So ... did it take?

Looks like we are about 3 weeks into the great get up earlier campaign. The first week I got up at 8:30A each day. By the end of the week I felt exhausted. As it happened, the weekend which followed unusually busy so I never fully bounced back and have spent the past couple weeks in recovery mode.

Over time I've come to realize my energy level goes in distinct cycles, I will feel very energetic for a week and then very tired for the next 2 or 3. This also has an effect on my hypoglycemia, when I'm in the tired part of the cycle my brain "fades" constantly, resulting in me eating constantly to maintain my ability to think and make rational decisions. When I'm in the more energetic part of the cycle my body more resilient, more like I remember it as a younger person.

Lately I've given thought to my schedule and how much I accomplish in a day. I look at people like my blog friend Noel and can't help but think I'm not making the mark. Let's look at a typical Stevo week.

Mon - Fri Up at 9:30A or so. Eat 1/2 bowl of cereal, check my e-mail, start making the rest of breakfast while listening to Diane Rehm. The whole make/eat breakfast and wash dishes cycle done by 11A or so. Take shower and get ready for work. Leave around noon to go to work. Eat lunch with guys on 5th floor, get back to shop around 1:30P. Eat "brain snack" around 3P. Work till 5:30 or 6P and then ...

Mon - Check in at local hobby shop, make sure club flyer rack full, then go to home group a couple blocks away. Aim to arrive around 6 to 6:15P. Eat dinner w/ Steve and Cheryl. Have home group. Get home around 10 - 10:30P. Check e-mail, read up on news of the day, listen to Marketplace while making up and eating evening brain snack, check Noel, Dan and Frank blogs. Go to bed around Midnight.

Tue - Grocery day or helping someone, usually my friend Tom go shopping. If groceries, get home around 7:30P or so. Put stuff away, make dinner, go through mail. If Tom, eat dinner, go shopping, get home 9 - 10P

Wed - Peterson's night, couple at my church which puts on a free meal every Wed. night. Really great folks. Jim, the husband, seems to genuinely look forward to seeing me each week, this means a lot to me. I've also made some new friends, Derek and Scotty, who live close by. We went to see Good Night and Good Luck together a couple weeks ago and grabbed some dinner afterwards, my first opportunity to do something with them outside of Wed. night. I look forward to more opportunities, they are great fun to hang out with. I usually head out around 9 - 10P and fill up at the gas station at the end of the street on the way home.

Thursday - Go home and make a quick dinner, then train club. For most of my life people have said I should take up a hobby. Last year I decided to give model railroading a try. I like it a lot. Get home around 11P.

Fri - Dinner with my folks and fixing stuff around their house. Get home around 9 - 10P. My dad likes me to stay and watch Law and Order reruns with him.

Sat and Sun - I try to stay home. I'll typically aim to go through my snail mail, respond to e-mails, put up a blog post or two, do laundry, take care of cat stuff and make some progress on getting the house back into shape. While preparing meals, eating and doing the dishes afterwards I listen to On the Media, Washington Week, Off the Record, Fresh Air and the message from Riverview. Inevitably something comes up that takes up most of Sat. - helping Tom, "crisis" at my folks house or a meeting to attend which leaves Sunday to focus on domestic stuff. Every other Sunday night devoted to talking with my friend Jason who I met in the Czech Republic several years ago while on a short term mission trip. He's in a tough spot in life right now, our conversations typically last 3 - 4 hours. We used to talk every Sunday, but that became too much, so we agreed to try every other week which works out a lot better. On the opposite Sunday I often watch a movie in the evening, one of my favorite times of the week.

I think I'm doing too much stuff. As you can see many weeks I'm not home at all in the evening. Feels like I'm on a treadmill. Mon. night the obvious night to cut out, since this the home group from my old church. However, I've become friends with the hosts, Steve and Cheryl, and have found myself hesitant to drop out of the group. I also get several free trade magazines via work which I like to read, but in reality I can't possibly get to all of them so they pile up. I've finally decided to cancel them except for my one absolute favorite, Engineered Systems, an awesome magazine about commercial HVAC systems. To me it's like a little treasure wrapped in glossy paper when it comes in the mail each month.

I originally thought by getting up earlier I could do stuff like go through my mail, read up on the news, put up blog posts, etc. in the morning when I'm fresh, thus taking the pressure off trying to do stuff when I get home at night when I'm not up to it anyway and freeing up the weekends for focusing on the house. Complicating this effort, I seem to function best on 9 - 10 hours of sleep, 9 or a bit less during the energetic part of my "cycle", closer to 10 during the down portion. Something I don't like to admit since many take it as a sign of laziness. I don't see it this way. If 8 hours the average people need, then it stands to reason that a goodly number of people will fall in the 7 hours bracket, others in the 9 hours bracket. Our culture takes great pride in getting by on as little sleep as possible so 7 hour people end up as hero's while 9 hour people regarded as slugs.

Food also plays a role in this. I have to eat constantly to keep my energy up, yet thankfully I don't gain any weight. As long as I can remember people have made fun of me for eating so much. 7 years or so ago, it hit me that maybe I did eat too much and I started to eat less, even though I still felt hungry. After a few months of this the hypoglycemia started rather suddenly and has never let up. You may wonder, "What's the big deal? So you get a little hungry.". It's hard to explain but in short, my brain will start to "fade", usually about 2 hours after a meal. It's almost a physical sensation with my brain activity slowing down and my muscles tensing up. If I don't stop and eat, my whole thought process comes to a halt. I can't remember stuff, I'll babble, I'll hook red wires to black wires, if I'm in a store I can't make a decision on what to buy ... you get the idea. It's hard to focus and get stuff done when you have to stop every 2 - 3 hours to eat. Whenever I go anywhere I have to take into consideration how long the trip and make sure to pack enough snacks and water to tide me over between meals.

I started the getting up earlier initiative during an "up" cycle, now that I'm in the "down" cycle I'm back to the 9:30 or so time again. We are going into the 3rd week of the down cycle, so I'm hopeful in another week I'll have more energy again and can resume the 8:30A goal.