It was COLD on our walk yesterday!!
It was a bone chilling -13C/8.5F with a windchill of -23C! And boy was it windy.
Here I am with my father in law whom I love so dearly! We put a brave face on…
But not for long!
Thanks to this huge collar on this Lululemon sweater I got several years back, I was able to cover half my face!
We walked for over an hour in the blistery cold and came across these beauts:
I wanted to go riding!!!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Sketchie and Finnegan continued to fight for Alpha male.
Sketchie plotting…
I think there is a wire in his brain stuck on ‘clean mode’.
POOPED on the car ride home (not literally!)
It was a great getaway, but not long enough! We had to leave around 3pm because I had a lot of Glo Bakery work to be done Sunday night.
We came home to NO WATER in the house. Not a drip. We feared that our water pipes froze up. Around 9pm, there was a huge loud boom coming from our water pump and then we had running water again!
Eric and I managed to squeeze in Whittle My Middle and I had a 15 min treadmill run/walk workout.
I also made some overnight Banana Bread Baked Breakfast Cake:
This time I doubled the oats, cut the nuts in half, and added dark chocolate chips with the bananas. Sooooo heavenly!!!
My Early Rising Challenge
I’ve always been a night owl for as long as I can remember. I have never been one for going to bed very early because I always have trouble falling asleep. I am certainly not one of those lucky people (e.g., Eric) that falls asleep within a few minutes of hitting the pillow!
However, I also love mornings. A lot. I love getting up early, getting a good workout in, and getting a few tasks crossed off my to-do list.
The only problem with my love for both late nights and early mornings is that they don’t really work well in tandem!
Eric also happens to be a night owl, so our schedules just sort of worked well together. I love spending time with my husband at night. I only get to see him a few hours each day.
Last year, I came across this fabulous article by Zen Habits called ‘10 Benefits of Rising Early‘. When I first came across it I knew it was something that I wanted to try out, however I never ended up committing to it. Leo, a former night owl himself, tells his tips on how he switched to rising early- at 5am every day. He claims that his entire life has changed for the better since he became an early riser. Not only does he feel more at peace in his life, he also gets much more accomplished.
Some of Leo’s tips for learning how to rise early are:
1) Start slow. Wake up just 15-30 minutes earlier for several days until you are used to it. Then get up earlier the next week, etc.
2) This seems obvious but you need to go to bed earlier if you are to function the next day. Leo says even if you don’t think you will fall asleep, go to bed and read. Often you will fall asleep faster than you thought.
3) Have a reason to get out of bed in the morning! Make a morning ritual that you look forward to. Maybe it is a delicious bowl of baked breakfast cake after your morning workout or maybe it is a favourite TV show or 30 minutes of your favourite book. Have a fun reward for getting up early!
4) Be productive. Make your early mornings productive and you will have a reason to stay committed to it. If you get good results, you are likely to stick with it!
For the rest of Leos tips and benefits to rising early, see the full article here. It is a must read!!
In case you haven’t guessed, I am challenging myself to rising early!
Over the next several weeks, I am going to slowly adjust my sleep-wake schedule.
I am going to monitor my progress andwill report back how it is going.
Are you a night owl or early bird? If you live with a boyfriend or husband, are you on the same sleep-wake schedules?
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UPDATES:
- After 7 trials over the past several months, I was finally able to perfect my first Gluten-free Glo Bar!!!! Stay tuned for details in the upcoming weeks for the release.
- My Recipes Page is all up to date now, including reader’s favourite breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert recipes!
- Eric was able to fix my Windows Live Writer hyperlinking error. Eric found an error in my linkglossary.xml file (which is located in the WLW folder). Thank God it is now fixed. This will cut down my blogging time in half!
Enjoy your Moan-day! I have a full Gmail Calendar again and I am trying Day 2 of not multitasking (as much!). For a tutorial on how to use Gmail calendar see here.
Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.
Napoleon Hill
Angela…this is so useful! During the winter I struggle like hell to get up in the mornings…. it is dark and cold and all I want to do is sleep ZZZZZZZ. In the summer I am the total opposite, I can’t wait to get out of bed and start my day.
I am gonna join you on the challenge!!xoxo
I try to use full spectrum lighting to wake up early. So far, this has worked for me.
I always stay up at least until midnight. I enjoy the mornings but this just works best with my work schedule. Best of luck to you with your challenge Angela!
I’m an early riser most of the time but over break I’ve been sleeping in really late! It’s going to be tough to get back on schedule next week! The time change won’t help either! I’ll definitely use your tips!
I am definitely a morning person. My husband refers to me as the rooster. I feel guilty if I sleep in – should be up and about doing things! On weekdays I get up just after 6 so I have time to sit down and eat breakfast (and make a green monster!), catch up on the news, emails etc. But I think because of doing that 5 out of 7 days, I end up not being able to do it on the weekends. I am 33 and definitely can’t stay up late anymore . . . but you know what? I am OK with that. And it’s OK to read in bed . . this doesn’t mean your old . . :) hopefully it means we’re learning to take better care of ourselves so we can be more useful every day!
