Day 7

It's Friday night and I had one almost complete day this week and then almost fell off the boat. Here's my statement of success after week one: I have eaten balanced meals and energy keeping snacks all week. That's a first as my eating has been horrible for many years. I notice a difference in energy. I also take movement breaks frequently. My spiritual reading was 4/5 in the mornings. Need to figure out the exercise thing. Need to do better than 1/5 on dinners. Horrible dad!!! I was 1/1 on FHE. ;) That's somethin!

Summary: I done a little bit good and I gots a whole lot to do gooder! ;)

Day 5

Another bad day.  Must change.  Work overwhelmed today and I'm up late.  Mostly unplanned.  I forgot my lunch so had to go home late and missed normal hours on meals.  The main thing I did well was to wake, study scripture and eat breakfast.  I have to stick with a plan and have a plan B when things don't go well to atleast get the excercise and keep with the eat/snack schedule.  I was waiting for a meeting to adjourn to speak with key leaders but they got out late and I missed dinner and the boys.  Must change.  Don't give in.  Persevere. 

Day 4

Depressing.  I slide back two steps today.  It started with a harmless snooze of 30 minutes to 6:00 am and snowballed from there.  I stuck to my eating schedule but missed my 3:30 pm snack I think.  No exercise.  That seems to be my biggest struggle. I got home at 5:45 pm.  Work didn't go on plan and had a lot of unplanned surprises.  I got home and enjoyed a row of rice krispy treats.  Go figure.  Talk about a day off!  Look at the time.  10:16 pm!? 

Tomorrow... I return and improve.

Day 3

Today was the first true test and I passed a few tests and have a little progress to make tomorrow.  Here's the break down:

• I awoke at 5:30 am after turning in at 9:30 pm the night before.  I was home for dinner at 5:15 pm on schedule and enjoyed dinner and a great Family Home Evening with the family. Now I'm turning in again around 9:30 pm this evening.
• I ate meals and snack on schedule every 3 hours when my alarms sounded.  Heather made Rice Krispie treats so I traded out some dinner portions for extra dessert. ;) 
• My failure was the mid-day exercise.  This will be a challenge in the office but I will keep it on the schedule.  No one at the office exercises mid-day but shouldn't be an issue if I can make it work.  I did move and walk around when snack/move/chat breaks occurred.  Need to do better with chatting around the office.  Today was catchup from being out for the week.
• I read for 15 minutes in the morning out of the Book of Mormon. 
• I studied the GMAP without exhausting from 6:40 pm to 8:00 pm when I usually fall asleep trying to read.  Noticeable difference in attention span different.  There is hope.
• My boys were more engaged with me and were excited to have me for the evening.  It is obvious and more just common sense that getting home more will make a difference.
• Oops. I forget to make my lunch and snack for tomorrow.  Will have to do so in the morning.

I can do this.  There will be a pressure at the office.  Employees were asking about the trip with the leadership team last week and were curious about what we did.  There will be some who don't see value in this but most when explained the rationale and benefit want to participate.  Work demands detract many. The exercise will be most difficult but if I can make this much progress and sustain it I can surely figure out the exercise and will do so. 

Day 2

Today was Fast Sunday and the day of rest for the week.  Here is the log for today:

