Skip to main content

Waking up at 5.30am

Challenge number 2 in my year long healthy habit challenge is to wake up at 5.30am every morning, including weekends! I decided to add this to the mix because I hear so often that it is good for me and below are the reasons I thought mattered to me most.

Benefits to waking up early
  1. Time to plan for the day - if I don't plan I just don't end up getting things done. 
  2. Self development - successful people wake up earlier. Early bird gets the worm.
  3. Exercise - its hard to go to the gym after a long day of work. Waking up early gives me time to do this.
  4. Morning routine - I like to take my time getting ready in the morning, have breakfast, clean my house etc
  5. Quiet time - waking up before the sun rises give you a psychological advantage over everyone else.
How did it go?

Youtube-benefits to waking up early

The first 10 days went well, I managed to wake up early without a struggle. It did allow me to get myself ready nice and slow before work, my house is clean before I leave for the day, I had a chance to film some videos and I can plan my day much better.

However...

After the first week I was so tired after work I would probably manage half an hour of TV before bed.
  I did start to notice my appetite for sugar and sweet treats went through the roof. Day 11-14 I was in London with my sisters and had late nights with eating and drinking lots which kind of messed it up for me. I really needed the sleep so didn't stress too much over screwing up the challenge for a few days and just started it right back up when I got back. My skin blew up with spots, mainly on my chin which is very unusual for me.



Unusual spotty chin for me


I think this is what frightened me the most. I just started looking unhealthy. I know my terrible diet contributed to the bad skin but I am also sure feeling so tired and wearing make-up didn't help.

Going forward?

I can definitely see the benefits to waking up early but think for me, as long as I am getting enough sleep (8hours) I will be happy, which means on a Sunday waking up at 8am for me is absolutely fine!

I will be more relaxed on weekends



Next challenge?

The launching of my next habit is going to be a bit different this time. Instead of me just picking what it is going to be. I have written down a number of suggestions for healthy habits and split them into 2
categories 1) lifestyle 2) dietary 
I plan to blindly pick the next one and will alternate which category I am doing each time to mix it up a bit.

If you have any other suggestions of habits you might like to adopt, please comment below as I am open to trying anything out.

Below are the videos relating to waking up at 5.30am every morning





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beginning of fitness journey

Bit of insight into where my interest in fitness started ... As far back as I can remember I have always had insecurities about my weight, this probably stems from my darling brother! I was a chubby baby/child I guess, but he very kindly nicknamed me Oros - In South Africa, Oros is the name of the mascot for an orange squash. Although I was never overweight or fat in any way, it stuck with me that I was the chubby one - my sisters and brother are all skinny! I was a pretty average achiever. I always wanted to do more where athletics/sports team etc were concerned but was never great enough to stand out. I was the one that always went to practice but wasn't noticed, I preferred to mold into the back ground if I wasn't outstanding. I once did a race in primary school, the whole school was there to watch, I think I was coming like 3rd from the back and I didn't like it so pretended I hurt my foot so I didn't need to finish! Naughty naughty! I'm on the lef...
2 comments
Read more

Fitness Motivation

I am so in love with the progress and physique of fitness model Jen Jewell  aka fitnessjewell! Article on bodybuilding.com She does a lot of the modelling for bodybuilding.com  and has done fitness competitions. Although her stats are NOTHING like mine and I could never look as good as her, she really motivates me to try hard and is living proof of what lifting weights does for a girl. Yeah OK, I know a lot of woman are frightened to lift weights for exactly that reason - they don't want to get big with muscles and look like the pic above, however that is what she looks like after intensive training, dieting, fake tan and pumped up for stage. Her body naturally is exactly what every girl wants and if they don't, they should!! What makes her interesting to me is that she hasn't always looked this way - it has actually taken 10 years, according to her bio for her to look like this. Admittedly a few years ago I probably wouldn't have l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chest/Tri's

I had the day off work today and as soon as my alarm went off I was on mission go go go! It always feels like there are not enough hours in the day, but today I had so much planned and needed 25 hours to do it all!  I rose at 7am and started my day off right with a delicious bowl of porridge with peanut butter, honey and cinnamon - My favourite breakfast ever! Oh and a green tea too. A zest mag always helps get me in gear too. I then headed off to the gym, allowing myself about an hour, ended up being two! I did the following; 500 metre sprint row (warm up) Stretched a little 10 press ups - 5 proper grown up ones, 5 inclined on a step. (I still SUCK at push ups but I am trying!) I went over to the bench to start on weights and a young boy started instructing me on how to workout (I think he had a mental disability or something. I humored him for a couple of minutes, allowing him to give me his advice haha regretted it straight away thou...
2 comments
Read more