I started feeling sick yesterday and came home from work early. Grabbed my laptop so I could work from home. My morning workout yesterday was SO hard even though it was half the routine that I usually do. I guess now it makes sense. My body was already fighting whatever bug I got. I felt really dehydrated. I hardly ate. Drank a ton of water. And went to sleep super early. Slept almost 12 hours.
Today, I woke up feeling like I have a cold. Not like a flu and not as bad as I felt yesterday. But still stuffy nose, headache, brain fog, and lethargy. Took a COVID test just in case. Luckily it was negative.
Alarm went off and I knew that I shouldn’t workout today. I think it’s important to know our body. Listen to our body. This morning I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t sleepy. I wasn’t being lazy. My muscles weren’t sore, stiff, or exhausted. I just knew that my body needed to rest so that I can fight off whatever virus I have.
Feeling a little better this evening. Hopefully, I’ll be ready to get back in the gym tomorrow and get back to work too. I really like the morning workout routine and healthy eating habits that I’ve set up for myself.
They really help my mood, mental health, and especially help me keep stress levels manageable. I have so much more energy, focus, and stamina to deal with the demands of work, family, and life.
Plus, I can literally feel my body getting leaner. I’ve got more muscle and less fat in such a short period time just by the consistent exercise and healthier eating habits I’ve been practicing. I’m to the point where I’ve had to buy new shirts and will probably have to buy new pants soon.
Hopefully, I can get back on it tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted. 🙂
Back on it! 5am wake up. Feeling a little tired and sluggish. But I think to myself, “Just run through my routine and everything else will take care of itself.” That helps me get moving. Then it’s the actual process of running through my steps that wakes me up.
So what are the steps? Easy. Here you go…
Alarm goes off and I silence it. Turn on the lights. Sit up and put my feet into my slippers (I find that helps trigger my brain to wake up. I think it’s because I can’t get back in bed without taking them off, plus it’s a life-long cue that the day has started).
Walk to the kitchen. Turn on the lights. Pour a cold glass of water, about 16 oz. Add at least a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to it. Check the electric kettle for water. Fill it and/or turn it on. Grab a coffee filter. Put it in the pour-over thing. Grab the coffee, almost always decaf (except on those days I absolutely need the caffeine). I usually use two tablespoons because I like the strong bitter taste. A sprinkle of cinnamon.
Drink my water.
Walk to and use the restroom. Wash my hands. Then wash my face. I make sure to gently splash nice cold water into my eyes. I find that refreshing. Dry my face. If I’m still tired, I wash and dry my face again. Usually that’s enough to wake me up even on the toughest days. I’ve only had one day when I’ve needed a third face wash, lol.
Walk back to the kitchen. Hot water has boiled by then. I pour the hot water over the coffee. Fill it all the way to the top so that I get a nice full cup of fresh coffee. The smell alone triggers me to wake up a little more. But it’s way too hot to drink right away.
So I walk back to my room and get dressed. (Side note: Always, always have your workout clothes out. Make it so that’s the easiest thing to put on.) Once I have my workout clothes on it’s game over for sleepiness. (Side note: Yesterday, was the only day I missed since I started this routine. That was the one difference. I put on jeans and a t-shirt instead of workout clothes, so I couldn’t go straight to the gym.)
Here’s where my routine gets hard for me and I’ve struggled. I’m supposed to do at least one set of sit ups right after putting on my workout clothes. More times than not I’ve missed on this step. But I’m still trying. I won’t give up on it. By the time I’m done with my sit ups my coffee has cooled just enough to drink. Lately, I haven’t even been drinking the coffee. I just head out to the gym and I drink it when I get back.
Once I drink my coffee or decide I can do without it, I grab my keys, phone, and ID. Walk out the door and head to the gym.
That’s pretty much it. I’ve done some version of this over and over again now for a few months (since June). But I’ve been doing it as an early morning (4 am or 5 am) and writing about it 22 days straight. I find that writing it out explicitly reinforces it and systematizes it. It helps make the process closer to automatic.
The only exception is that I always take Sat & Sun as my rest days. I think that’s important for recovery. That doesn’t mean that I don’t work out those days. I just try to switch things up or at least be more flexible with myself. If I’m tired, I sleep in. If I want to lay around until noon, no problem.