I used to wake up super early as a kid, but for while I was sleeping till 9 when I didn’t have anything to get up for. Now with a full-time job I get up with the alarm at 6:20. I still have to make myself go to bed by 9:30 pm so I’m not a complete zombie the next day. I did do a bootcamp last year and got up at 4:45 am 3 days a week (for a month). It took some getting used to, but I actually fell in love with being awake and done with exercise by 6:30 am!
I love this. I can’t wait to read his article. This is something I have been wanting to incorporate into my life, but find it so hard to get outta bed. I know my life would be so much better and routine if I would just do it. :)
I used to be a night owl and for the longest time I could not go to bed before midnight even when I had to get up at 4am. This past year though I can’t even stay awake past 10!
I love that green wall in the pictures with the two cats. It’s a beautiful green :)
I’m a morning person-always have been. I try to be in bed ASLEEP by 10 and I get up at 5:30. My DH goes to bed at the same time but wakes up an hour later. He requires more sleep than me :)
I am definitely a night owl but I really want to be a morning person. I always love getting up and feeling so accomplished in the AM. But I have a tough time dragging myself out of bed! I just need to train my body!
My boyfriend can go to bed late and wake up early. I swear he barely needs sleep! I’m jealous! I need my 7-8 hours otherwise I’m a meany all day.
Totall off topic, but you cat has the most beautiful markings!
Such a timely post, Angela–it’s truly freaky!
I used to be a huge night owl (as was, and still kind of is, the husband) but I’ve been dying to get in the habit of waking up early to go running before work (and before the Trini heat hits at 7:30 am–not much of a window between “pleasantly warm and breezy” and “hot as hell” down here!). This morning, I celebrated my birthday by starting my new old age on the right foot, ran my 3 miles, and I feel amazing. It’s definitely worth the early wake-up call to feel the endorphin happiness all day long :-)
Those horses looked beautiful! Things like that make me miss living in the country :)
Gluten Free Glo Bars! Can’t wait to try them. I make a few of my own versions of your glo bars with uncontaminated oats, but I am excited to get a “real one” from the pro! Thanks for your determination!
Wow! I was JUST thinking about this this morning. I am definitely a morning person, but for some reason, I have been staying up late (doing nothing!) and have been dragging myself out of bed, exhausted, at the very last minute. I love early mornings but I haven’t been able to enjoy them. I wake up at the last minute, rush to get in the shower, and I am usually late getting out the door for work!
I am revamping my evening routine to get to bed earlier, so I’ll be joining you in this challenge!
Pretty horsies! Your walk looks beautiful, no matter the weather! I have to be at work by 7 AM and now that I have a new puppy I’m getting up at 5 so that I have time to deal with him and play with him for 15-20 minutes before he’s penned up for the work day. I love having time to start reading blogs and eat a nice slow breakfast with a cup of coffee. My mornings are so much more relaxed than when I’d rush through! My Hubs is a night owl who rides to campus with me, he doesn’t get nearly enough sleep. Silly man.
Urgh, by nature a night owl but once I started working full time I got used to mornings a bit better. Just as well as I then bought a house a LONG way from my job and now I have to get up really early just to get into the office at a normal hour. A couple of mornings a week I get up even earlier to workout because I would just be too tired to do it later in the day. I’m glad I make the effort but it does wear me down sometimes and I can never seem to get to bed early enough to compensate! My boyfriend is a night owl too but he gets more of a lie in than me as he works closer to home so he can go to bed whenever…. Harumph…
I am such a morning person. I grew up on a farm, so I always needed to get up early. Now my body just wakes me up!! My favourite part of my day is my mornings. I cook myself oatmeal, check my e-mail, read the paper… just take my time getting ready for the day. I HATE rushing to get ready for work or school. It throws off my entire day!! I also happen to be one of those lucky poeple who falls asleep minutes after lying down (brag brag)
Sadly, my fiancé is a night owl, struggling to get up early on school mornings… and he rushes!!! SOmetimes our schedules mesh, sometimes they don’t. I have a “sleep schedule” he does not. I wish we went to bed together at the same time every night though.
Okay, I am crushing on Sketchie – I love his ‘plotting’ pics!
Used to be a total early riser. I taught 8th grade, and no matter how ‘free’ an evening appeared, inevitably the unplanned would happen. I’d have a huge discipline issue during the day that led to parent phone calls or conferences, last-minute IEP meetings, homework detention, or a student with no ride home (who lived 40 minutes away). Always something came up.
So during my second year I learned if I ever wanted to work out I had to do it in the morning, when there had been no time for something to get in the way. So every day I either hit the pool (MWF) or the gym (T TH). Then I’d come home, shower and eat breakfast while reading blogs :) It was hands down the highlight of every day.
Now that my routine is less stressful I don’t get up quite as early, but I must admit I miss it!!!