#2017optimizationproject Daily Progress Report for 1/2/17
Physical
January 2 was a bit more typical of what I’d like to see coming out of the gate here at the very beginning of my optimization project. Although there was one major failure (I didn’t formally exercise) the rest of my stats were pretty good and I came out of the day feeling accomplished and like tomorrow could be even better:
Food
Water
Sleep
I’m still working on an effective graphic for this one. Stay tuned…
I slept nearly 11 hours, from 11-something until 9:20 am when I woke up without an alarm. Since it was a holiday, I decided to give myself a break and make up some sleep deficit, and boy did it feel good. I got up immediately and got right into my morning routine, which was great. I felt good and didn’t hit any kind of wall like the day before.
Exercise
I’ll be honest here: I totally skipped exercise yesterday. It was raining like crazy and I just totally lazed-out on the option of using the elliptical. I have no real excuses and must simply throw myself on the mercy of the court. One small glimmer of hope: I did take 1386 steps yesterday in between long periods of sedentariness. :)
Mental
On most Mondays, I’m going to be on a normal work schedule. Yesterday was the day New Year is observed, however, because New Year fell on a Sunday this year. So, not having any special plans, I tried to adhere to a work schedule to some extent, but personal discipline was understandably at a low ebb. I did write three article drafts for SPROUT and I also did some research and administrative work for this project and a few other personal things I have going on.
As far as personal writing projects, I spent a little less than an hour yesterday doing creative writing, and it felt really great to fit that in without guilt. Carving out daily writing time that’s above and beyond what I need to do for work is one of the key goals of this project for me.
Emotional
I noted yesterday that I’ve been dealing with a bout of depression the last week but I’m stoked to say I felt it lifting yesterday and I was much more my normal self. I still had a few “moments” here and there, which just goes with the territory, but all-in-all, I was more positive and optimistic than I’ve been in a long time. I went to bed feeling satisfied and eager to get to the next day.
I was able to spend a solid hour and a half in conversation with my wife and daughter before bed last night and had some good, upbuilding conversations with my son earlier in the day too. When I’m depressed, that’s almost impossible, and I know that’s akin to failing to water a plant — without quality time to talk, relationships wither. So I’m glad I was able to do that.
Spiritual
Since there’s no meeting scheduled for Monday and I didn’t have a plan to go out in the volunteer ministry, my spiritual activities for the day were solely personal: I did my daily text, read a chapter in Matthew, and did a few minutes of personal reading in a scriptural magazine. I also spent about half an hour handling some congregation duties involving scheduling for February’s meetings, and was able to accomplish quite a bit in that regard, which also felt good.
Summary
In general, yesterday was far better than Sunday, even if there were a few hiccups here and there. I’m satisfied with the net results, and look forward to today’s activity across the board too. Here’s the overall tracking report (see this post if it looks like Greek to you):
