This past week, again, saw some modest improvements. I think my goals are set a bit too high. Time to face that reality and scale back a little.

First off, my failures.

• I did not exercise three times; I exercised twice.

• I was unable to get any lunches scheduled for next week. Got some possibilities for things in July, but nothing for this week.

I wasn’t a complete failure, though.

• I have consistently gotten out of bed every morning between 6 and 6:30. Pretty good for a guy who has considered himself a night owl for the past—well, since he was a teenager. We’ll leave it at that. I’m still getting tired before 11:00, and that is a problem. 8 hours just seems like a lot to sleep at night. I think my early exhaustion comes from my diet.

• I have not had a caffeinated soda in two weeks, and, most days, my energy level has remained high throughout the day.

I’m feeling pretty good about everything so far. I’d still give myself a “C”, but I’m out there. I’m doing it, and I will get better.

This week’s goals:

• Continue getting up at 6am. This has been the most successful thing I’ve got going, and I’m enjoying the early start.

• Stretch for 5 minutes in the morning and for 5 minutes in the evening. Ever day. This is my baby step toward creating an exercise regimine that I will stick with. Stretching is easy. Surely I can do it for five minutes twice a day. I’ll gradually build this up to 20 minutes twice daily over the next few months at which point, I’ll switch to a consistent exercise regimine.

• Change “…but…” to “…and…”. I’m reading Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott, which I will review later. The short of it: “…and…” statements are better.

• Create a list of 20 people with whom I would like to have lunch. So, my goal of scheduling lunches has been a flop. I’m going to take a step back and create a targeted list of folks I would like to meet as well as a description of why I would like to meet them.

• Plan out my meals for next week. We’ve already done the grocery shopping for this week. I need to sit down and plan some tasty and healthy meals and snacks for next week. Otherwise, I’m not going to get out of the rut I’m in—nor am I going to lose this gut.