That way when Monday comes back around I want to get back on my routine. And I’m consistent from Monday through Friday. By Friday, my body is tired and it’s asking for a recovery. Finishing that last Friday workout feels GOOD!
So that’s my early morning wake up routine.
Once I’m at the gym I alternate and combine cardio exercise (Treadmill, elliptical, bike) with strength and resistance training (free weights, body weight, resistance bands). Yoga (trying to do more of this) and walking or hiking on weekends.
Today I ran 30 minutes on treadmill, 20 minutes on the elliptical, and rode 10 minutes on the bike. That’s all. I barely got through it. It was a tough session.
Think I might have been a bit dehydrated. That’s another thing I’ve learned staying hydrated gives you more energy. Being dehydrated zaps your energy like nothing else and makes you lethargic.
Gonna drink a big glass of water and get ready for work. Shave. Shower. Get dressed and head back out the door. Ready to fight for justice. I love working in Public Defense!
So today was the first day since I started my new routine that I actually didn’t follow through on my early morning workout. I was just too tired. I didn’t go to sleep until past 11pm yesterday.
But I still woke up at 4am and went through my morning routine. Except… I had to move my car. I ended up finding parking about a mile away. So at least I got a good mile walk. But I knew I needed at least 2 more hours of sleep to be functional at work.
So that’s what I did. I came back and fell asleep for a couple more hours. Then got ready and went to work.
But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t work out. I just made it up at lunch. Cardio day today. Ten minutes on the bike. Started a nice sweat. Twenty minutes on the elliptical. Then 30 minutes on the treadmill. About 4.5 mph the whole time. Got it done.
Another great rest day! No running or weight lifting. Up late, 8am. Ran through the first part of my routine as usual. Drank water. Made coffee. Used the restroom, washed my face. Got dressed. Except instead of hitting the gym, I worked on a personal project. Then around 11:30 headed over to pick up my friend and her son for breakfast. What do we eat when we hang out? Salvadoran food of course (she’s Salvadoran too)! YUMMY!!! If you’ve never had Salvadoran food YOU ARE MISSING OUT!!! TRY IT NOW!!! Here are just a few to choose from…
Sopa de res (beef soup), pupusas (corn tortillas stuffed with cheese, meat and/or beans), bistek (steak), huevos con frijoles, platanos, y crema (eggs w fried plantains, beans, and sourcream), mojarra frita (fried fish).
The picture below is the dish we ordered. It’s a Salvadoran sampler platter. It has a little bit of everything. It’s like an All-Star lineup of many of the top favorite dishes Salvadoran cuisine has to offer all-in-one. It takes a while for the food to get to us because they are packed for brunch. But when it does… Life is good!
After eating, we all agree that we need to get moving or we’ll go into a food coma. We decide to go paddle boarding. I’ve never done it before. My friend and her son are vets. They’ve done it a bunch. She’s been telling me about it for years. I’m excited to try. But I can’t lie. I was afraid. Especially because we were going to do it on the ocean, not at a lake. And there were a bunch of boats around leaving trails of waves in their wake.
But I’m not the type to let fear stop me from doing something adventurous like this. I actually love what it feels like to conquer my fear. It’s feels like the adrenaline rush of winning a competition.
When we started out in the shallows, I quickly lost my balance. I realized it was going to be even harder than I thought. So I decided to start off by paddling out on my knees. I would then stand up once I felt more confident.
In the meantime, my friend and her son were off! They seemed like pros with a well-practiced routine. He sat in the front and she stood in the back and paddled. Soon they were way out on the water. Cruising past the pillars of an enormous bridge overhead.
I tried to keep up. Once I got my balance I started getting more confidence. I realized I could make the paddle board go really fast once I figured out the rowing. Soon I caught up to them.
Then I started getting the urge to stand up. It grew as I got further out and felt that I could control the paddle board better. My courage started growing too. Finally, I thought to myself… go for it! So I did. At first cautiously. I tried standing with my left foot first, but that didn’t go so well. So I stopped. I tried my right foot and I was able to stay steady. “Okay, we’re onto something” I thought. “I can do this. Go for it.” I say to myself. So I did. Next thing you know I was standing up!! 🙂
Cool. Over the next few minutes, I literally get my sea legs under me. Engage my core and thighs to steady myself. Now I start maneuvering and going faster. I’m keeping up with my friend and her son. Yes! I’m starting to feel good. Like I have this thing under full control. Can you guess what happened next?