• I built a recurring alarm system and blocked calendar times to build muscle memory around nutrition, excercises and health & wellness plans.  I will go to bed between 9:30 and 10:00 pm and wake at 5:30 am each morning.  I will have breakfast by 6:30 am with a scripture reading session.  At 9:30 am, 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm I will do a 15 minute snack/move/chat session to get out with the office associates or do band excercises at home evening (movement and snacking).  At 12:00 pm I will snag lunch with a cardio/resitance workout and at 5:15 pm I will have dinner.  I also built in plans to manage email at start of day and end of day with winding down and heading home by 5pm.   I am shifing work to start earlier and head home earlier.  Heather and I will "veg" our minds with the indulgence of a TV show from 8-9 pm then wind down for the day.  I also built in plans for GMAT study for the next month.
• Old story: As I built this plan the "inner terrorist" in my head brought out the voices and stories that say I can't make this work and meetings, plans, workload, etc. will destroy plans to make this work.  What will other people think?  Will they think I'm not working?  It looked like I would be working less on the calendar when I blocked time for health and family. 
• New story: I will stick to the plan.  When my alarm goes off I will act with health and family as a top priority in my overall success.  The work will be at my desk when I get back to it after lunch.  My snack/move/chat breaks are actually benefiting my connections and engagement at work and not ditracting from work hours so they must be done.  I don't do anything productive after 9:00 pm right now so going to bed to benefit a 5:30 am wake up in the morning only increases my productive time in the morning when I am rested.  Because I snack and move during the day I will have the energy in the evening to get to the 8:00 pm veg hour with Heather. I will make this work.  Interuptions will occur and priorities will pop-up but I will get right back to the schedule when the next alarm goes off.  In the next 3 weeks I will transform my mental structure and physical actions around how I live my life each day.  This isn't complicated.  It just take a little push. 
• I bagged my lunch and snacks for the next day in the morning. 
• Heather said that as long as I am home for dinner I can start work as early as needed.
• We ate a perfect perportion meal for dinner to break the fast.  It was filling, tasty and I didn't pork out and still feel fine about my intake.  No need to pig out dude!
• I snacked with prunes and peanut m&m's at 7:30 pm
• Off to be with Heather and shutting down at 9am. 
• I was tempted with some pressure at work tomorrow but am pushing to my early start and not using family time. 
• I can do it!  I will do it! 

Day 1

Today was the first day after leaving the program and I think I had a good first day.  I got this journal site started to establish my seriousness about success, to battle the stories in my head that tell me "I'm just not wired to make this work", and take action to document my progress toward what I feel will be a positive change for my health and the happiness of my family.  Having studied the family work relationship in college I also know that getting balance in my family and physical health will only benefit my employment due to the energy that comes from proper diet, proper excercise and proper happiness as a father and husband.  It's a road and this is the first step toward establishing new "muscle memories".

So here's what I've done today:

• I ate a perfect schedule and diet to match my plan.  Even though my alarm didn't go off I woke up and read my new story and training mission plan.  Eating went as follows:
• 7:00 am - Oatmeal, Apple slices, Cheese
• 9:30 am - Half a nutrition bar
• 12:00 pm - Turkey/Cheese sandwhich w/ romaine/mayo, carrots, bananna
• 2:30 pm - String cheese
• 4:30 pm - Chicken sandwhich, carrots, prunes
• 7:30 pm - 4 peanut M&M's & a string cheese
• I was actively moving today by mowing and trimming the lawn.
• Since I returned home last night Heather confirms that I have been engaged and present in the home and my energy is consistent even though I feel asleep on her lap while relaxing at 9pm.  I was tired.
• I finalized my ultimate mission on this blog and am finishing up the training mission going forward.
• I still need to do more with my studies on GMAT and I didn't do any aerobic or resistance excercise today.  I was busy and somewhat gave myself the weekend excuse.  Oops.  I will try and do band resistance before going to bed. 
• My Iphone was in the drawer most of the day except when out and about.  I peaked a couple of times at my work email but I give myself a progress award today.
• I feel I was present with family at all meals and during the day.  I do feel I need more energy to engage fully in dialogue and sustained enjoyment with the boys and Heather.  I realize that my mind wanders easily to other things and today I wasn't wandering but I am out of practice with just relaxing and talking with my kids.  I've known and felt this for a while during the work stress but today was a reminder that my family muscles need to be conditioned. 
• I didn't watch any TV today. 

Summary.  Good day.  Not perfect but I progressed.   Tomorrow is my day of rest unto the Lord.  Monday is the next full test of application and applying the mission.  Key actions tomorrow are to make sure I have meals ready and a plan for work priorities with movement/eating/excercise and detachment to home all built into my engagement of the day ahead.  Wish me luck.  This is important to my life!