I’m struggling. I’m struggling even more than my last post would let on, and my weight hasn’t gone down–in fact, it’s gone up a pound or two recently. I’ve also been having difficulty getting up in the morning regularly to do rides or runs. In fact, the only thing I’ve been able to get done consistently in terms of exercise has been weight lifting a few mornings a week, largely because my weight sessions are short–less than twenty minutes.

My weight is up a little, just a pound or two. Still, it’s a warning sign; between that and my own awareness that things are not going all that well, it’s time to make a few changes. I’ve thought about it and here’s my plan:

1) Sleep earlier: It’s clear that I’m needing more rest, hence the need for an earlier bed time. Of course, the things I do outside of my full time job–namely, my part time job, blogging, coding, and my long lost podcast–are the demands keeping me up. I must figure out a way to handle these without staying up too late. My goal sleep time is 9:30 pm each night–with a wake up goal of 4:45 am each morning.

2) Drink more water: I’ve been trying to drink more water and cut down on Diet Pepsi (I’ve also been trying to drink more G2 on hot rides). That hasn’t always succeeded, particularly at work. I’m planning on getting myself a cold water bottle for work soon and cut down my soda intake to two to three a day–for some people that seems like a lot, but I used to do seven cans each work day!

3) Journal, journal, journal: I used to keep a food diary as well as an exercise diary; I got away from that. While I’ve had a lot of success with them and without them, I think it’s becoming time to go back to journaling. Perhaps that will help me look more clearly and honestly at my workout and diet routines.

We’ll see where this plan takes me, but I believe that a return to some of the basics of health is the road for me to get going on weight loss again!