Laughing at myself after falling into the water 😀
Yeah. I fell in.
But it’s all good. I’m a decent swimmer and was able to get back on the paddle board without losing hold of my paddle. I got back on. Stood back up and kept at it. It was easier this time.
Fell again a few minutes later. Got back up and it was even easier. Finally, we made it to the beach on the other side of the island, which was our destination.
We decided to switch things up. My friend wanted to let her son stand up and paddle. So she decided to try to come on my board. She sat in the front and I tried to stand on the back. What ensued was comedy! 😀 Good thing we were still in the shallows because we could not keep the thing balanced and we had to jump off.
In the meantime her son was off and heading back. Far ahead of us. So I decided to kneel as she sat in front and paddle that way. We caught our rhythm and started cruising. We quickly caught up to her son and she jumped back on his board because we realized we had to return the boards in half hour.
We raced back. Not literally. We just had to hurry. The cool thing was I did the whole rest of the return trip standing up and without falling in a single time! That’s improvement. I’ll take it.
I can’t wait to try this again! It’s a good workout. A great, healthy way to spend a lazy weekend, while still staying active and continuing the process of getting healthier.
Okay, time to go to sleep. Back to my early morning routine tomorrow. Starting week four! Day 22 coming up. See you bright and early.
Rest day. A break from the usual routine. Up at 6:30am. Went for a long hike at a mountain lake with a friend and her son. 4000+ foot elevation. I’d estimate it to be about a 3 to 4 mile hike. Sunny and hot. Picnic afterwards. Picked a few delicious apples growing by the edge of the lake. Sweet.
Great way to get some active recovery and a few extra hours of sleep. 🙂
Today I woke up at 4:00am. I wasn’t sleepy or tired. But I wasn’t high energy either. I end up laying in bed and looking at apps on my phone for about 30 minutes. Ugh! Definitely not part of my routine. But this happens every once in a while. Just got to keep it to a minimum. Finally, realize that I’m just mindlessly scrolling through random info that doesn’t help me, and I check myself. Force myself to get out of bed and be purposeful.
Run through my daily routine. Poured cold water into a glass and added a teaspoon of vinegar. I do this to make sure that I’m not dehydrated and because I found that it gives me a boost of energy.
Then I checked the electric kettle to make sure it had water. It did. So I turned it on. Next I pour a teaspoon of decaf coffee and one of regular coffee into my cup. Probably should’ve stuck with the decaf because I don’t want to start relying on caffeine to jumpstart my energy for the day again. I find that caffeine is really addictive. Not sure if you feel the same way. But I love coffee, regular coffee and I don’t want to end up drinking too much of it daily or becoming dependent on it. That’s why I do the decaf.
Go to the bathroom, wash my face. Dry my face. Come back to the kitchen and drink my glass of water. Pour the hot water over the coffee and go get dressed. I put on my gym clothes and drink a little bit of my coffee. And head out the door. Again when I run late, I don’t do my sit ups, argh! Even though I know I’ll do them in the gym, it bothers me to skip them. Especially because I know this is the weak link in my routine.
Weights first. My legs are sore from yesterday’s squats and lunges. Today I focus on arms and lats, with sets of sit ups in between sets. Not too hard because I’m lifting again at noon. Cardio next. 10 hard minutes on the bike. Got a decent sweat going. Then 30 minutes on the elliptical. Now I’m really sweating. Finish up with 12 minutes on the treadmill, at incline. I run at about 4.5 to 6.1 mph. By the time I get off the machine, I’m drenched. Good workout.
Weigh myself. Today is the first day that I’m under 205 lbs, yes! I weighed 204. One pound less than yesterday, lol. Got to keep pushing. I know that today it’s probably just water weight. But over time my real weight keeps dropping. I know I’ve been keeping a weekly log (I’ll post that in a later blog). Even better my clothes tell me. My shirts are fitting a lot looser and my belt is down a notch, pushing a second one.
