Day 847 & A Problem with Triggers in My New Morning Routine

Day 847 Record Keeping
Day 819 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 693 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 233 Rowing (HIIT, 18.5 min, 30s:30s, 3700 m)
—–
Eating
Day 71 Pantry Check
Day 69 Recording

Early to Rise
Day 2 Bacon & Water 14
Day 2 Sleep Recording 17 (1:30|1:3|7:30|9)

Great sleep, great wakeup.
Bad quality of meditation. 

A Problem with Triggers in My New Morning Routine

Completely forgot to do my pantry check today until after I recorded. I usually either grab my coffee (because Lydia made it on account of getting up earlier than me) and that triggers my food recording, or I make it and that triggers it.

Today Lydia wanted to make it and was using special beans, AND I was doing my new water and bacon habit. Lydia made the coffee after I was already at my desk working, and handed me my coffee. It just didn’t trigger.

Here are a few points:

1) I can’t just mechanically check my superhabits off. I’ve got to actually go through them.

2) A new morning routine means some habits will be affected before it normalizes again (habit consonance) 

3) Waking up early is just as likely to affect small parts of my routine, especially if I’m relying on someone else to, say, already have coffee ready.

4) Syncing with significant others can be really problematic and you have to be careful with it

5) I need to be really careful as to what my triggers are. Today it was a difference in order, but later it might be travel. 

Day 840 & More Syncing and Eating Problems

Day 840 Record Keeping
Day 812 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 686 Writing (4 rounds of 30 min)
Day 226 Rowing (30 min/ 5600 min - Personal Record)
—–
Eating
Day 64 Pantry Check (81)
Day 62 Recording

good sleep, good wakeup.

More Syncing and Eating Problems

Today I started working and Lydia really wanted to get some food. I don’t constantly want to be a slave to my routine and say no all the time. I also didn’t want to mess up our syncing with eating later in the day. So I said yes. 

I decided I’d go out with her, get something to bring back, do another round of writing but not do a full 4 rounds because today is my HIIT day, and this one is the start of a particularly difficult one (for me). By doing another round, I’m still maintaining my if-then - writing then rowing - albeit with a pause before. It’s in the joints of the day that solidity in habits exist. I’d do that, then eat after rowing, because afterwards I usually shower.

On the way Lydia was excited to watch an episode of a show, and I did that because I wanted to watch something and I wanted to eat my meal hot. Then I ended up doing two more rounds of work for the full complement of 4 because I got too full and I didn’t want to do a HIIT after that.

I was still full, so there was no way I was doing a HIIT. I ended up doing my meditation next after taking a break because all these pauses and changes to my schedule (as well as my full stomach) messed up my rhythm, and it left feeling quite grumpy.  

Talking to Lydia after I got my head screwed on straight was interesting. She pointed out how much improved I was in all of this. Sure my schedule was off. But I ate clean. I did 4 rounds of writing. I did 30 minutes of meditation. I may not have done a HIIT, but I rowed 200 meters further at this time than I’ve ever done. 

I think I can take better care of timing and eating. I should make global changes - perhaps plan eating on Sundays, definitely get up earlier and make sure that my schedule is really hard to break. But there is no question that I’ve improved significantly since starting this project. Today I did everything and more despite messing up my regimentation - and isn’t that the hallmark of really strong habits?