Recently Retired Night Owl

Hello friends!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far.  I just thought I'd take a moment to go over my first full week on the first shift.  People have been asking me the past week if I am adjusted yet...the answer is no!  I think it's going to take several weeks or months before I get used to this new lifestyle.  However, it is getting better day by day and I am excited to see how I feel this week!

I literally just baked brownies to bring to the morning crew tomorrow to make up for my random cranky rampages last week.  Mainly at 3:30AM.  I don't care who you are, don't have a hyper conversation with me at 3:30AM.  It's just wrong.

Early Early Bird

I have been working on establishing a routine for the morning show.  I have several other morning show friends across the country and they have been giving me advice.  One of my good friends from college is a Director for the morning newscasts at a local affiliate in Orlando, Florida and she gave me the best advice so far.  I also just found a very interesting article by USA TODAY about a Night Owl turning into an early bird.

Kindle is my Mizzou Chi Omega Broadcast Homegirl. 

1.  Naps are evil.  I napped for 3 hours Monday afternoon because I was exhausted for staying up until 9:30 pm to watch the Super Bowl.  I then went to bed around 7:30pm.  The random sleep pattern made me feel like CRAP on Tuesday.  LESSON #1 from this week: Like in high school, TUESDAYS are the worst.  It was like the worst jet lag ever.  I drank 3 mugs of coffee before 9AM. Ludacris.

2.  Workout immediately after you get off work.  She was right.  Monday and Tuesday of this week I went home, sat my butt on the couch and ate lunch.  All that did was make me sleepy and unmotivated.  The rest of the week I went straight outside or to the gym to work out and I felt re-energized for the rest of the afternoon!

3.  Eat a big lunch and a small dinner (early).  My friend says she eats a small portion of her dinner and saves the rest for her big lunch the next day.  This is genius.  I ate a big dinner right before bed and while it made me sleepy, it also made me feel gross and huge when I woke up at 2AM.  From now on I will try to stop eating by 4:30pm.

4.  Act like a kindergartner: pack your clothes and food the night before.  Once again, my friend was correct.  If I don't do this the night before it takes 5 times as long at 2AM when I'm in my groggy morning haze.

My Observations

1.  1 Dose of Coffee is Best...2 Max.  If go higher than that it just makes me feel worse.

2.  Don't Eat Right Away.  I wait until 6AM and slowly cut away at an apple for the next hour.  This leaves room for delicious food that's on the morning show or that Kent gives me from his wife (she's an awesome cook!).

3.  This is the biggest one...going from a true night owl to an early early bird makes it feel like I have 5 extra hours a day that I never had before!  Seriously. I get off of work around 9:15am and then I have all day to get stuff done until I go to bed at 6.  This weekend I got up at 7AM each day to stay kind of close to my early morning wake up.  I worked out and then I had a FULL Saturday and almost full Sunday to enjoy.  Crazy.  I usually would sleep until 1pm on the weekends so this concept is blowing my mind.

In conclusion, I'm still getting used to these crazy hours but I feel like it will make me more productive, a bit less social during the week but much more social on the weekends and potentially make me lose weight.  I don't know what to do during the day so when I'm bored I work out or eat or drink.  If I focus on the first one I could really reap some benefits from the new schedule.  We'll see how it works out.

The morning show viewers have been fantastic so far!  Thank you for all of the kind feedback.  I've also been having a great time with my new morning show coworkers.

Training

Well, I am not officially on a training plan but I am loosely following The Landrunner's 4 Day Half Marathon Training plan.  I ran 8 miles with the group this morning (we were supposed to do 7 but I got confused and went too far!).  It may stink to start running when the sun comes up but running with a group of passionate runners is really inspiring and often I leave making a new friend!  You should try it sometime!  Usually the trainings are on Saturday morning and they are free!  The club event provides free water stops!  Try it out.  I did officially sign up for my first OKC MEMORIAL HALF MARATHON! Once again, one of the many benefits of having the weekends off!

I need to bug coach Ryan for a training plan for the El Reno Route 66 Olympic Distance Triathlon in the beginning of June but his precious dog was just diagnosed with cancer I don't want to disturb him.  Please pray for his dog, Burton! So sad!  I may just use random weeks on the half Ironman training plan he gave me from over the summer.

I am also likely going to be the "Celebrity" rider for the Tour de Cure benefiting the American Diabetes Association.  That is on Saturday, June 22, 2013.  Start training now so you join the ride for a great cause!  They offer distances for beginners and experienced riders: 5, 10, 30, 62, & *new* 100 miles.  I am planning on training for the 100 mile option! This will be my first CENTURY ride!  The furthest I've ever gone happened last summer with 71 miles.  WOO HOO!

Love the  morning crew!

Have a fantastic week and if you haven't had the chance...please watch my me at my new time - 4am-7am on NewsChannel 4 and 7am-9am on "Rise & Shine" on Freedom 43-TV!  Talk to you soon!