The Plan: Sleep

I may have been a little too ambitious with the beginning of the plan. I was excited, I had energy, and then that first week was half over and I was already overwhelmed with all the changes I was trying to make combined with four days of work in a row.

I wound up exhausted and not even keeping up with housework. I just wanted to lay down and sleep.

My motivation to keep up with things disappeared because I was tired. So the next part of the plan involves fixing my sleep habits.

My eventual goal is to be asleep by 10 pm. Theoretically, I can then have a bit of time for my own morning ritual before Jamie gets up. This will be dependent on getting dinner made and dishes done before Jamie goes to bed so I can put them away after, feed the kitties, brush my teeth, knit while watching a TV show and read 20-30 mins (by candle light?) before going to sleep.

I'm going to start with a no phone time in bed rule and try putting my new bedtime routine in effect first, and then slowly move bedtime earlier.

Here's hoping I'll be celebrating better sleep soon - like this little guy :) (this pic is more than a year and a half old. He's so big now. And much less sleepy)

Week One

This first week has gone by rather quickly. And in some ways I've been successful, in other ways not so much. Here's how it went.

1. Movement

      I started the week hoping to move more and do alignment exercises. I started the week alright, but soon started missing days. I decided that I'd just add the two days' movement together the next day. This worked up until I was out of the house 4 days in a row. This week on work days I'll try to get my stretching done before I go.

2. Paleo

      I feel like I kind of only half did this - I had made 'slush' as a birthday drink and wanted to finish it off so I ate paleo but drank  a sweet pop/juice/vodka blend for the first 2-3 days. Plus beyond that first day at work I didn't have dinner leftovers to take for lunch. I did eat more healthy food than normal, and less sugar. So that's a step in the right direction. 

I'm keeping on with it - I think I'll have to make sure I  keep enough greens around to have a big salad for those days supper doesn't have enough left for lunch. And I need to stay stocked up on the quick and easy snacks.

I feel like I fell off the wagon in the last three or four days. All I can do is head back to it now. I figure its the same with the movement - you don't have to do it all at once but the longer you keep at it, the easier it becomes.

Next up: my plan for improving sleep (duration and quality)

Paleo Meal Plan

I think 'here's what I ate this week' posts boring. So I'm not going to do one of those. I do want to explain how I've set up my basic meal planning structure though.

Breakfast

I've actually had a breakfast plan for a while now - I had to make sure I was giving Jamie a variety to expose him to different foods. He's not too keen on new foods so I figure if I'm giving it to him once a week it hopefully won't be too strange to him.

(Like these - these look delicious)

M: paleo muffins/nut butter balls
T: apple and n how aboutut butter
W: fruit egg bake
Th: savory egg bake
F: paleo pancakes or hot cereal
S: fruit and scrambled eggs
S: fried/hardboiled eggs and bacon/sausage

Lunch tends to be leftovers from supper the night before. I'd have a giant salad but Jamie isn't a fan of lettuce unless he's pulled it from the dirt himself.

Dinner

For a while I tried to have category days (eg. Monday was soup night, Tuesday beef, etc) but had a hard time sticking to it. Now I just make a list once a week and write it on my white board. This week I wrote:

M: Jon makes
T: Soup/stew
W: taco salad
Th: Curry chicken over cauli. rice
F: teyaki salmon broccoli & coleslaw
S: Jon makes
S: spaghetti squash bake and salad

This is actually mostly for next week, since once we have something I erase it and put something else on. Also, sometimes things move down the list - spaghetti squash bake has moved down the list from Wednesday earlier in the week because its been too hot to bake anything. Jon makes supper on days that I work.
                  
So that's my meal planning in its most basic form. I've gotten a bunch of Paleo cook books from the library for inspiration. It really helps.