A New Start: New Schedule, New Rewards

Last week, I lived the SWEET Life pretty well:

Sleep 5
Water 6
Eating 5
Exercise 4
Tranquility 6

Sleep
I've been making a point to sleep long enough so that if I don't sleep well, I still come out with at least 7 hours sleep. I'm hoping things will change starting tonight, after Zoe's annual Dr. appointment. Her pediatrician gave me some good advice about getting my girls to sleep in their own beds and stay in their own beds! Their middle of the night wakings are what prevent me from sleeping well. This week, so far I'm 2 for 2 on sleep.

Water
I'm finally remembering to take water with me to the gym and to my ESL class. That helps. I'm filling my pitcher with water at home, but it's important for me to be drinking when I'm out of the house too, especially if I'm exercising or out of the house for several hours! So far this week, I'm 1 for 1 and we'll see how the rest of today goes . . .

Eating
I've set up a new schedule where I cook Friday-Sunday, and we eat leftovers or frozen, quick cooks Monday-Thursday (when I work at night). So far, so good. I'm 1 for 1 this week, and doing pretty well so far today . . .

Exercise
I'm back in the habit of exercising Mondays-Fridays so that I can take off the weekends. I prefer that to having to "catch up" on the weekends. I'm 2 for 2 this week.

Tranquility
I've been able to rest and relax. It always helps when the girls nap. That's also part of my new schedule and pediatricians's advice about getting my girls to nap.


How did I do, and how do I feel?
Yesterday, I had a SWEET Life.

I feel a bit more organized and in control, even though my schedule just got much busier. I started working 4 nights a week last week, so I took some time to figure out what my new schedule needed to look like: (1) I wanted to get us ready sooner in the mornings. (2) I needed to make sure to have play time with my girls. (3) I needed to make sure I had time to eat an early dinner before work. (4) I needed to make sure I could get to bed early enough to sleep long enough and still get up to exercise in the morning. (5) I needed to be more consistent about "quiet time" so that my girls could get their naps in and not have to be woken up, and at the same time, I don't want them sleeping so long during the afternoon that they were up late at night.

The pediatrician gave me advice about having a reward system to encourage the girls to behave how I want them to. I figured out a way to do it in an eco-friendly manner (i.e., without consumption or waste). Now I just have to really encourage it and become consistent with it.

Time Dilemmas

Sleep
Does it count if I don't sleep 7-8 hours but I wake up feeling refreshed? Compare that to the opposite: trying to sleep 8 hours but being constantly interrupted and waking up feeling like I needed four more hours of sleep! And there you have my last two nights of sleep, in opposite order. Strangely, after not sleeping well at all Friday night, I'm surprised that I was able to stay up so late (watching a DVD) last night and that I woke up so early feeling refreshed! So, I'm going to count last night as a good night's sleep, even though it wasn't 7-8 hours. That gives me a pitiful total of 3 full nights of sleep this week!

Water
The last two days I haven't been drinking enough water. Yesterday, I hardly drank anything until noon! Today, I filled my pitcher first thing and am going to make sure to drink my two quarts so that I reach my weekly goal of 5 days of good hydration.

Eating
Yesterday, I also didn't eat anything until noon, when, of course, I was starving. All afternoon I felt like I could never get enough to eat, so I constantly wanted to eat more. Bad, bad, bad! All I really needed to do was to have eaten some breakfast so that I had some fuel to burn in the morning. That would have kept my energy, hunger, insulin and blood sugar levels all in check for the morning, and lunch would have replenished me for the afternoon. Today I need to eat healthily in order to reach my goal of 5 days of healthy eating this week.

Exercise
I am refocused and re-energized to exercise routinely again. I did skip Thursday, knowing I would exercise on Saturday. I did cardio at the gym on M, W, F and did toning exercises at home Tuesday. Saturday, I walked to the gym and a little beyond, did toning exercises there, and ran home. I'm 5 for 5 this week, so today is a day off.

Tranquility
Yesterday, after my horrible night's rest, I got tranquility in the form of a big fat nap, alone in my bed (i.e., no kids taking up space!). I also got a little time to myself (<30 min) before Zoe woke up from her nap. So far, I'm 6 for 6 this week on Tranquility. I also had a date with a group of friends and no kids. It was great to be able to talk to these friends without being interrupted by children's needs/demands!

How did I do, and how do I feel?
Yesterday, I had only a _ _ _ ET Life.
I feel busy, like I'm not getting enough work done. I'm living a pretty SWEET Life, but I need to be spending time on both the SWEET Life website and preparing my ESL class to teach at Chabot College.,I haven't been spending enough time on either of those things because they require chunks of time (1 hr+), which is harder to find than small bursts of time (5-30 min). There are just too many things that I want to do and not enough time to do all of them. I think most people would forgo the SWEET Life because of work, but living the SWEET Life is the foundation of my life to which I add other things.

Returning to Work

Sleep
Let's see, if I saw part of Letterman (a very old one at that), and I woke up to my 6:30 alarm, then I couldn't have slept 7 hours. But I was close, perhaps 6 1/2 to 6 3/4 hours, which I think I do often.

Water
I donated blood yesterday, so I had to drink extra water to make up for the loss of blood, or is it to help produce more blood?

Eating
I ate really healthy yesterday too because I donated blood and didn't want to pass out from lack of energy.

Exercise
I couldn't exercise after donating blood, and I didn't have time to do it beforehand, so I took the day off. Now I'm taking advantage of my girls' nap time, but I've decided to exercise after work at the health club tonight. I'll already be there, surrounded by exercise equipment. Too bad I can't exercise during work.

Tranquility
I got tranquility in the form of organization. I don't live well in chaos, though others do. I'm organizing my time and reprioritizing my daily things to do. Hopefully, I'll feel more satisfied with this reorganization of my time.

How do I feel?
Next year I'm going to embark on a grand adventure, so I'm a bit nervous about it but also excited. Well, no, it's not a really adventurous type of adventure, it's just uncharted territory for me. I'm going to work more than I ever have since becoming a mother. I definitely feel the need to have intellectual stimulation, and I'll be happy to earn some more income on my own. I think that's a big difference between today's Home Executive (a.k.a. stay-at-home-mom) and those of the past: In the past women might have gone to college, then married, had kids and raised them. Today, it's much more common for women to have careers, not just jobs, but careers of their choosing where they have built up a reputation and standing, before having kids. I think it's a great and difficult choice for mothers to change careers, mid-career, and decide to raise their children instead of earn an income. At the same time, I feel that the most important "career" I could have is to raise my own children and not have a nanny or daycare do it for me. So why am I going to work more? Because, sadly, mothering doesn't pay the bills. I'm trying to keep the most positive spin on this that I can: intellectual stimulation, income; those are good things. Spending less time with my kids will make me treasure the time we spend together more, right? Fortunately, it's only for 18 weeks; I can re-evaulate the situation after that. I tend to get more done when I have more to do, so I'm hoping that'll work for me.