Tag Archives: sleep

A Day in the Life: Kyle

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Welcome to the Scootadoot Day in the Life Series!

I’m kicking things off this week – and while the day I chose to document (yesterday) wasn’t a typical day, it gives a pretty good idea of what I’m up to on a day-to-day basis. Read: I have a routine. And I’m boring. Lol.
This is something that happens every day – even weekends, I can’t sleep in… I’m a bad sleeper. I’m also habitually worried about wasting the day, so sleeping in is pretty difficult. I digress. Monday, work day, 5:45am alarm. Wakey wakey! Breakfast miiiiight be my favorite meal of the day, and since my breakfast has to meet certain macros, it’s easiest to give myself time to cook it every day. My go to? Egg white omelette with spinach and a slice of turkey bacon, alongside either a slice of toast or white cheddar rice cakes. Which are the best flavor. Don’t at me.

Also pictured, my required-to-function to-go mug of coffee. Every morning needs caffeine. Welcome to work! I usually roll in around 7am, which is the best because I have the coffee maker all to myself for at least an hour. I purposely sit with my back to my office door so that I can look out the window all day and see the sunshine. Also, the folks who live across the street from our office provide some very entertaining people watching. Like… bruh. Snacks! I’m still doing Renaissance Periodization (hence the breakfast macros), and my second meal of the day is my mid-morning snack. I love mixing blueberries and cinnamon into fat free greek yogurt. Not pictured? The whole green pepper I scarfed down before I took a picture. Oops. I have two cups of veggies with every meal. Typically, green peppers. I love them.Here’s the part of the day that goes off track a bit. Clay was in Florida this weekend visiting his family and his flight got in this morning, so I took a half day to go pick him up and spend some time together before the craziness of his next few weeks starts. These are our happy faces when we finally got home!We ran to the grocery store for what will probably be the first of at least three times this week and then when we got home, Clay wanted to play guitar, so I headed outside to the patio. Lately, whenever I’ve had time, I’ve made more of an effort to enjoy it. We’ve lived in our apartment for three years and I’ve not spent nearly enough time out here. Sitting out here has also helped me work through my reading list for the year. It’s sunny and quiet and there might be mosquitoes, but it’s a nice place to get away from my cat. I mean, relax.

I ended the day at my favorite place. Nearly every day, I head to Crossfit Kingstowne for a workout with my friends, and end up hanging around for a couple of hours, finishing my lifting and catching up with people.

This day’s workout was:

Rowing Intervals
5 sets:
0:20 ON (Choose a hard, but not ALL OUT pace, as you’ll have to hold it)
1:00 OFF
0:20 ON
0:40 OFF
0:20 ON
0:20 OFF
0:20 ON
*Rest 2:00 after each set
**Must hold that same pace for all 0:20 efforts
and then….
Strength
A) Deadlift. 4×10 (65%)
B) Bench Press. 4×10 (65%)
*Rest as needed between sets

A good little cardio day with some heavy lifting to start the week.

After the gym, I head home, make dinner (alll the carbs, praise), and hang out with the cat and the huz. Clay typically practices guitar, we watch some Netflix, and tryyyy to get to bed by 8:30 – 8:00 if we’re lucky. Sleep is still being made a priority and it helps so much with recovery from the gym. And my general ability to tolerate humans. Sleep is so necessary.

And that, my friends, is a day in my life. Nothing too crazy or exciting, but there is time for family, fitness, and food carved out every day. Because honestly, those are the most important things I’ve got going – and I’m definitely not made about it.

Goals on Goals on Goals

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Here we are again. Somehow, the end of the year is here and a new one is upon us – I’m not sure where 2017 went. In some ways, this year has been the BEST and in other ways, 2017 can go die in a fire. Probably right up there with 2016 in the realm of “eff you”. Here’s hoping 2018 has its shit together. Fingers crossed.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed my 2017 goals and checked in on my progress on each one. I was doing pretty well on some and needed to keep working on others. Consequently, my 2018 goals will probably seem pretty similar.

1. Make Sleep a Priority

While I’ve gotten more sleep over the past year, I’m still not great at prioritizing sleep the way I should. As I get older, I notice more acutely how much slower my body is to recover – and I think sleep plays a big part in that. If I’m not sleeping well, I stay fatigued and sore much longer, and I’m just not motivated to do much of anything. Sometimes, making sleep a priority means that I don’t stay up late to watch football, or go out on the weekends very often – both of these go hand in hand with drinking a LOT less alcohol. Drinking less (I rarely drink at all anymore) also helps me sleep. Wine doesn’t put me to bed the way it used to… it mostly just makes me feel like butt when I wake up. So, in 2018, I shall sleep more and drink less!

2. Weekend Water

Karen Walker is generally #goalz, but swap the vodka for water

Generally, I’m very good at drinking water throughout the day. I keep a water bottle on my desk at work and I’m constantly getting up to fill it during the day. At home, we drink lots of sparkling water, but on the weekends, when I’m not working, I don’t drink nearly enough. I did get a fancy new water bottle for Christmas, though, so I’ve tried to be more diligent about using it throughout the evenings and the hours when I’m not working. I’m along with Jenn for the ride of upping water intake.

3. Read *At Least* 15 Books

Last year, I said I wanted to read 30 books. HAHAHAHA. I got through 12 books this year – which is significantly more than I read in 2016, but not even halfway to my goal of 30. So, for 2018, I want to hit the 15 book mark, and if I can go beyond it, then great! I’m always looking for recommendations, too, so hit me up. I got Hillary Clinton’s “What Happened,” Joe Biden’s “Promise Me, Dad,” and Carrie Fisher’s “The Princess Diarist” for Christmas, so I’ll be starting with those. I’ll probably cry through two of the three. Whatever.

