This post brought to you by Erik Bertrand Larssen. The content and opinions expressed below are that of The Art of Making a Baby.
This week, I am taking the Hell Week Challenge based on the book Hell Week: Seven Days To Be Your Best Self by Erik Bertrand Larssen that can be bought on Amazon . If you haven’t already, go back and catch up with my other posts. I explained what the challenge is about and why you should do it. I walked through my preparation for the Hell Week Challenge and I showed you how Day 1 and Day 2 went for me. I’ve completed Day 3 and here is what happened.
Ok, maybe this isn’t exactly hellish but life makes it hard to stay on top of things.
It’s no wonder most people can’t stick to a diet or exercise plan. This shit is tough. Luckily, I already had diet and exercise down as a habit prior to starting this but it’s just hard to stick to other things.
Hell Week Challenge Day 3: Planning
Today I was supposed to focus on planning out my days, weeks, months and year. Again, this is something I have been doing for years now so I didn’t need to create anything specific. I had gone over my plans when I read the book and made a few specific changes. It is interesting to see that by Day 3 I was already done with all my to dos I had set for the week, except for one. That’s refreshing because normally it just seems like I do nothing but try to catch up. Tomorrow when I finish my last to-do I had set for this week, I will add more items from my monthly list into it. To do lists give me the tingles. Ha Ha! I thrive on them.
It is amazing to look back and see all of the items you wanted to do that month actually complete. It makes you feel like a badass!
So, let’s see how my Day 3 went.
I had to amend the 5 am wake up call to 7am so that I would be able to play volleyball late at night. I was playing with better players this time and needed to make sure I could keep up and keep my energy level up.
I managed to turn off my texts and social media notifications and just focus on work. But we know life throws a wrench into best laid plans. My internet was out, all day. Instead of jamming on urgent work, I was left to spend an hour on the phone with Comcast and then edit (much needed) pictures because there was no wifi. It was a focused, productive day, albeit not productive in a way I had hoped, but once again LIFE INTERFERES. It’s how we adjust to it that makes a difference in our daily life.
A few hours before having to leave for volleyball I made sure to do my “looking good routine” and this hair happened without me touching it (just let it down from a ponytail!)
By the time I got to the courts, it was pouring, so my friend and I went to an intermediate power yoga class at LA fitness to pass the time and returned to the courts after. This was my first time doing yoga and taking any kind of fitness class so I was excited to experience it.
The instructor was a fit, flexible, Jamaican dude who had quite the personality. It was fun and somewhat challenging when it came to balance. I broke a sweat but didn’t feel like I truly worked out like I do at the gym. I would love to take more classes to master balancing and improve flexibility, but I don’t have unlimited time to work out and I am not willing to give up my gym or volleyball time.
Since we didn’t get to the courts until 9pm when the rain had stopped, there was no way I would get home in time for my 10pm bedtime. So we played till 11pm, I got home at midnight (the courts are 40 min away from my house) and I was ready for bed at 1am. And that’s how it goes. So I thought about it long and hard. There are two rules: get 7 hours of sleep and wake up at 5am. Which one is more important? To be up at 5am no matter what or to get a healthy amount of sleep? I decided that the point was to get 7 hours of sleep and be up early to get stuff done but when that is not possible, focus on healthy sleep since the author makes a point about the majority of Americans not getting enough sleep (which I never was).
Here is my plan for tonight. Thursday night is supposed to be an all-nighter (unless you are responsible for someone or it would endanger you or them). I have another game till 9:30pm and I have Lexi for the evening, so I can’t do an all-nighter as appealing as it sounds. There is no way I could be up for 2 days (after 6 hours of sleep) and still be able to do cardio intensive games and be a safe driver while driving with Lexi. So I am thinking maybe I’ll do an all night Friday into Saturday night. Sort of push it one day. I don’t have volleyball, we don’t have to go anywhere. If I am completely exhausted, I can choose to stay home and barely function rather than drive around with a child in the car while falling asleep. Sound like a plan?