See it’s a simple and easy process. It’s just hard to do.
I’m glad I made the decision to do take on this challenge. Hopefully, this will inspire others seeking to get healthier, build daily exercise habits, strong morning routines, change body composition, or lose weight.
Quick post today. Have to get to work soon. Got up at 4am. Meditated for 15 minutes. Ran through my routine. Water. Coffee. Restroom. Wash face. Put on workout clothes. Drink coffee. But needed to work on a pending project. Did that for about 45 minutes. Out the door. Still dark outside.
Hit the gym at about 5:15am. Band work for rehab. Sit ups. Weights. Then cardio. 30 minutes on the treadmill at about 4.5 to 5mph. I was drenched. Then 10 minutes on the elliptical. Completely soaked in sweat now. Change tank top for T-shirt. Stretch. Walk back. Shave. Shower. Get dressed. Wrote this up. Now I’m out the door.
Sorry this was a short post. In a hurry but didn’t want to end my streak. I’m on a roll!
4:45am start today. Earlier than usual. But not as early as I had planned. I set my alarm for 4:15am. But for the first time since I started my routine, I consciously hit the snooze button. 2x. So not happy with myself for that. Still I know why and I know how to overcome that. I went to sleep too late. Tonight I will go to sleep on time and tomorrow no excuses I’ll be up at 4am.
The good thing is that at 4:45am I ran through my routine. Cold water with vinegar. Boil water in the electric kettle. Pour coffee (decaf) in the filter. Drink my water. Go to the restroom. Wash my face. Get dressed. And grab my stuff to head out the door. I didn’t even pour the hot water over the coffee. I just left it there and took off.
Got to the gym by 5:02am. My earliest start so far! Today was supposed to be a lifting day. It kinda was. I ran through shoulder rehab. Then ran through about 40 minutes of sets for my chest, shoulders, lats, and legs. With sets of sit ups and side bends in between to rest.
Finished off with cardio. 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. It was still pretty dark outside as I looked out the window (the elliptical machine and treadmills face out the window). Then a mile on the treadmill. Easy pace about 4.5mph to about 5mph. Got a light sweat. Definitely not drenched like yesterday. Took me about 12 minutes to finish the mile. And done. Not too worried that it was a light workout, because I’m planning to workout again at lunch.
Decided to jog back home. Not really decided. Just started jogging and kept doing it. That got me sweating a little bit more. Sit ups. Shave. Shower. Get dressed.
Now it’s time to drink my coffee and finish writing my daily blog post. 🙂
I’m ready! Up at 5:12am. Alarm was set to go off at 5:15am. Woke up straight from a dream. I love waking up like that because I find that my mind feels refreshed when something in the dream makes me wake up. Must be something about the sleep cycle. If anyone knows please share it with me in the comments.
Run through my early morning wake up routine. Although in honesty, I find myself running through this routine even on my rest days (Sat & Sun). Today first thing I did was dismiss the alarm so it wouldn’t go off unnecessarily. Get up. Walk to the kitchen. Pour a glass of cold water. Put a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in it. Make sure the electric kettle has water in it. Turn it on. Drink my water. Go to the restroom.
Wash my face with cold water. Dry it. On days when I’m really tired I repeat this process once or twice more. Until my eyes feel at least semi-“normal.” Today, no need to repeat. I went to sleep early and slept well.
Walk back to the kitchen. Pull out a coffee filter. Put coffee in the filter (always decaf), two teaspoons. Only on rare days when I’m really exhausted to I substitute a teaspoon of regular for one of the decaf. I think the decaf does the trick by itself most days because it has a placebo effect. Next, I pour the hot water over the coffee. Enough to make one cup. I like it strong and bitter. Something about that taste helps me wake up. But I don’t drink it right away. It’s too hot.
Instead I go put on my gym clothes. Most days I do a few sets of sit ups. This has been the hardest and least consistent part of my routine, doing these sit ups. It’s easy to skip and think I’ll just do them in the gym and when I get back. And it’s true. I do them in the gym and when I get back. But that’s not the point. It’s part of the routine and I’m supposed to do them. In any case, there you go… that’s been my biggest stumbling block in the routine.
