One month in

I’ve been working on my Year 2 Change for a little over a month now. (Okay, 36 days, to be exact.)

My progress

My goal has been to get up at 6:00am, only hitting the snooze button twice. Out of those 36 days, I hit my goal on 19 of them. I had another 6 days where I hit snooze three times before I got up. Frankly, I count those days as successes, too! So I’m 25/36.

For me, that’s pretty darn good! Most of the time I’m getting up to times like this…

Year 2 Change

I am setting a BHAG this year.

That’s right, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

And it all has to do with this…


My favorite thing. Or not. (As you can probably tell by the title of this blog!)

I have never been a morning person. But I’ve been thinking a lot (especially lately) that this would be a good change for me to make. On the rare occasions when I do get up and get moving early, I tend to be more productive and have more energy for the entire day.

Let me say… sleeping in has been hard-wired in me for a very long time. My mother and my grandmother are both night owls, and I think I have a genetic predisposition. I also had some big-time positive reinforcement for sleeping in when I was growing up.


If I slept too late and missed the bus, my dad would drive me to school. No questions, no trouble. Who wants to be on the bus for 30 minutes when you live 5 minutes from school? Not me!

This became my habit.


Snuggled under the covers, often with a warm, purring cat. What better way to spend the morning?!

And the snooze button… oh, you are my favorite disaster… we have such a love-hate relationship…

But you know what? When I hit snooze for an hour, I’m not really getting an extra hour of sleep. And I’m actually more tired when I do finally get up.

I’ve had three recent motivations and inspirations.

First, I read a blog post and listened to a podcast by Michael Hyatt about being a morning person, and the timing was just right for me.

Second, my friend Cris is making some amazing lifestyle changes with her family. And she is helping to share her motivation with her Year 2 Change challenge.


Third, I just found out that I’m going to be giving 2 talks at a national veterinary conference in June. The first talk is at 6:00. In the morning. This is not just be up by 6:00, and it’s not just be there by 6:00. This is serious – be up, be awake, be professional, and be ready to teach by 6:00. In the morning.

I need to get a head start on this if I’m going to be ready for this conference in June. (The plus side is that it’s in Seattle. So 6:00am is really 8:00am my time. But that’s still stinking early to be teaching. At least for me.)

So here I go.

I’m on a mission to get up at 6:00am without using my snooze button. I’m easing into it with baby steps – 30 days of only 2 snooze hits, followed by 30 days of only one snooze hit, and then 30 days of no snoozes. Then I’ll start making my get-up time a bit earlier.

I’m using my NeuYear calendar to help me Punch 2013 in the Throat and make this my Year 2 Change. In addition to tracking all our travel, meetings, and my deadlines, I’m using my calendar to keep track of my goal.


I started this adventure on January 7. A star is for a day I hit my goal (6:00am, 2 snoozes). A “3” means I hit snooze 3 times. A blank day means I missed – either I didn’t hit my goal (2 days, usually because I stayed up too late, or because I drank too much wine), or I intentionally didn’t set my alarm. (2 days – a girl needs a little break every now and then!)

I’m two weeks in, and I’m doing pretty well. Especially considering where I started.

Do you want to make 2013 your Year 2 Change? Join the challenge, and let’s do it together!

{Affiliate links were used in this post.}

Pick it back up again

As you may have noticed, I have been a bit absent lately. I didn’t have much to say in June, until the last week where I really rolled some posts out! July has been pretty spotty, to say the least.

What’s going on?

Well, time, for one thing. Our county fair was the first week of July, and John and I were both tied up quite a bit with that. I’m also very involved with our local community theatre, the Gibson County Theatre Company, and I just finished stage managing “The King and I” last weekend. Between those two big events, they pretty ate up all my free time for the last three weeks.

But that’s not all, as much as I would like to say it is.

I’m having some trouble getting “back into the swing of things.”

Have you noticed that? It’s not just with blogging. It’s with eating right, exercising, getting up on time, reading instead of watching TV, cooking at home instead of going out to eat, anything like that. Those are just a few of my biggies.

It seems easy to STOP doing some of these things… piece of cake (pun definitely intended) to STOP getting up 45 minutes early to spend some quality time with Bob, my treadmill. Easy to STOP picking up the book and flipping on the stupid television. (200 channels and still nothing on?) Easy to STOP blogging.

But, gosh, it sure can be hard to START doing some of these things again!

What is it about that? These are things I like to do (reading, blogging), and things I know I need to do for my health (eating right, exercising).

Getting up early? Well, that doesn’t really fall into either category. But I do know that I feel a whole lot better, all day long, if I get up without any (or with only one) snooze, instead of fighting with that stupid thing for an hour.

Okay, so it is pretty easy to get into a routine that involves sleeping in and not getting enough exercise and camping out in front of the television. Why is it so hard to get back out of that habit? Lazy feels good sometimes, but most of the time lazy doesn’t fell good. At all.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve thought to myself, “Self, there is nothing on television, and you would rather be (blogging, writing, reading, whatever-ing) so get your butt out of the recliner and go do that thing!” And I don’t move.

Seriously! What is the deal with that?

So. Today, July 26. (yes, writing a day ahead of posting) For the next month, I will post no less than three times per week. And for every post I write, I will comment on three other blogs. (Another of the things I have a hard time “picking back up” again.)

Help me out, and hold me accountable, please!

I love all of you, my readers, and I do miss spending time with you! Here is my effort to bring the relationship back to life. ;)

What is something that you have stopped doing, that you want to start again?

