Day 1083 & Reflections on Sleep Cycle


Day 1083 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
—–
Eating
Day 31 Sunday Meal Prep 74
—
Early to Rise
Day 238 Sleep Recording  (12:50|(5-9:30)|1:30)
Day 209 Bedtime Curfew
Day 47 Wakeup Alarm
–
Horrible sleep, horrible wakeup. 

Reflections on Sleep Cycle

It’s interesting taking  notice when I wake up at nights and can’t get back to sleep. Last night I went to sleep at 1 AM and woke up at 5 AM. I couldn’t sleep for 4 hours, and then I slept for 4 more hours, getting exactly 8 hours. 

But what usually happens is that I start to get really depressed as I see failing to get up early and get a good, solid, stable night’s rest as a reflection of a failed character. When I inevitably get up late, I see myself as lazy, even if I now know that I’m not oversleeping (score one for the quantified self people!). 

I also tend to not have any protocols for getting back to sleep - or waking up and doing work even though my mind is going a million miles a second (despite meditating, etc). 

While I still maintain that an ideal sleep is what’s normal - going to bed at a decent time and waking up in the morning, there are times where that’s simply not possible. I felt like I nailed sleep back in the States, but jet lag has caused this weird biphasic sleep pattern. As I travel, that may well be inevitable. If it is inevitable (even if only at certain intervals) than it should be taken advantage of, instead of raged against. 

I feel that’s a good aphorism to follow throughout this endeavor. Instead of making it into some character failing, view it as a method to gain an advantage - that may well mean getting some good work done for a few hours and getting back to sleep.

Day 887

Day 887 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
—–
Eating
Day 111 Pantry Check
Day 109 Food Recording
Day 3 ? Meal Prep Sunday 25
—
Early to Rise
Day 42 Bacon & Water
Day 42 Sleep Recording (12:40|1:10|10:40|11:40)
Day 14 Bedtime Curfew 53
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. I am planning on doing my Sunday meal prep later in the day. This is problematic in terms of not having a precise implementation intention. Since I tend to do this cook-up later in the day, it also interferes with when I record it. I also don’t really know how to count non daily habits like this…UGH.

Day 842 & Pantry Check Superhabit

Day 842 Record Keeping
Day 814 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 688 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 228 Rowing (30 min/ 5400 m)
—–
Eating
Day 66 Pantry Check (81) SUPERHABIT
Day 64 Recording
—
good sleep, good wakeup. Tired today. 5 days over 80 in a row for pantry check habit - I’m calling it a superhabit. Now I gotta figure out what I’m doing next.

Day 834 & Meal Prep Sundays and the Hangry Blues

Day 834 Record Keeping
Day 806 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 680 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 220 Rowing (30 min, 5300 m)
—–
Eating
Day 58 Pantry Check (79)
Day 56 Recording
—
ok sleep, good wakeup. Despite waking up and not being able to go back to sleep and dragging, I did really well today. Really unfocused meditation.

Meal Prep Sundays and The Hangry Blues
In a previous post -  “Syncing with Significant Others” - I talked about problems Lydia and I have with syncing our eating plans. This came to a head again today. I haven’t started my “early to rise” plan and since I still wake up later, our schedules don’t always match up.

She wants to eat early when she’s at a breaking point in her day and she wants to at least sync up for dinner so we can eat together. She’s fine taking care of her own lunches without me, but worries that since I don’t get hungry until later in the day I won’t be hungry when she will be for dinner.

I am pushing and extending several of my habits. Writing/work in particular is being extended, and there’s a certain rhythm I get into after I start. It’s gotten to the point where I either am being forced into a wake up habit (which is something I want to do eventually) or I gotta break my rhythm. 

I have no problem starting multiple chains now. I know I can do this; my tea and food recording habit before bed has proven I can start new chains (perhaps with the aid of a ritual). 

I don’t however want to start a new habit of eating then working more. Mainly because it requires a more global change in my food habits. I need to plan at least my lunches. The last several days it hasn’t been a problem because I usually cook the day before and have those leftovers during lunch. It doesn’t really interrupt anything that much in that there’s no leaving the apartment or cooking anything from scratch.

Our solution, other than starting a wakeup habit, is to start planning meals. As Lydia mentioned, I’m extending more and more, of my habits so there’s going to be an inevitable point where I have to deal with those habits abutting against the need to eat whether or not I wake up early. 

