It's Difficult Without a System | The Iron Standard Day #2

After completing the first day of the challenge (Read Day 1 for the rules here), I found that I only managed to complete 14 out of the 18 tasks. The challenge was always going to be ambitious, and with this many to do I found myself rushing to complete as many as I could before the day's end. I need to have a system.

My alarm went off at 5:30 as planned to wake me up to go to the gym. Did I go? Nope. My body ached from the sudden beginning of exercising from the day before, and my phone was close to my bed which made it easy to turn off. There was nothing in place to stop me.

Even if I did manage to get myself out of bed, nothing was ready. The gym bag was not made, the skin care routine was not ready to go, and with already set plans to meet my sister later on in the day, I had no idea what tasks I should prioritise when. It was all a mess.

I need a good system.

System Alpha

I sat down and went through all of the challenge tasks and noticed that certain ones are definitely either for the morning or evening, and some can be done in either. I decided to split the day into 3 sections to create 3 mini days in 1 whole day. The times are:

• 5:30am - 1:00pm: The Productive Period
• 1:00pm - 7:00pm: The Eating Window
• 7:00pm - 5:30am: The Unwind

Let's go through each and place the challenge

The Productive Period (5:30am-1pm)

The most important time of the day will be the morning. It's the time that I am still in my fasting period, and on workdays will allow me extra time to do tasks before work. This is why I need my morning system to be utilised and set the night before. Here is the plan:

The night before I will set up anything that I will need the next day. Anything from meal prepping food to having my gym bag ready. It means that not only will I need to waste energy setting things up in the morning, I will have it in my subconscious mind that it's going to happen the next day. I will be expecting the action. I can then go to the gym then work straight after, and hopefully have completed my morning routine in the meantime.

The challenge tasks I have assigned to the Productive Period are:

• 15min Morning Stretch: straight away as soon as I wake up
• Morning Journal: After my stretch, journal to start the day over my morning coffee and collagen
• Meditation: After I finish journaling, complete my daily meditation routine before I leave for the gym
• Exercise 45min Indoor: I will be at the gym from 6:30am - 8am, giving me plenty of time to complete this.
• Language Learning: While at the gym I can complete my 30 minutes of language learning. This can be in any form, from listening to lessons, Duolingo, or reading books.
• Skin Routine: After the exercise, my gym has a sauna. I will do a 20 minute sauna session before showering and applying my skin care routine before setting off to work.
• Progress Photo: Before setting off to work take a quick progress photo to see the changes over time and keep me motivated.

Breaking the Fast Period (1pm - 7pm)

1pm marks the end of my fasting period, and over the next 6h I should be focusing on food, water, and any leftover activities I won't be able to do in the 3-2-1 sleep winddown. The morning period not only was the longest period, it took a large chunk of the tasks I needed to do. This is because I would be at work until 5pm on most days of the week, so having only 2h left doesn't give much room to play with. Here are the tasks I will be completing in the Breaking the Fast Period:

• Exercise 45min outdoor: After work I will need to exercise outside for a minimum of 45mins. This could be anything from a long walk or jogging to taking my yoga mat outside on a sunny day and practice yoga. I can get creative with this and I definitely want to explore my area if the weather is nice.
• No cheat meals: As my fast is broken, I need to make sure I don't get tempted by easy cheat meals. This is why having prepared food ready from the day before will help me keep cravings at bay. I will, however, need to invest in a cooling bag so my food doesn't spoil at the gym...
• No Alcohol: Not only did I break my fast, but this is also the most sociable period. As long as my willpower doesn't break, I should be okay with this.
• Drink 1 Gallon (3.8l of water): As the 3-2-1 sleep winddown will prevent me from drinking liquids at 8pm, I should have finished, or be close to, drinking the 1 gallon of water.
• Daily blog: Like above, the 3-2-1 winddown will prevent me from using digital screens at 9pm. I could do the blog before then, however I'd like to at least have begun writing the blog so that I don't find myself rushing and reducing the quality of the blog.

The Winddown Period (7pm - 5:30am)

Now that my fasting has begun, it's time to unwind. I have 3h before I go to bed, and each hour reduces what I am able to do. Here's what I have left:

• Sleep 7.5h (3-2-1 method): To get 7.5h of sleep, I need to be in bed by 10pm. To get the best chance of a restful sleep, I use the 3-2-1 wind down method. This is where 3h before bed I can't eat, 2h before bed I can't drink, and 1 hour before bed I can't use digital screens.
• Evening Stretch: Before bed, I have found stretches that help relax the body. These take 15minutes so can be done at any point.
• Evening Journal: To unwind and remove all the anxieties and stresses of the day, I should journal in the last 1h of the day. This is because it doesn't require a digital screen, and would be great to fall asleep soon after I have unloaded all my worries.
• Read 10 pages: Reading before bed is really relaxing, and should have my mind filled with ideas and creativity. Hopefully this will provide some interesting dreams.
• Spending and Food trackers: Now that there is very little time left to spend, and that my eating window has closed, I should make sure that all my tracking is complete. This is done digitally so this needs to be done before 9pm.

Am I ready?

Now that the system is laid out in front of me, I have to say that I feel much more prepared than before. Am I ready though? I think so. Yes, my cooling bag will arrive soon and the weather may not be great for outdoor exercise, but this shouldn't be the reason for me not to start.

The aim of the challenge is not to be perfect, but to do as many of the tasks correctly as possible and notice improvements and periods where I don't do as well.

I will get 1% better every day!

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