It Takes How Many Days to Form a Habit?

This post is brought to you by good intentions and poor efforts. If you have been reading my blog for some time you may remember that I work with the school district and I have summers off. Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? Well yes it is, but having two months off does have its setbacks. I’m not complaining, and love this flexibility of my job. Summer! What a great time to have to yourself. Beach time, patio time, reading a good book time, pool time, so many “times” to enjoy.

I would say the teeny, tiny drawback for me is that my schedule becomes very discombobulated. During the school year I am in bed no later than eleven and up between six thirty and seven. Here is where the good intentions part comes in. I made a vow to myself that during the summer I would stick to this schedule. (of course not including the odd time if I was up especially late for one reason or the other.) My goal was to get to bed at eleven and be up to face the day with Yoga or a sweat session at the gym. Yes, I wanted to get up early and say hello to a beautiful sunrise. Let me just add right here that I am NOT a morning person. I love, love to sleep and take naps…many naps. Naps are better than chocolate and wine.

I so admire morning people. Especially people who wake up and are active like my girl Chels. By the time I wake up, Chels has already run across Texas, has done 200 sun salutations, taught a spin class and has had her Starbucks. All before getting ready for work.

I think this is how Chels wakes up at five am:

This is how I wake up at ten am:

 

 

So….this intended plan was going great and I made a gallant effort. We went to Belize the first week of my vacation and I was up to see the sunrise, no matter how late I went to bed. Let’s keep in mind that Belize is two hours behind Toronto on the clock, so I am sure that helped. Andy and I would wake up at seven am.  After minimal ablutions, (brush teeth, splash water on face) we would head down to our hotel gym and get in a workout straight away. Around eight O’clock we would head back to the room to shower and dress for the day, a glorious breakfast buffet awaiting us. The allure of freshly baked Creole bread, fresh local fruits, johnny cakes straight from the oven and omelet station could also have been a pulling factor to get up and out of bed.  I know it was for Andy. He would bolt up and exclaim, “Do I smell Creole bread baking?” At times, this was at five am and I would tell him to go back to sleep.

Anyhoo, upon my return to Toronto, things took a downward spiral. Let’s just say I was not waking up at six am in #the6. (if you have a teenager around and like Drake you’ll know what #the6 is.) I would wake up around seven, say to heck with it I’m off for summer, I am sleeping in for twenty more minutes. The problem is, that twenty more minutes would turn into three more hours. I would jump out of bed at ten thirty and say, “Darn it! I slept in again!” This could also be blamed on the fact that I was going to bed very late. Watching Game of Thrones reruns to see what I was missing (that Kalheesi woman is mean), Style by Jury, Blotched and a movie…or two.

I will also take a moment to blame Andy. His sleep patterns are weird and very sporadic. I will also blame this on the fact that he is a musician. This profession has made him a complete night owl, as most of his gigs are at night. He stays up until four am most nights and wakes up around midday. Yes, I am blaming Andy. I adopted the musician schedule. Trouble is, I ain’t a musician.

So enough of this sleeping late. I go back to work soon and I have to get back on schedule. Starting tomorrow I will be twirling like Chels and getting up to greet the sun. I am setting the alarm and making a productive morning my goal. No more grumpy cat. Okay fine, nine am will be my goal. It’s realistic to start with baby steps right?

Tell me, are you a morning person? How can I become one?