My Week as "Perfect Barbara"

Back on Sunday when I met with Seetha, she and I set up a schedule for the "Perfect Barbara" - what would her days look like? Here's what we came up with...

Wake up
30 minutes of cardio at the gym
Shower/Breakfast
Go to work
Lunch + walk outside after lunch
After work the following: Yoga, dinner, chores, meditation
Read before bed
Lights out so I get 8 hours of sleep

Pretty good schedule right?

I'll admit I felt tired just looking at it. In order to get 30 minutes of cardio in before work, it meant getting up an hour earlier than I have been. Which also means going to bed an hour earlier (super hard) if I'm going to get a full night's sleep. Seetha said it would tough at first and I would feel tired, but that if I stuck to it long enough it would become easier.

So far... so good! For the most part. :-)

Monday - The office was closed for President's Day so I didn't wake up super early, but I did do my cardio and yoga.

Tuesday - First day of early wake up... I slept like garbage because I kept waking up and checking the clock to see if it was time to go to the gym yet. Once my alarm finally went off I got up (no snooze button...very proud) and made it to the gym feeling excited. While there I saw Seetha and Linsay (my 60 day challenge coach) - silly but it felt good to know there were witnesses to my efforts. Did my 30 minutes of cardio... went to work... did feel tired but not too bad. Went on my lunch walk in 28 degree weather (brrrr). Then had Job #2 at night (so no yoga).

Wednesday - Second early wake up. Still no snooze button. Changed up my cardio to include some weights. Worked. Went to Bikram at night. Success!

Thursday (today) - Third day of early wake up... I did hit the snooze button once, but I have not felt nearly as tired today as the other days, so perhaps I'm already starting to get used to it! I work again at Job #2 tonight, but not terribly late so I plan to do a small yoga workout at home (I get out too late to make it to an actual class).

All in all... waking up earlier and getting my cardio in is going great! My lunch walk is going great (thankfully it's warmed up a bit since my first outing on Tuesday). Food is also going great - there's no way I want to screw up after putting so much effort in to haul my butt to the gym while it's still dark outside (that was honestly the main idea behind the whole schedule... focus on establishing a routine and food should fall into place...). What is not going great: chores (the sink is full of dishes, the trash is full, and I have laundry to do), meditation (haven't done it once), and getting to bed earlier (so basically I'm now only getting 7 hours of sleep). I can catch up on chores this weekend, but somehow I have to figure out how to meditate and get to bed earlier.

And now for some pictures to liven up the post. Sorry, the only pictures I seem to take lately are of our juice creations. :-)

Wednesday's: Kale, apple, carrot, pear, orange

Delicious! Made me sad though because it looked like a Diet Coke float, and I realized I will never have one of those again. :-(

Thursday's: carrots, pear, apple, tangerine (juice only for me, that's why the plate isn't so full)

SUPER tasty!

It seems I've definitely gotten used to carrots in juice. Hopefully green things will start tasting better soon...

And now the update for this handy thing... Woohoo!