Waking up at 4.30 a.m. - Day 7

These first seven days were tough. I sat in the dark for 15 min on day three and after shoveling snow the night before day five, I really did not want to get up.

My inner voice continued to dish out undermining thoughts and was really loud. It kept telling me how early it was and my writing was essentially useless and it was not going to change anything. And I just kept telling myself these three things:

You told your wife you were waking up at 4.30am to work out and she thinks you are crazy, so you better just stick to your "fantastic idea" if you don't want to be mocked at for the foreseeable future

You don't want to feel like a slob (like for the past two years) so, I'm sorry, but there is no other time to work out

Let's just do it for the 30 days and see what happens

The first point was the most motivating for me, since who wants to look like a jackass? And especially since I always have harebrained ideas, this would actually be something I pull off. 

The physical tiredness was also grueling. Starting my day feeling like it was the end was definitely not enjoyable. Coffee was definitely my friend. I would drink an espresso with milk at home and then at the office take two more coffees, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the evening around 8pm, I really felt ready to crash, but pushing through to about 9.30pm was what I tried to do, although sometimes it would be 10pm before I was able to hit the hay.

I've decided against waking up at 4.30am on the weekends and use those days to catch up on sleep, which typically is about 30 min more ( 7 total hours instead of 6.5) since I would go to bed at about 11pm and wake up at 6am. We will see if this routine works out, but for now, I'm good with it.

Wish me luck!