Time traveler

March 7: Central time at home

March 8: Drive to Indianapolis to Eastern time, then fly to Washington, DC on Eastern time

March 10: Fly to Indianapolis on Eastern time

March 12: Drive home to Central time

March 12: Clocks “spring ahead” – back on Eastern time, sort of

March 15: Drive to Indianapolis to Eastern time; drive back home to Central time

March 16: Drive to Louisville to Eastern time, fly to Raleigh on Eastern time

March 22: Fly to Louisville on Eastern time, drive home to Central time

March 23: Drive to meeting in Eastern time

March 25: Drive to meeting in Eastern time

March 26: Drive to meeting in Eastern time

My internal clock certainly feels all messed up. No wonder it’s been so hard to get up in the mornings!

Can you get jet lag from driving back and forth between two time zones? I’m exhausted!

I’ve been traveling so much this month, I can’t wait to get back home!

Next, please!

For those of you that haven’t heard, I finished my PhD last week!  I passed my defense (presentation and oral exam) on Monday, and passed the format check on my thesis on Wednesday.  Finished filling out all the paperwork and collecting all the signatures I needed, and got all that turned in on Thursday last week!  Yesterday I officially turned in all my keys and cards, and now am no longer a grad student at Purdue!  Yay!


John jokes that I can’t have business cards anymore because my name and degrees won’t fit. 

Marybeth Miskovic Feutz, DVM, MS, PhD, Diplomate ACVIM(LA)

Yep, that’s a mouthful all right!!

I am thrilled to be finished…  it was a big push at the end, and I made it!  Everyone keeps asking what my plans are, now that I am done with school.  Where am I going to get a job, what am I going to do for a living…  Really, I have been looking forward to some time off.  I need to relax a bit. 

Actually, I have a few projects that I do want to work on.  Some minor(ish) kitchen redecorating, cleaning (that may or may not have been slightly neglected over the last busy busy six weeks), papers to write from my research to publish, some work on an online project I want to get off the ground in the next few months… 

You know, little things like that.

So, while I would not turn down “gainful employment” if it fell in my lap tomorrow, I am perfectly happy doing some part-time consulting for my family’s veterinary practice and working on my own projects next few months.  Maybe I’ll even start my Alarm Clock War again this week…

Ask me again next year…

Getting back in the saddle

Have you ever noticed that after you take a break from a routine, it’s hard to get it established again? 

For me, it has been dramatically noticeable with my stinking alarm clock.  Let’s just say that the sneaky snooze button has been overpowering me in the morning.  And getting up early to exercise?  NO WAY.  Absolutely not. 

Blogging is another area I’ve been having a bit of trouble getting back up and running.  I took a break while I was pushing against the deadline to finish my thesis.  The document has been turned into my committee, so that’s a relief, but now I’m working on my presentation for my defense on Monday.  Still busy, but not quite the same level of pressure.  However, I’m still having a hard time getting back into blogging!

Part of it is that I am working on my defense presentation, and trying to catch up on everything that got left behind during the Big Thesis Push of 2010.  Part of it is that I feel like I haven’t left this computer in weeks!  Who wants to hear about the latest research on a couple of proteins?  Who wants to hear about horse lungs?  (Frankly, even I don’t want to hear about it right now.)

Well, have no fear.  Defense on Monday.  Frantic thesis revisions and signature chasing Tuesday and Wednesday morning.  Electronically submit document Wednesday lunch time.  Sleep all Wednesday afternoon.  Back to Purdue on Thursday for deposit appointment and another round of paperwork.

Sleep all day Friday.

Football game Saturday.

Sleep all day Sunday.

And Monday?  Who knows what comes next!

(Of course, this is all assuming that things on Monday go well…  Send me your smart thoughts!)

What things are you having trouble picking back up?

Time to come clean

I haven’t been so great lately, about a couple of things.

Obviously, I haven’t blogged lately.  To follow that, I haven’t been following my fellow bloggers, either. 

And then there’s the morning thing.  When I first started this adventure, it was primarily to give myself some accountability to get out of bed in the morning.  And it worked. 

For a while.  Now I’m back to my old “hit the snooze until I just can’t stand it anymore” habit. 

The other morning, this translated into 90 minutes.

90 minutes!

That time is spent being neither awake nor asleep – just somewhere lost in the land of in between.  And this translates to less productivity for me for the rest of the day.

Not to mention that my husband told me last night how much he hates my snooze going off repeatedly in the mornings.  (Nevermind the fact that he’s supposed to be up too…  we’ll let that slide for now.)  So I informed him that I would set the alarm for 6:30am this morning, and that I would hit have one 10-minute snooze.  And that he should feel free to remind me of this when I whine.

So.  This morning.  I did it!  I wasn’t happy about it, but my feet were on the floor, and did not get back into bed at 6:40am.  Fed the cats, into the shower, laundry started, rest of the morning, etc etc etc. 

And here it is, not quite 9:00am.  I am caught up on email for the morning, I have my list of things to do, and am ready to head out the door to run a few errands before settling down into my PhD work for the day.

Off I go!  (coffee in hand)

Back on the wagon

I have not been very good with my alarm clock war lately.  There’s been lots of snooze button-hitting.  Frankly, it’s been pretty ugly. 

I also have not been all that great getting up in the morning to fit my exercise in.  This has been an issue for me since the well went out.  Something about not having easy access to a shower at 7:00am that makes it less appealing to get up at 6:00am to exercise.

And, well (no pun intended), once I got out of that habit, it’s pretty hard to get back into it.

So I am making another go at it.

I have set some weight loss goals for myself.  I am going to be at my goal weight by the end of 2010.  I have some intermediate goals to hit, and some non-food awards planned out as I hit them.

In order to make these goals happen, I will be getting back on an exercise plan.  Starting Thursday morning - up and going!

Of course, if I keep eating like I ate on Wednesday, that won’t be so easy!  But!  Back on the wagon it is!  Back to Weight Watchers meetings, back to tracking, and back to paying attention.  And back to only one snooze button hit in the mornings.  Whee!