My Morning

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I always set my clocks 1-2 minutes fast and then just adjust my wake up time to account for it, completely negating the reason I set the clocks to be a little fast. For example, my bedroom clock is one minute fast, so instead of setting my alarm for 5:00, I set it for 5:01.

I went to bed last night with my alarm set for 5:01. I woke up before the alarm went off and tried to guess at what time it was like I always do when I wake up in the middle of the night. My body said it felt like 2:00 AM. It was 4:40. I laid there for 12 minutes thinking I might get 21 more minutes of sleep, but instead just thought about if I would. I got up and turned off the alarm before it sounded. So satisfying.

The first thing I do is walk like a drone towards the kitchen in complete darkness and attempted silence to not wake up Bryan, Gus or Beau. I usually run into a door or half the door frame and hold my breath, hoping no crying or sounds come.

I’ve been trying not to expose my eyes to unnatural light until I go outside, so that means wearing blue blockers using red LED lights. It’s a much more chill way to wake up vs blasting my eyeballs with blue bright light. This thing is also amazing.

I start the hot water kettle and take the fresh lemon juice that Bryan squeezed for me and make my hot lemon water. Before I drink it, I take my hypertonic ampules (aka seawater) and rinse my mouth with sesame oil (it’s an ayurvedic thing).

I drink my lemon water and get ready to go to the pool. I used to not eat anything before swimming because I went to a bodybuilding nutritionist that had a cult following in high school and he told me that I needed to workout on an empty stomach to burn off my fat. There were many red flags about those monthly meetings that I never really picked up on and still am influenced by, but about a month ago I told myself “I am a 40 year old woman and that just doesn’t work anymore.”

Anyway. I’m trying to get 20-30 grams of protein the morning with little to no gameplan. I remember that there is leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge and I eat a few mouthfuls. By now, Gus is curious and is in the kitchen watching me. I give him a few pieces in his bowl and pet him in the red glow of my book light. I look at the clock and see it’s time to go already, even though I got up earlier than normal. I hear Beau crying as I’m leaving and say a little prayer that he goes back to sleep so Bryan can get another hour of sleep.

Driving before 6 AM is one of my favorite things. It’s so calm and I really feel like I’m getting a head start to the day. I usually listen to a podcast on these drives. Today it was Sakara’s with Dr. Amanda Hanson and it was filled with so many soundbites that I probably will listen to it again (“close your eyes and think about what your eyes saw that day.” Presence in a nutshell).

I drive on a highway to get to the pool and today I notice as I’m entering the on-ramp that they’ve added completely new construction with no warning. As soon as I merge onto the highway I have to merge over 3 lanes and it’s startling. The car in front of me wasn’t expecting it either and plows right into an orange barrel. It’s chaotic. I immediately think how my son and fiancé will be driving this same route in 2 hours when there is rush hour traffic and I get scared. I need to warn them! As soon as I get to the Y parking lot, I send Bryan a text not to go that way because it’s dangerous!

I get to the pool deck, say hi to my fellow Masters swim mates and jump in the water at 5:46 (1 minute late). I have a lane to myself, which is complete luxury. I swim down the middle of the lane, did a fully expressed butterfly and genuinely enjoyed the practice. I get out and check my phone to make sure Bryan saw my message. No response. I panic. I call him, no answer. Oh no!

I take a shower, worried the whole time. BTW I’m really loving Crown Affair for shampoo/conditioner and Hanni, which brands itself as lazy body care for real people.

I get out of the shower and put my coziest outfit on that feels like PJs but I wouldn’t feel embarrassed if I saw someone I knew. I call this category of dressing “Street Jammies” and it’s basically my personality. It’s June and it was in the 40’s this morning, so today it’s these UGG pants, this Negative shirt and Bombas socks in Birks.

I try to remote start my car and it wouldn’t work. I keep trying until I am about 5 ft from the car and give up. In the back of my mind I picture how much computing energy I just used trying to start my car as I was walking towards it and how people don’t even think about that! I read a scientific article in COVID (remember when it was so crazy being inside all day that we would literally do anything??) that showed the code and energy needed anytime someone asked Alexa to turn off the lights. I cannot imagine what that looks like now with AI.

I get in the car and Bryan calls me back. He never goes that route to drop Beau off that I was worried this one day he might, so it was fine. We talk about whether or not Beau went back to sleep (he did) if he pooped (he didn’t), if Gus seemed sad, what the day holds, etc. We are in the process of moving so there are a lot of logistics.

I drink my hydrogen water in the car and take bites out of a Sakara meal (chia seed waffles today, one of my favorites). I get to the place at the highway that I was worried about and there are zero cones out and no sign of any constructure. I wonder for a moment if I am insane and then see a sign about overnight construction. I guess I drove by when they were still finishing up the night project and then cleaned it up by 7. Crisis averted.

I get home at 7:30 and finish drying my hair. I don’t have a Zoom meeting until 9:30 so I leave some rollers in for volume and get dressed in this Boden shirt and these Banana Republic pants. It’s nice to have this time in the morning because I look at my calendar and realize that once the 9:30 starts I have back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back calls. I mentally add up how much protein I think I have had so far and think it’s about 12 grams. I eat tuna straight out of the can from FishWives (17g), make a cup of coffee and add a scope of collagen (11g). Complete!

Before I start work-work, I try to knock off the tasks that are work but I do not get paid for. Think: change address on USPS, jump through all the insane things that companies make you do to return clothes now, etc. I recently got new headshots done that I love and it’s SO nice to have a few photos of me that I like and don’t feel so sad about. I update LinkedIn with one of them.

The previous owners of the house we just bought loved leopard and animal prints in general. I love how much personality it has, but we are adjusting a few things. There is a powder room with an opera / circus motif and army green crown molding. We are keeping the wallpaper but changing the army green. I text back and forth with my mom on ideas (she’s amazing), and settle on this cool muted robin egg color. It’s now roughly 8 AM ET and time to start my work day. Morning routine done.

Feng Shui Tips

These are the three things I am doing before we move into the house and what I recommend everyone does:

1. Make sure all light bulbs work and are the warm light, not the blue LED institutional tone (this helps make sure all opportunities can be seen clearly).

2. Clean all doors thoroughly, then spray or dab with peppermint (clean off old energy, bring in the fresh opportunities).

3. Sprinkle salt around the house. Salt is the OG of crystals! It cleans and clears everything.

Thank you for subscribing and reading. Cooking up some more fun stuff too.

Rachel