really relax...breathing in and breathing out...breathing in...and breathing out....breathing in...
STOP.
What the heck? The video just stopped and totally interrupted my calmness. I had to hit Pause and then Play then follow a few calm yoga breaths/moves then stop. pause. play. Just about every couple minutes. O.M.G. This is not relaxing. And not especially easy when you are in Downward Dog trying to keep your neck and back in line. With a couple minutes left in the video I decided this wasn't really working so I stopped....just in time for my bf to see me holding the tablet and scream "Ah-ha! I knew you would use it eventually!" Damn. Oh well.
I went into the kitchen and made the breakfast that I planned which was delicious (Egg whites, green onion, salsa, ground turkey). I normally don't eat breakfast but this was pretty light and once I was done, I actually felt great. I finished a bottle of water and watched the Today Show for a bit. I felt much more relaxed than I ever do in the mornings! Maybe the little bit of yoga that I tried to do actually helped! I did not feel the need to rush at all. I was ready with enough time to get a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop, get to work and calmly start my day without any stress. What a notion...start the day stress free. I didn't really realize how much stress I impart on myself before anything even happens by not giving myself time to properly wake up.
All-in-all this morning went well. However, I will be buying a yoga dvd so that I dont have to count on our internet connection or the lack of memory on a tablet to affect my concentration while achieving calm enlightenment. Going to try the same thing tomorrow but hopefully figure out a different solution for the yoga stuff. Any one have a good DVD I can borrow until mine comes in? :)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
4 AM Makes No Sense
I guess I was really excited after yesterdays incredibly motivational realization of what a huge difference I can make by just waking up a bit earlier. I woke up at 4:19 AM. what. the. heck. ...that time does not even make any sense to me! As much as I want to do this, I found it impossible to get out of bed. So I kind of rolled around and thought for a few hours and ended up getting up around 7 am. In hind sight, I probably should have just gotten out of bed. Now at 7 I felt more groggy and tired than I did at 4. Part of my issue is that I had no idea what I was going to do if I got up at 4 except for think about how silly it would be to wake up that early and then probably be disappointed in myself that I did not make good use of the time.
So I decided I need to have a plan for when I wake up tomorrow no matter what time it is. Many of the websites I have come across suggest doing your exercise in the morning. Although eventually I want to try doing my runs or more intense exercise in the morning, I'm going to start off slow with a little yoga. I found a great video online with the ocean in the background that seems like it might be a nice way to start the day. Morning Yoga for A Good Day. I am going to try to make my living room a serene and relaxing place where I can ease myself out of my dreams and into a peaceful reality. If only we lived overlooking the ocean and I had a view of the sunrise :-/
I am also going to eat breakfast tomorrow. I am terrible with just having a huge cup of coffee and no food until lunchtime. I know that is not how I need to get my body started. I don't want to just have a bowl of cold cereal either because that will not help me to get out of bed. When I visited my mom while she was working in California, the diners out there had the BEST healthy menus. **Insert sarcastic remark about California health nuts here** One of my favorite items was an egg white omelet with ground turkey, salsa, avocado & brown rice. I can do that! So today I will be going to the store and making sure that i am prepared to make a really good breakfast. If I cook, maybe my bf will get up a little earlier too and we can spend some quality time together :)
Ok, I think that is a good start...Yoga & a healthy breakfast and probably watching the Today Show. Sounds awesome! I'm sure my post tomorrow will be interesting after trying yoga for the first time in years....yikes lol :)
 |
| How I imagine tomorrow morning will be...stay tuned for a more realistic version tomorrow morning. |
I am also going to eat breakfast tomorrow. I am terrible with just having a huge cup of coffee and no food until lunchtime. I know that is not how I need to get my body started. I don't want to just have a bowl of cold cereal either because that will not help me to get out of bed. When I visited my mom while she was working in California, the diners out there had the BEST healthy menus. **Insert sarcastic remark about California health nuts here** One of my favorite items was an egg white omelet with ground turkey, salsa, avocado & brown rice. I can do that! So today I will be going to the store and making sure that i am prepared to make a really good breakfast. If I cook, maybe my bf will get up a little earlier too and we can spend some quality time together :)
Ok, I think that is a good start...Yoga & a healthy breakfast and probably watching the Today Show. Sounds awesome! I'm sure my post tomorrow will be interesting after trying yoga for the first time in years....yikes lol :)
Monday, April 2, 2012
Starting Over :)
Alright y'all, I'm serious now. I considered writing this blog post yesterday but it being April Fool's Day, I didn't want to give myself another excuse to stop ;-) I have a new-found motivation today. Things in general are really great so there is no reason that I can't do this. I'm healthy, I'm busy and I'm happy.
