Eat Less, Sleep More, Surf Email

Last week, I committed to building my discipline muscle in three areas for three weeks: eating, sleeping, and managing work email. Here's how I did in week one.

1. Eat 2200 calories per day. Grade: B. I lost two pounds this week. Happy about that. My goal of 2200 calories is based on the amount I'd need to maintain my weight if I weren't overweight. In reality, I met that goal four times, came close once, and went over twice, but even then had a calorie deficit from my current weight. The best day was one where I came in a little low for breakfast and lunch, giving me a little breathing room for dinner and dessert. That day I ate lots of veggies, which helped me feel full. 

2. Get to bed by 11:00 and get 7-8 hours of sleep. Grade: A-.  I got enough sleep this week, hence the A. I stayed up a little past 11:00 a few times, hence the minus. One thing I am noticing, though, is that I'm losing personal time when I go to bed early. Michael Lewis' behind the scenes profile of the president in Vanity Fair this month revealed how Michelle goes to bed at 10:00, leaving the president three hours of private time before he goes to bed. I'm not the leader of the free world, but raising two kids and working a lot of hours doesn't allow for much free time, either. I can relate. 

3. Reach zero in-box with my work email. Grade: C. My actual in-box isn't much better yet. But hopefully I've set up the systems to do better. I set up folders to hold things I used to just accumulate in my in-box: an action folder, a save to computer folder, a print folder, and a read folder. And I got GTasks (which I like for its ease and simplicity) for my Android smartphone to track the items in my action folder, so I don't have to look at them in my inbox. But I also came to the realization that I get 50 work emails between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, and another 25 during the evening and early morning. It's a relentless cycle that repeats every day. Even weekends ensure a full inbox on Monday morning. The only way to beat this will probably be for me to acquire a brutally efficient batch processing routine. I thought these tools were supposed to make our lives simpler?

Back to this being a health blog...out of control email keeps me from reaching the state of relaxation that I need to embrace healthy behaviors. 

Have a great week everybody!