Then I drink my coffee. It’s cooled down just enough. Usually I only drink half the cup and then I’m out the door. I usually drink the other half when I get back. I just boil some more water and pour that in to reheat it. That’s what I did today.
Out the door at about 5:25am. Got to the gym about 5:40am. About ten minutes later than I had hoped. But still way better than I was doing before I started this routine! Sometimes I used to stroll into the gym around 7am when my target was 6am.
Did my band work for rehab on the hips. Rehab strengthening for the shoulders. A set of squats, one of deadlifts. Preacher curls. Decline bench press. Leg kicks. And now I’m warmed up.
Today is a cardio day. I decide to start on the treadmill. Nice and slow. 4.5 mph pace. My arms and shoulders are tight from the lifting. Try to shake them out and relax into the run. My goal is to run 2 miles today. A nice and easy “foundation” or “recovery” run. I like to steadily increase my pace as I get deeper into the run. I end up running at about a 5 mph pace. Takes me about 25 minutes to run my 2 miles.
Then a half hour on the elliptical machine at level 10. Again not huffing and puffing. But decent pace that gets me sweating profusely. My the time I get off the machine, I’m drenched. I take off the wet tank top and put on my clean T-shirt to weigh myself, 205. Basically the same that I weighed last week. I didn’t lose any weight last week.
I’m going to try something this week. I’m going to reverse what I have been doing the last week. I’m going to go heavier on the cardio and lighter on the weights. By that I mean MWF will be cardio days and TTH will be lift days this week. Let’s see what happens with my weight. I’ll keep you posted on what I find.
This morning was a little weird. I ended up waking up at 4am and I couldn’t go back to sleep until about 6:30am. I didn’t get up and start my routine at that time because I hadn’t gone to sleep until midnight. I know 4 hours of sleep is not enough. I could feel it.
Listened to a couple of chapters of an audiobook that I just started. Usually that helps me relax and get back to sleep. But this book did the opposite. It’s really good. It had me riveted and I kept wanting to hear more. I wanted to find out what was going to happen next.
[Side note: The book is called Redeeming Justice:From Defendant to Defender, My Fight For Equity On Both Sides Of A Broken System. It’s by Jarrett Adams. It’s his autobiographical account of being falsely accused of rape, being charged as an adult at age 17, having completely ineffective assistance of counsel, getting wrongfully convicted, going to prison for 10 years, getting in touch with the Wisconsin Innocence Project, getting exonerated, and coming out of prison. But that’s just where the story starts! He decides to go back to school. First junior college. Then to get his BA. Then he applies, gets into law school, and graduates. His goal? To fight for other wrongfully convicted people and to get them out of prison. Today he is an attorney. The book opens with the story of his current clients, convicted of killing a police officer, and his fight to get them justice so they can get back home to their loved ones. Very powerful and inspiring story! Here’s a link to his webpage: https://jarrettadamslaw.com/redeeming-justice ]
After two hours, I realized that listening to this book was not going to let me fall asleep. Decided to put on some meditation music. Listened for a little while and I was asleep in no time. Woke up around 830am.
Ran through my routine. Water. Electric kettle. Coffee. Restroom. Washed my face. Put on workout clothes, minus shoes and socks today. Drank my coffee. Instead of going for a run, hitting the gym, or even going on a walk, I’ve decided to do a yoga routine. I haven’t been doing yoga since I started my early morning routine.
But when I was running 5 to 10+ miles per day before COVID, I had a whole yoga workout routine that I would go through after each run. It was amazing. I got it from a physical therapist who helped me rehab some pain with my IT band and plantar fascia. Got rid of all my issues pretty quickly. Yoga for runners, that’s what she called it. She said it was one of the best things I could do to prevent getting injured as I ran faster, farther, and longer.
Well since I’ve gotten back into the habit of running and lifting on a daily basis and blogging about it, a few yoga bloggers have liked my posts, so that reminded me that I need to start incorporating yoga back into my training schedule. So shout out to the yoga bloggers who’ve been supportive.
Then I was talking with my good friend from the East Coast, who’s also a runner, and he mentioned that he’s been doing a really good routine. I asked him to send it to me and he did. After going through it, I’ll let you know if I recommend it. So that’s what I’m about to do!!
Hector Perla.com 