We discussed a Sunday morning meal prep, a happy coincidence because I just stumbled upon a SubReddit for that - Meal Prep Sunday (and Lydia was reading about it on http://meljoulwan.com/) . The how of it all is still in the air. We’ve got a few ideas, and it will be my first foray into a once a week habit. This also has been inevitable - there are too many planning things I feel like I need to incorporate once a week. I’m thinking a ritual of perhaps gathering metrics and stats, course adjusting, meal prep, and later a social/leisure planning session might be just the thing I need for Sundays. 

After I grumped about having my work interrupted and grumped some more because I was getting hungry, we ordered in some Indian food with no naan (Naan is one of my kryptonites) - just curries, which are (mostly) clean. I don’t like planning the entirety of my life, but it is amazing how much needless stress I run into by not planning. We’ll see how it works.

Day 833

Day 833 Record Keeping
Day 805 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 679 Writing (4 rounds of 30 min)
Day 219 Rowing (HIIT, 17 min, 30s:1 min, 3300 m)
—–
Eating
Day 57 Pantry Check (77)
Day 55 Recording
—
Good sleep, good wakeup. Really awesome work on writing, bumping it up to 4 rounds. Started up my 8 week HIIT program, but I’m repeating the last week because of my stomach bug.

Day 831

Weekend Habits
Day 831 Record Keeping
—–
Eating
Day 55 Pantry Check (74)
Day 53 Recording
—
Good sleep, good wakeup. I previously defined today as my metrics day (every 2 weeks or so) for weight loss, and am seriously considering Sunday for forming a once in a week planning/metrics day. 

I think weight loss and metrics are a real pain, and I want to do a full post on it later. In meditation, progress is much more…subtle..so when I record things I have to record more than numbers. I think it might be the case for weight loss. 

For example, my numbers didn’t change today from two weeks ago. But I am feeling pretty bloated and gassy today. I’ve also noticed my legs looking differently - you know that feeling when you suddenly notice or feel a difference? I remember when I was biking a lot when I was a teen for the entire summer, I one day suddenly noticed I had quads. 

Maybe it’s the bloat, maybe it’s not. But my honest noticing of a body part becoming defined, and the fact it’s sudden, not an obsessive preening, seems to be at least a little worthy of inclusion when it comes to progress. Idunno, just a few thoughts that I hope to writeup more thoroughly later.

Day 830

Weekend Habits
Day 830 Record Keeping
—–
Eating
Day 54 Pantry Check (75)
Day 52 Recording
—
Good sleep, good wakeup. Realize I spend way too much time on the computer than I need to. My weekends also tend to be emotionally stressful on a consistent basis. I’m going to attempt a weekend ban on the computer, but not devices like my Kindle or iPhone. I don’t really have any physical books (the consequence of a minimalistic and expat/formerly nomadic life) and the iPhone isn’t generally something I use to goof around on anyway. Will record how it goes and how it affects me.

Day 828, Back after Sickness

Day 828 Record Keeping
Day 800 Fixed Meditation (32 min)
Day 674 Writing (2 rounds intense, 30 min each and a little more)
Day 214 Rowing (30 min/ 4900 m)
—–
Eating
Day 52 Pantry Check (73)
Day 50 Recording
—
Good sleep, good wakeup. Got a nasty stomach bug on Sunday, very little sleep, really weak. Finally recovered today and really knocked it out of the park. Very proud.

Day 819

Day 819 Record Keeping
Day 791 Fixed Meditation (23 min)
Day 665 Writing
Day 205 Rowing (HIIT, 17 min, 30s:1min, 3300 m)
—–
Eating
Day 43 Pantry Check (72)
Day 41 Recording 
—
Great sleep, good wakeup. Excellent meditation.  Experimented with different music for HIIT - I realize I tend to always listen to really high octane fighting the world type music to get me pumped. I’m curious if this affects my motivation to enjoy the pain periods of pushing any skill, so I tried listening to Enya during this instance of rowing, which was hilarious. I can’t say yet what the effect is. My performance from my last similar HIIT was lower, but I cracked up a couple of times in the middle of more relaxed stages of my workout. Will this continue to negatively affect my output? Will it help me start difficult practice? Idunno, we’ll see…

Day 818 & Food Recording Superhabit

Day 818 Record Keeping
Day 790 Fixed Meditation (12 min)
Day 664 Writing
Day 204 Rowing (30 min/ 5400 m)
—–
Eating
Day 42 Pantry Check (71)
Day 40 Recording (80) SUPERHABIT
—–
Good sleep, great wakeup. At 79 and 80 for 6 days, I’m going to call food recording a superhabit. Per my previous protocols as of tomorrow I will not be taking the SRHI for that behavior. Time to think about another habit to initiate.