OK, that’s not entirely true. Getting up early hasn’t gone totally wrong for me since I last wrote, but it’s been over a week and a honesty/reality check is due.

Getting up at 5:00A is hard. Apparently for me it is also not possible. Not once since my last post did I actually get up for my alarm set at that time.

I told you  – this is honesty.

I did try, however, but I had some extra rough nights there at the start and it was the weekend which meant it was waaaaay too easy to say I didn’t HAVE to get up at the pre-crack of dawn, so why? Why bother if I could snooze and make up for some of the tosses and turns?

So after a couple few days of that, the reality check came and I said goodbye to the 5A goal. I’m not saying I’ll never get there, but in the dead of February, it’s just not happening. 5:45 seemed like a better compromise because it gave me at least an hour before the rest of the house is allowed to get up (several of my children are natural early risers which is why we have such strict bedtime rules around here for them), which seemed sufficient.

Thankfully that one I could do, at least for the majority of last week.

I got up, I worked out, I showered, and started breakfast/coffee. All in all, a good routine that was feeling good, too. It still didn’t result in instant wholesome sleep all night, but it felt like the start to a good habit.

Then Friday came. My kids had the day off from school and we had the strangest schedule ever, followed by a Valentine’s date night in which both B and I forgot to eat before going to a music performance (we fed the children, I promise), which was fantastic, so that plus the two glasses of wine on said empty stomach (I rarely drink any more) plus eating supper when we got home at 10 made for an absolute FAIL of sleep that night.

It was ugly.

And you can bet I turned off that dang 5:45A alarm all together because, just, NO.

*sigh* One step forward. Two staggers back.

And actually, it’s mid-week of Week 2 and I am still staggering a bit. I got up early Monday morning but then the last two days it felt better to snooze than get up and work out and even though the alarm goes off, I’m pretty sure it’s cheating if I’m staying in bed more mornings than I’m getting my butt out of it.

I suppose this means my new 30 days starts now. I realize new habits sometimes take time, which is why I’m sharing any of this in the first place. I want to establish a new, better, healthier routine for my body, but clearly doing so isn’t going to happen overnight. Perhaps not even a fortnight or two. But trying again is worth it and so I shall.

More updates to come soon – hopefully with a few more steps forward than this attempt produced.