Week 1: Pillars of personalized wellness

Welcome to Week 1. Let’s get started.

This week, we’re focusing on two key pillars of optimizing your personalized routine: awaking our own intuition, and collecting data.

Sounds… fun?

I promise it will be :) 

But first, here’s the WHY: to understand what we need to change, we need to first understand what we do, when we do it, why we do it, and how it impacts us. If we aren’t fully aware of–and honest with ourselves about–our recurring habits, we’re completely in the dark.

So, how do we get there? We’re going to tune out the noise and dial into our bodies by keeping a daily record this week. 

And before I dive into what we’re tracking, let’s kick it off with what we aren’t tracking…

This exercise is not meant to: 

[X] Track your calorie intake

[X] Influence any change to your behaviors

[X] Cause any internal guilt

In fact, if you do any of these things, you’re completely defeating the purpose of our goal this week – and in turn, the rest of your time on this journey. To reiterate: this is most definitely not the week to try a new diet or exercise routine.

Here’s what we are tracking: 

✅ What time you woke up, and how you feel you slept. Rate your sleep on a scale from 1-3:

1. I slept TERRIBLY. I was up all night, tossing and turning. I feel exhausted this morning.

2. I slept ok! I woke up once or twice, but feel mostly rested. I could definitely use a big coffee, though…

3. WOW. I slept like a baby last night. I’m feeling super energized and ready for today. Anyone want to run a marathon?

✅ A periodic record of your moods. Check-in with yourself in the morning after breakfast, after lunch, and after dinner. Rate your mood on a scale from 1-5:

1. I feel super down. I want to curl back up in bed and avoid contact with anyone and everyone today.

2. I feel a little off… I’ll keep my interactions limited today. I’m not at my best!

3. I feel normal. Not upset, not ecstatic. It’s another day!

4. I feel good! I’m excited to get up and get moving.

5. I feel AMAZING! This might be the best day ever?

✅ A periodic record of your productivity. Check-in with yourself in the morning after breakfast, after lunch, and after dinner. Rate your productivity on a scale from 1-3:

1. I have no idea what I accomplished today. I was in a fog.

2. It was an average day! I feel content with the progress I made.

3. I was ON FIRE today. I started and finished my memoir, ran for President, and released my first studio album.

✅ A record of your food intake. Reminder: DO NOT TRACK YOUR CALORIES. Another reminder: This is for you only – be honest with yourself, don’t feel guilty for your choices, and don’t make any changes just because we’re writing it down.

• Entry example: “Breakfast @ 8:45 AM: A bagel with cream cheese and a large vanilla latte with whole milk”

✅ A record of your water intake in ounces. For reference: a standard glass is about 8 oz. If you’re using a water bottle, most have oz. listed somewhere on the bottle, but if not – using your best judgment is OK!

• Entry example: “Water @ 12 PM: 8 oz”

✅ A record of your exercise. Reminder: DO NOT TRACK YOUR CALORIES BURNED. Really, just stay mindful of whether or not you exercised, what kind of exercise you did, and for how long.

• Entry example: “Exercise @ 7 AM: Weightlifting for 45 minutes.”

✅ For everyone that’s just like me: Your caffeine and alcohol intake. Yeah, sorry [cheers].

• Entry example: “Wine @ 9 PM: One glass bottle of red wine. The Bachelor was on…”

✅ The day’s high and the day’s low. Give yourself some insight into what made that specific day unique: what did you love about it, and what could you do without tomorrow?

✅ For those of us with a cycle: I find a TON of my habits align with where I’m at in my cycle–if you can relate, you can optionally track it here as well. A fun *side effect* of this week’s exercise is that you’ll have a full set of data to bring to your doctor the next time you roll up saying “What the fuck is happening to my body?”

OOF that’s a list. Did you make it to this part of the post? Good.

For the record: everything listed above is optional, but the more you track, the more insight you’re giving yourself for weeks to come.

Here’s how you’ll do it: 

• Keep it old school with a good ol’ pen and paper.

• Write it all out in your planner (I do this!)

• Use the Self by Syd Daily Tracker spreadsheet. IMPORTANT: Make a copy and save it to your Google Drive before writing anything. It’s public until it’s not!

At the end of this week: 

Take a look at all of the information you now have at your fingertips. Look for any trends (things you do repeatedly) and correlations (outcomes you can attribute to one another with a certain degree of confidence). 

For example, here are some things I notice about myself after completing a week of awareness:

• My mood is always low after a poor night of sleep.

• I feel happier midday after a carb heavy breakfast, like oatmeal with fresh fruit.

• If I eat too late, I wake up feeling like SHIT.

• My mood is really great on days I consider myself productive.

• I have very slow afternoons if I’m low on my water intake.

This is where we start learning to be intuitive. A general understanding of what makes us feel our best—versus what makes us feel like sluggish couch potatoes—will help us to make better decisions for ourselves, without needing any external guidance.

I’d love to hear any findings you’re eager to share. Remember: I’m here as your guide and as your accountability buddy, so tap into me as needed – but this exercise, and this entire journey, is completely yours. 

I can’t wait to see what you’ve accomplished by Week 10.