Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve really lost sight of my goals. I’ve been using the excuse of a sick husband to justify my poor choices, and, even though he’s been pretty much back to normal for the last week or so, I’ve continued to let myself walk all over myself.
That stops today.
As of now, I’m back to logging my food, tracking my water, getting some exercise at least five times a week, and doing my hypno and meditation on a daily basis. I’m also putting a different spin on things (yet again!), based on a concept I picked up at work.
For the past month and a half, I’ve been working in the IT department of a major hospital in the Bay Area. For the first time, I’ve been exposed to the security requirements of HIPAA – the governmental regulations regarding the protection of patient health information and privacy. The IT team even has a team that is solely dedicated to security, in order to ensure compliance with respect to all of our computer systems. Part of my job is to resolve any issues that come up in that area.
One aspect of this plan is the concept of a “focus vulnerability”. This is where a single software or hardware component has been identified as having the potential to be a serious risk to information security. We then focus on that component to ensure it meets all standards in order to minimize that potential. Once it’s been addressed and proven stable, the next likely risk is identified, and the cycle starts again. Of course, we also continue to focus on other aspects of information security, such as making sure antivirus and security patches are as up-to-date as possible.
I plan to approach my move toward a healthy lifestyle using this methodology. To that end, I believe that my sleep patterns are a big factor in my failure to achieve success. I don’t sleep enough, and my sleep schedule is extremely inconsistent. Therefore, I feel tired for the full day.
For instance, my husband and I were up until 3 am last night. No, we weren’t out partying – we picked up a new aquarium yesterday, and it took that long after supper to get an area cleared for it and get it set up to where the live plants could go in. We ended up not getting out of bed until 2 pm today.
This sort of sleep habit sure makes it difficult come Monday morning, when I have to get up at 5:15 am for work, too. And even though I’m up that early during the week, I still procrastinate going to bed at night until midnight or 1 am. I know that this is not a healthy way of life, and I’m feeling the negative results.
I’ve decided to make my sleeping habits my current focus vulnerability. I’m going to start “patching” my sleep habits. When I have to work the next morning, I’m going to go to bed at 10 pm. Initially, I’ll allow myself to read for up to an hour, followed by a hypno session. I’ll gradually reduce the amount of reading time to ten minutes, as I become more accustomed to going to sleep earlier. On weekend nights when I don’t have an early event, I’ll set my bedtime for 11 pm.
Of course, there may be occasions when it just won’t be possible to adhere to this plan – I expect, for instance, to be having some late evenings at Fitbloggin’, getting to know in person some of the folks I’ve been sharing with online. I’m not going to beat myself up over it when there is a valid reason for it, but I also need to learn that getting caught up in a movie or TV show is not a valid reason.
As with our information security program at work, my own healthy living efforts will also continue in other areas, too.
I’ll keep you posted on the results.
