I'm pleased to say I pulled out of the slump I was in a few days ago. I let myself slump for the rest of that afternoon, then started strategizing about how to fix it.
One thing was setting a couple of concrete goals for the next day: I WOULD get up when my alarm went off, and go work out. I WOULD finish the chapter of notes I was working on. Taking "do I feel like it?" out of the equation seemed to help, and I did, in fact, do those things. And those successes gave me a boosts in other areas.
Another element was analyzing where my energy drains were coming from. One was getting lax about bedtime. For awhile I was pretty consistently going to bed before 10pm. Then I started picking up more evening shifts, staying up later, sleeping in later, then staying up later, etc. I'm working on that.
The other was caffeine. Matt and I switched back to caffeinated coffee around the time I went back to work, because I was up late working until 1 or 2am many evenings. One cup turned into two, turned into a couple of cups in the afternoon, until we were making a whole pot and drinking it every day (sometimes more). We figured out that at our peak, I was drinking around 6 cups a day and Matt was drinking closer to 10. I told him I remembered how after Eden was born, even though I wasn't sleeping much, I still had a ton of energy. I told him that I haven't felt like that for awhile.
The first day was hard. Talk about a slump. I oozed around the apartment with a throbbing headache and zero energy. Day 2 (yesterday) was better. Day 3 (today), I again have a headache, but my energy level is coming up again. I'm optimistic it will get even better.
So what do we drink in the morning? We started with tea (herbal or decaf), which is warm and tasty, but recently we stumbled onto Vanilla Steamers, and boy, are they good. A cup of warm milk, an egg yolk, a splash of vanilla, a sprinkling of cinnamon, and just a little maple syrup. It's like hot chocolate, but vanilla. Kind of like warm eggnog. Creamy, dreamy, nourishing, and filling, I think they're better than coffee. Even better still? We can also drink them before bed. Eden is a big fan, too!
One thing was setting a couple of concrete goals for the next day: I WOULD get up when my alarm went off, and go work out. I WOULD finish the chapter of notes I was working on. Taking "do I feel like it?" out of the equation seemed to help, and I did, in fact, do those things. And those successes gave me a boosts in other areas.
Another element was analyzing where my energy drains were coming from. One was getting lax about bedtime. For awhile I was pretty consistently going to bed before 10pm. Then I started picking up more evening shifts, staying up later, sleeping in later, then staying up later, etc. I'm working on that.
The other was caffeine. Matt and I switched back to caffeinated coffee around the time I went back to work, because I was up late working until 1 or 2am many evenings. One cup turned into two, turned into a couple of cups in the afternoon, until we were making a whole pot and drinking it every day (sometimes more). We figured out that at our peak, I was drinking around 6 cups a day and Matt was drinking closer to 10. I told him I remembered how after Eden was born, even though I wasn't sleeping much, I still had a ton of energy. I told him that I haven't felt like that for awhile.
The first day was hard. Talk about a slump. I oozed around the apartment with a throbbing headache and zero energy. Day 2 (yesterday) was better. Day 3 (today), I again have a headache, but my energy level is coming up again. I'm optimistic it will get even better.
So what do we drink in the morning? We started with tea (herbal or decaf), which is warm and tasty, but recently we stumbled onto Vanilla Steamers, and boy, are they good. A cup of warm milk, an egg yolk, a splash of vanilla, a sprinkling of cinnamon, and just a little maple syrup. It's like hot chocolate, but vanilla. Kind of like warm eggnog. Creamy, dreamy, nourishing, and filling, I think they're better than coffee. Even better still? We can also drink them before bed. Eden is a big fan, too!
2 comments:
Caffeine makes you stay awake and watch while it cills off brain sells. Don't do what I did, my frend.
Oh yes, and Happy Birthday!
And that Vanilla Steamer really does the trick. Thanks!
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