So let's go!
This morning I woke up around 7:20. Early enough to slowly get ready and get to work early but not early enough to really get with it and be productive. Even though I was well hydrated last night and slept for 8 hours I still woke up with puffy eyes that made me look like I had been socked in the face and I felt super squinty.
I want to wake up like the lady in the Folger's commercials going to dance class. As soon as she opens her eyes, they are wide open and ready to face the day with enthusiasm and vigor. She smiles just to have the opportunity to get out of bed and then goes to some dance class high on life and Folger's coffee. See Strange Happy Woman.
I don't get it...I am always the one to try to be positive and be thankful for everything that I have and I also try to influence others to think the same way. Why is it so hard to be thankful for the morning and the chance to be physically and mentally capable of getting out of bed?? Shouldn't I just be able to rejoice and jump out of bed and embrace the day and what new adventures it may bring? Yes. I should. However, lately I am perfectly content to rejoice and be thankful for my gazillion thread-count sheets and TempurPedic bed.
Maybe I need to change my perception of what it means to wake up in the morning. It is a blessing that we wake up in the morning and have to ability to make choices on how we will spend our day.
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| Me this morning....except girl and longer hair. Oh and slightly older...just had a birthday |
This morning I woke up around 7:20. Early enough to slowly get ready and get to work early but not early enough to really get with it and be productive. Even though I was well hydrated last night and slept for 8 hours I still woke up with puffy eyes that made me look like I had been socked in the face and I felt super squinty.
 |
| What I want to be like |
I want to wake up like the lady in the Folger's commercials going to dance class. As soon as she opens her eyes, they are wide open and ready to face the day with enthusiasm and vigor. She smiles just to have the opportunity to get out of bed and then goes to some dance class high on life and Folger's coffee. See Strange Happy Woman.
I don't get it...I am always the one to try to be positive and be thankful for everything that I have and I also try to influence others to think the same way. Why is it so hard to be thankful for the morning and the chance to be physically and mentally capable of getting out of bed?? Shouldn't I just be able to rejoice and jump out of bed and embrace the day and what new adventures it may bring? Yes. I should. However, lately I am perfectly content to rejoice and be thankful for my gazillion thread-count sheets and TempurPedic bed.
Maybe I need to change my perception of what it means to wake up in the morning. It is a blessing that we wake up in the morning and have to ability to make choices on how we will spend our day.
- Why do I really want to make this change? My first thought in this little habit changing project was that I wanted to be able to say that i am a morning person. Ok...so what?
- Why do I want to be able to say that? Most morning people I know are incredibly productive individuals
- Why do I want to be productive? This one is kind of hard and maybe too deep for this early in the morning but simply put...Life is Short. In the time I have, I want to be healthy, happy and make a true difference in my family, my community and the world. I want to create healthy habits that will allow me to do these things.
Whoa....ok now that we have ridden on my train-of-thought for a bit, this is much bigger than just being able to get up early. It almost seems more simple too. Get yo' lazy a$$ out of bed to make a difference. If I get up earlier and take care of some of the basic things I need to do for myself, I will have that much more time later on to take care of everyone else I love and everything else I care about.
31 days starts now....again. There is more riding on this than I originally thought. Funny what kind of motivation can come from a run-of-the-mill coffee commercial ;-)
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