Update: One month of following a goddamn schedule
Somehow a month has passed (even more: 5 weeks!) since I started following my goddamn schedule, also known as AHGOS (Annoyingly Healthy and Goal-Oriented Schedule). Initially I promised updates every week - well, that was ambitious! An update every month seems much less tedious for the both of us.
Let’s see how my first 5 weeks went!
Goals & Thoughts
Sleep: my goal was 8-9 hours of sleep per night, and this is one area that I knocked it out of the park, if I do say so myself. My goal of being in bed by 3am, however… Well. That happened a total of 4 times, out of 35 nights. My usual time to bed contained the numbers 4, 1, and 5, in that order. Last night’s was 5:20am. When the pink and blue colours of sunrise start peeping over the horizon, I know it’s time to duck beneath the covers.
And you know what? I’m okay with this. I’ve often not been setting an alarm, going to bed and waking up with the rhythms of my body. Apparently my body likes going to sleep at sunrise, and I’m finding it quite delicious.
Yoga: Once I decided to shorten my yoga sessions from 30 minutes to 15, and do the yoga moves by memory while listening to an enjoyable podcast (instead of watching/listening to a teeth-gratingly peppy-yet-calm yoga instructor chirp away at me on YouTube), I started to find it bearable. Did I discover the secret to yoga??! 29/35 days, 83% success rate.
Pilates: My Pilates regime started strong, but after a week quickly got dialed back from daily to about 2-3 times a week (ranging from 20-50 minutes, generally). 19 out of 35 days, only a 54% success rate, but I’m pretty okay with this. The days I didn’t to Pilates was usually because I engaged in some sort of longer cardio/dance practice, and I found the Pilates a great substitute for engaging my body on days when I didn’t manage to get out (like, literally there are days when I don’t leave my apartment at all).
Cardio/strength: This definitely looked mostly like cardio (and less like any sort of strength training, besides the occasional half-hearted push-up). 28 out of 35 days (80% success rate), usually a 30-min run or a long walk. Not bad, but I would like to up my focus on the strength part in the coming months.
Dance: I gave myself a pretty free-ranging goal of "1 hour of performance art training” which could be a dance class, rehearsal, or any kind of physical performance activity. Even with that sort of broad coverage, it definitely didn’t always add up to an hour of movement (ranged from 20-60 minutes). But 26 out of 35 days (74% success rate) I made some sort of dance-related movement happen, largely helped by the fact that I signed up for a weekly online dance class, which gave me both structure and deadlines. I think this goal needs some massaging (oh god, I miss massage therapy…).
Intermittent Fasting: This one was may be the hardest. Okay, I ADMIT it, goddamn this one felt nearly impossible. I feel like I need to preface this section by saying, I feel really good when I actually follow an intermittent fasting regime (which has only happened once or twice, briefly, in my life). My goal was a 14-16 hour fast/8-10 hour eating window. What I’ve learned is:
Staying up past 4am as I do, I’m very inclined to get hungry around 2 or 3am and snack. This snack is never something that could be deemed “healthy” (like, I’m not pulling a carrot out of the fridge, my friends).
Do you ever say to yourself, “I know I’m lactose intolerant, but this ice cream feels so right right now?”. I love ice cream, but oh god I can’t anymore. Not that I’d give up ice cream. Good lord, don’t be so apocalyptic about everything. But I do need to find some almond or other nut-based ice cream as a replacement.
You know those Clementine San Pellegrino fizzy drinks? Real delightful. Great for a sunny summer afternoon. At 2am every night? Maybe not so much.
Conclusions
My 5-week analysis conclusions are as follows:
I need to be more specific re: my daily goals for both dance and strength training.
I need to form a habit where the 2am cue to eat is replaced with a cue from my future self, reminding my current self, that this is definitely not a good idea.
Writing about my schedule feels dull to write, and I suspect might be just as boring to read.
