Early Riser 5-Day Challenge

Hi friends. We did. I mean, me…I did it. I challenged myself to get up at 6:30 a.m. every day this week and the 5-day challenge is ovah! Did I get up every day at 6:30 a.m.? You betcha. Did I get up and moving and start my day? Well, not exactly every day. To say this one was tough is an understatement. You see, I’m a big fan of the sun after living in the Sunshine State for over ten years and it turns out I do NOT like to get up when it’s still dark out.

So, why did I do it? Well at 34 years of age…or as The Ladygang says as a ‘thirties year old’ woman I kind of thought I just SHOULD be getting up earlier. Honestly. It seems like the adult thing to do to be up early, go work out, do some laundry, eat breakfast, etc. Also, I have a few maniac girlfriends out in California who get up at 5 a.m. and I was tired of them texting me that they were up and on their way to the gym while I was still giving myself a pep-talk at 8 a.m. to “get going already”! They know who they are and they are my biggest cheerleaders of getting up and literally at ’em!

But also, other than not wanting to be a bump on a log I know that they say a habit of highly successful people is getting up early. The CEO at my company, Bob Iger, told Business Insider that he gets up at 4:30 a.m. so he can be productive without being interrupted! And no, before you ask he’s not shooting off emails to the heads of Theme Parks and Resorts or the Animation team, he’s working out so he can clear his head. I have to imagine there is a LOT that he’s trying to think through on his bike ride…lord knows we’re a big company.

Having time in the morning actually gave me one major thing: LESS STRESS.

Things I was able to do by getting up earlier:

• Take a ‘Lymphatic Drainage’ Shower:
  • By this I mean I had time to dry brush before the shower and end it with at least 1 solid minute of freezing cold water
  • Apply oils and jade roll the ol’ eye bags to get that fresh look going
• Do my hair! Is it me? If I’m not having a good hair day I’m not having a GOOD day.
  • I was able to do a great blow dry and use my velcro rollers for some serious bounce and lift!
• Eat a healthy breakfast
  • Sometimes I just grab a hard-boiled egg and run out the door. But this week I was able to have a nice, veggie-filled scrambled egg sitch and lots of cold brew coffee. LOTS.
• Listen to podcasts!
  • Ok, so as you know my BFF and I have a podcast and it takes a lot of work to put out a show each week. I found that in the morning I was able to listen to full episodes and truly digest them since I was able to take my time in the morning and I wasn’t running around stressed!

OK so are you thinking to yourself like “yeah no shit, Erika you can get things done in the morning!”? I am sure that this is a truly annoying list of things but honestly I still DID a majority of these things in the morning: My hair, eat breakfast and shower. But I didn’t like the way I was going about it and it was giving me major stress-vibes. You know what stress ALSO gives you? Cortisol.

So here is the sitch on this little hormone…it is what gives us adrenaline in a fight or flight situation. It’s what races through your body to get you to work on time when you realize you overslept for work and are running late. When you have high levels of cortisol pumping through your veins your body is in a perma-stress state and it’s nervous that you may need to hunker down and store fat as it’s preparing itself on the off-chance it won’t see food for a while. So, what am I saying? Well, TL;DR Cortisol/Stress can make it really hard to lose weight and/or make us fat!

This is one of the reasons I wanted to start getting up earlier in the morning and start my day stress-free. I have ‘elevated’ levels of Cortisol according to my doctor and it’s one of the things that we can control in our body, and with my alarm clock, I plan to do just that!

I know generally speaking here at My Revamped Life we don’t talk these kinds of challenges/health aspects but if we are going to be the boss of our life, company, family, etc we need to be our BEST selves. And our best selves learn how to get up with the sun and start the day right: stress-free!

So now that the challenge is over am I going to stick with the early mornings? I think so…ish. Ok, remember how I said I need the sun to get up? I think I’m going to move the dial to 7 a.m. just for the next few weeks while I wait patiently for Daylight Saving Time. Also, this has me really thinking about my stress-levels and other ways I can chill out in the a.m.

Drop me a note below or on my latest Instagram and tell me some of the ways you like to be stress-free in the morning. Are you a gratitude journal kind of gal? Do you like a cup of coffee and a quiet balcony? Let me know because I want to keep learning from you! Also, let me know if you want me to do a post on my lymphatic drainage shower, it’s truly life-changing!

Stay bossy AND stress-free!