Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Partnership.  That’s how sleeping in on the weekend works at my house. This morning was my chance to roll over after our youngest came in and announced “the light is green” while pulling himself like a young cub onto the bed who’s not entirely sure of his footing. He landed on my back.  Felt good. The light on their clock turns green and that’s their sign to get up—otherwise they would be in our room at 5 a.m. every day of my life.

Today my husband got up and I got another hour and seventeen minutes of shut-eye.  I’m pretty sure I woke up to loud laughter or screaming.  It tends to all sound the same when you’re coming out of a haze and behind a closed door with kids five and under in the house.

For about seven years I had to get up at what I called oh-dark-thirty during the week.  An alarm went off at 2:15 a.m. and I popped into my day.  To be honest, the last year I didn’t exactly pop into it.  It became tough to wake up at that abnormal hour.  And that was happening well before I left my job without my choosing.  Maybe it was a sign.

It didn’t take me long to not wake up at that early hour during the week.  That was very surprising last summer. I’d expected there would be a lingering effect for a few months after years on the morning shift.  But my body was ready to sleep, apparently.

Now, my Fitbit is set for 5:30 in the morning.  The goal is to get up and have a little quiet devotional time before I pop into the day. One of my favorite apps for this is IF: Equip.  So many awesome women are helping all of us there with some spiritual guidance, and a few nice accessories and hats to boot.

After that I’ve been doing a quick Tabata routine. Someone that I consider an expert suggested that doing some kind of workout between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., no matter how quick, is really good for your body’s weight-loss and maintenance mode.

There are a couple days a week I don’t make it up until the kids come in and jump on the bed at 7 a.m.  Those days don’t feel quite the same.

I type all this because today’s topic in the Challenge is Getting Up Early.

Productive people get up early, there’s plenty of research to back it up.  So part of this commitment is getting up early during these 31 days to start writing, do that four minute Tabata routine, and have that devotional time.  That means I have to stop binge-watching House of Cars on Netflix at night.  The one thing that will surely ruin your morning intentions:  staying up past your bedtime.

So tonight, I’m banning myself from another Frances Underwood monologue and getting through another piece of Life in Pieces.  If I want to really commit to getting up early, I’m backtiming my bedtime to 9:30. Let’s see if I can hold myself to that, among many other things in these 31 days.