4. Practice CrossFit Skills More Regularly

Since starting CrossFit this summer, I’ve learned so many new skills and have improved my movements in a lot of other areas. I can do double-unders now, I can snatch, I can clean almost 200 pounds… but there are many movements I am not proficient in. In 2018, I’d like to work on my ring work (dips, muscle ups), bar work (chest to bar pull-ups, muscle ups), and handstands. Basically all of the gymnastics things. Strength-wise, I’d love to hit new PRs on all of my lifts – which just means lots of reps. I want to try to make it to open gym to work on this skills and hopefully improve as an athlete.

5. Move More – Scroll Less

I spend a lot of time on social media. Like, a lot. Between work (I manage social media there) and home (my evenings often involve Netflix and Instagram scrolling), it’s kind of an all day thing. Now, I’m not here to be all “social media is a poison and it’s rotting our brains” because I think that’s patently untrue. I think social media is great. It offers an incredible platform for people to connect and engage all over the world. It allows us to meet new people and stay in touch with family and friends. But, if we’re not careful, it can be a trap – whether that be politics or body image or otherwise. Mostly, this goal is just to be more cognizant of how many times I’m picking my phone up or sitting and scrolling instead of going out for  walk or finding something to do around the house. Just trying to be more aware and bring more balance  and presence to this area of my life.

Obviously, these goals aren’t time-stamped, and they certainly don’t have an expiration date. My next steps are just to keep on trucking and make a little bit of progress every day. I would like to keep a small journal, just to help keep track of some of the measurable items and to help remind myself of these goals throughout the year.

How do you set goals for yourself? Do you buy in to New Year’s resolutions?

 

2017 Goals: Revisited

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It may seem a bit premature to be revisiting my goals for 2017 and beyond, knowing we still have a month and a half left of this year. However, I like to think of this review as a last-ditch effort to accomplish as many of my goals as possible before 2017 ticks away and we welcome a new year.

TO REVIEW. I wrote about my goals in this post.

“We hear so much talk about #newyearnewme that is almost seems like a requirement that we all resolve to be skinnier or stronger or whatever. I have a hard time with that, because 1. The me that I am right now seems pretty okay, and 2. Shouldn’t we focus more on being a better human being and making meaningful changes in our lives than just the superficial?

Similarly, I don’t think the beginning of the year has cornered the market on when we’re allowed to set goals. Who says you can’t make resolutions at the end of January, or in May or in August? No one, that’s who.”

My mindset now is pretty much the same as my mindset back in January. I’m still working on being a better human in general – a process that I’m pretty sure should never end. It’s always a work in progress.

Some of the goals I set for myself are super easy to measure. Others are a little more subjective. But, let’s see where I’m at, so that I can see what I can work on through the holiday season.

Goal #1: Get More Sleep

I would love to say that this has been a rousing (or not?) success. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. I haven’t been terrible at sleeping, but I haven’t been nearly as dedicated to achieving 7+ hours of sleep a night as I probably should be. I’m always working on this – this weekend for example, I was in bed at 8pm on Saturday night. Mind you, I didn’t go to sleep until around 10, but I was allowing my body to relax and that felt good. As it starts getting darker earlier, getting to bed earlier will be easier. I will do my best to use this to my advantage.

Goal #2: Read More Books

Going hand in hand with getting to bed earlier was making time to read more – I used to be a card-carrying bookworm as a kid, but since college, I haven’t made as much time for reading as I should. I had a goal of reading 30 books in 2017. I think I’ve read… *counts* eight or nine. Fail. Well, maybe not a total fail – I still technically have read more books in 2017 than I read in 2016, so that’s a win. Of those eight books, three were Game of Thrones books, and honestly those should count for at least three books… each. They are effing long. Great, but long. Oof. I’m in the middle of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere right now and I’m really enjoying it. Happy to be back on the book train and totally riding it into 2018.

Goal #3: Balance My Workouts

I definitely worked on this one all year – mixing up my weightlifting with running and Kaza, and now making the jump to CrossFit. CrossFit has definitely given me balance without my having to think about it. Since each workout incorporates cardio work along with strength, I feel like the hour I spend in the gym nearly every day is well-spent and I feel a lot less guilty about missing a workout or taking a rest day (or two) because I know that my body needs the break.

Goal #4: Get More Involved in My Community

Ugh, you guys, this one is a hard fail. I hate admitting that. After the election last year, and after the Women’s March, I was so jacked to fight back through activism and involvement. But, aside from keyboard activism, and voting in my local elections, I have yet to really get involved locally. I can make excuses, but that’s all they’d be. I’ve been educating myself a lot in the last year. Time to turn that outward.

Goal #5: Adjust My Five Year Plan

This goal just makes me laugh out loud. Literally. I think I’ve changed or adjusted my five year plan about four times, significantly, in the last 10 months. Some of that has been because my priorities have changed, but mostly it has to do with external factors dictating some of that five year picture for me. Military life, you guys, it’s a bucket of surprises. Planning anything becomes an exercise in extreme patience and flexibility – something I’m not always good at, but am constantly trying to improve. Perhaps a new goal would be to work on being more tolerant of things that are not within my control. Yes. I think that’s it.

As I said in my post from January, these goals aren’t necessarily time-stamped, and they certainly don’t have an expiration date. I’ve just been trying to mindfully working on them little by little all the time. I will continue to do so through the next month and a half and as 2018 begins, I will have more goals to add, I’m sure.

Did you set goals for 2017? How successful have you been at keeping them? What challenges have you faced?