Seven Down, Ninety-Three To Go

Last week I wrote this post about how I have developed some really horrible sleep habits over the last 15 years and how my sleep hygiene is terrible and how I am addicted to watching my iPad in bed in order to get to sleep and how this routine is preventing me from getting a decent night’s sleep and how that then trickles down into every other area of my life and it’s holding me back in multiple areas.

So I declared I was giving up the iPad.

That was seven days ago.

AND I JUST WANNA SAY THAT I AM NOW SEVEN FOR SEVEN NIGHTS IPAD FREE.

I didn’t give up watching something before I go to bed cold turkey.

But there have to be some boundaries in place.

If I watch anything while lying down I will fall asleep. 

If I watch anything sitting up on the couch I will fall asleep.

So neither of those options are acceptable.

But watching a little bit of TV (if I make it 30 minutes I’m lucky) before I go to bed is my reward at the end of the day because I don’t watch it during the day and it allows my brain to just totally shut off and do something mindless.

And right now my brain likes that.

Eventually I’d love to get to the point where I don’t watch it at all because it really is a big time suck.

But I’m not ready for that yet.

So rather than just do a total overhaul on my routine at night (which also included eating something dessert-y in my bed which is a whole other issue), what I did was I relocated part of the routine.

Now before I go to bed I sit in my office and watch a little bit of Outlander on my computer while I eat a treat — usually either Greek yogurt with honey or frozen banana “nice cream” with some chocolate protein powder mixed in.

Then, I get into bed, and I go to sleep without any distractions.

My routine was going really well until the weekend when I stayed at my parents’ house because it wasn’t my weekend with the kids.

Now my whole new routine was thrown off.

So on Friday night, I said goodnight to my parents and walked upstairs with the iPad in my hand.

They only have one TV and if you follow me on Facebook you know my parents watch one of two things: golf or CNN.

Okay sometimes they throw in some tennis, football, baseball and HGTV if they are really going crazy.

Anyway, clearly I couldn’t continue my routine in the living room with them. 

CNN just wasn’t gonna cut it.

And I guess I could have sat at their computer, but that didn’t really occur to me. Plus the chair at their computer is way too uncomfortable.

So I rationalized that as long as I was sitting up in the bed with the iPad I could still watch something because that wasn’t lying down and falling asleep while I watched it.

And I got to the first step to go upstairs and my mom said, “WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THAT?”

I looked at her, played dumb, and said, “With what?”

“I read your blog and I know you aren’t supposed to be watching that thing in bed,” she said.

Shit.

Even at 51 years old I’m still getting busted by my mom.

So, defeated, I put the iPad down and walked up the stairs with no crutch.

And you know what???

I DID IT.

I survived two nights at my parents’ house without my desserty snack and without my iPad and without a fan blowing to drown out noise.

And I’m proud to say that I have one full week of NFIIB (No Fucking iPad In Bed) under my belt.

I AM REALLY PROUD OF MYSELF.

Okay, maybe I owe some of my success to my mom, but still.

I’ve got seven days in a row.

And I’m going for 100.

Only 93 to go!

If you want to work on changing a habit or developing a new one and want a free tracker that you can customize to any start date, I made one for you…Click here to get it!

I’m super proud of myself. And this is an example of how you can make changes in a gradual way you can sustain.

Start by relocating the habit if that’s an option.

Break the connection of the habit and a particular place.

And then you can keep leveling up from there!

See you next week when I have another update and 14 days under my belt

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