Early to Bed, Early to Rise

I must admit that I do feel so much better when I adopt an “early to bed, early to rise” mindset. Since I have been working out, once I put my son to bed, I am generally ready to “hit the sack” myself. I had been reading my iPad before sleeping, but after reading what artificial light does to our hormone levels before sleeping, I decided to start limiting it. I haven’t put it down completely yet, but I have started decreasing the length of time that I expose myself to the light. The only problem now is finding time to read. 😐

My rest has been deeper, which is one of the goals of Whole 9. It seems that I wake before the clock goes off by about 30 minutes when I do go to bed earlier. I have always loved sleeping. There’s something about giving my body rest that just feels really good, and now that I am getting REALLY GOOD rest, I am definitely seeing why my body likes it so much.

So here’s to stabilizing cortisol levels and keeping leptin in check. Now, it’s time for breakfast!!

Want to read a little more on 3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Sleep, Before Lunch.

My Health Fusion Program Begins

My health fusion program begins with evaluating what I have learned so far, and where I am wanting to go with all of this (beyond just being healthy). I’ve posted what I have learned about the Whole30 program, so I won’t rehash that again, so now to begin adding what I am learning about how the emotional is just as important as the physical–not at all what I expected to learn in Chris Powell’s book Choose to Lose — The 7-day Carb Cycling Solution.

I decided to check deeper into the Whole30 authors and found Whole9, which is a complete plan for living a “wholesome” life. I can definitely see working this in also. It offers an online community that shares information on how to strengthen the following nine (9) areas of your life:

• To Eat Good Food
• To Sleep Deeply
• To Move Your Body
• To Handle Your Stress
• To Connect With Others
• To Get Outside
• To Be The Best You
• To Have Some Fun
• To Own Your Choices

When I went looking for the next step in my pursuit of good health, Whole9 provided the structure. Chris Powell introduced me to the passion to be an “Athlete in Training.”

GOAL: I will train each day in knowledge and fitness while eating good food to reach my health and fitness goals.

COMING UP: 241 Journey will be going through a “redefining” phase. As I learn more about underlying emotional strongholds from Chris Powell, I find it necessary to begin viewing myself and my journey from where I am headed, instead of where I started. It is an exciting journey. I think my blog should reflect that as well, so hang on as this blog begins to change the way it looks also. 🙂

Do you have “a plan” or is your end goal merely to lose weight? Why are you on your journey? What does the end game look like for you? Share with us in comments.