5:15 a.m.: Alarm goes off. I snooze it, rip off my CPAP mask and throw it on the floor, and then Lila jumps up on the bed. I pet her while half-asleep and she purrs oh-so-loudly.
5:25 a.m.: Second alarm and I’m up. Eloise jumps on the bed after I get up and meows good morning at me. I tell her good morning and pick her up for morning cuddles. Then, I get dressed, brush my teeth, fill up my water bottle, and say goodbye to the cats.
5:40 a.m.: Drive to the gym while listening to a podcast.
6:00 a.m.: HIIT class! My first one in well over a month. It went well – no hip pain or IT band pain! I’m hoping extra movement will help the healing process. I was also surprised that I was able to keep up during class. Maybe not at my previous intensity, but not too far off from it, either.
6:45 a.m.: I leave the gym and drive to Publix.
7:00 a.m.: Grocery shopping! (I love a Monday morning grocery shop right as the store opens. So peaceful!)
7:22 a.m.: Done and driving home. Then, I put away the groceries, feed the cats, and sit down to eat breakfast. I also start writing my blog post that will be published tomorrow (about our last day in London).
8:00 a.m.: I spend far too long trying to figure out why my Apple watch won’t let me check for updates, which is when I discover I need to update my iPhone. The new iOS 26 is wild. Everything looks and feels different on my phone now!
8:30 a.m.: Take a shower and do a quick morning routine (take my meds, deal with CPAP, empty dishwasher, and brush out my hair).
(current meds: turmeric, anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxer, fish oil, vitamin d, iron, prozac, vitamin c, multivitamin)
9:00 a.m.: It’s time for my morning working block. It’s a busy one:
- morning tasks (sort through emails, divvy out editing assignments, check on my contractor reports to ensure nothing needs to be responded to)
- pull a Salesforce report about delayed tasks to send to some of our content writers
- side chat with another manager about a troublesome account
- reply to emails
- edit content from one of our contractors
- do some website posting/QA
- resource plan for December content assignments
(I like to bounce around different tasks. It works for my brain!)
11:42 a.m.: I’m starving, so it’s time for lunch. I have a Pub sub and then two gingerbread cookies I made yesterday during family time. I watch an episode of Friends and finish a coloring page.
12:17 p.m.: Chore time! I vacuum my room and then put up a few more pictures – gallery wall is almost complete! I also clean up the girls’ breakfast dishes and give them fresh food and water. Then, I swipe a straightener through my hair, draw on some eyebrows, and put on mascara since I have meetings all afternoon.
12:40 p.m.: I call my mom to tell her how weird the new iPhone update is because that’s an important thing to interrupt her workday for.
12:50 p.m.: Afternoon working block! Let’s review:
- internal meeting to talk through some next steps for a troublesome client
- 4 back-to-back 1:1 meetings with my writers – some of them last the full 30 minutes and others are quick 10-minute check-in sessions
- editing contractor content
- posting/QA
- email cleanout
I also do a Target curbside order in between my 1:1 meetings.
4:30 p.m.: I’m done with work for the day! I get dressed for physical therapy and tell the kitties good-bye. While driving to therapy, I send Mikaela a Marco Polo video.
5:00 p.m.: Physical therapy! I do a warm-up on the bike and then some stretching and strengthening exercises. My PT also uses a massage stick on my hips, glutes, and IT band, which feels oh-so-good. We talk a lot about books during the second half of our appointment, which is a topic I can chatter on about for a long, long time.
5:53 p.m.: Done with PT! I drive to Target to get my pickup order.
6:17 p.m.: Home sweet home. I give the girls some treats and then start making dinner (homemade nacho night!). I eat dinner and watch three episodes of Friends. I also have a bowl of ice cream at some point.
Proof that Lila doesn’t always look supremely photogenic, ha
8:15 p.m.: I call my mom for an evening chat. Lila sits behind me on the couch and swishes her tail in my face the whole time, ha.
8:50 p.m.: Blogging time! I’ve only written 25% of my last London recap, oops. I finish writing the recap and then work on inserting photos. I take breaks here and there to complete a modified nighttime routine (taking my nightly meds, filling my CPAP humidifier, tidying the kitchen and starting the dishwasher, brushing my teeth, etc).
10:50 p.m.: Blog post is scheduled to publish tomorrow morning, and I am so very tired. But I can’t go to sleep just yet – I need to read for just a few minutes to keep my Bookly reading streak alive. I haven’t read at all today – not even my audiobook! I only make it one chapter (8 minutes) before I call it a night. The book goes on the nightstand, the alarm is set, the CPAP mask is on, and I turn on an ASMR video to lull me to sleep.
END NOTES //
- Sleep score: 83 (high) <– this seems inaccurate, since I slept less than 6 hours!
- Apnea score: 2.6 per hour
- Sleep duration: 5 hrs, 42 min
- Podcast episodes: 5 (two episodes of Rob Has a Podcast, Book Riot, Behind the Bastards, Good Hang)
- TV episodes: 4 (one episode of Friends during lunch, three episodes while eating dinner)
- Facetimes with mom: 3
- Reading time: 8 minutes (The English Experience)
monday in the life: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015. and 2014
Do you take more or fewer meds/supplements than me?
I’m so glad you felt good at class!
I also think the new iPhone update is weird. My work phone got it and my personal hasn’t yet. I don’t like the “liquid glass” look and have been trying to make changes to turn it off.
The new iPhone update is really weird, I agree! We’ll get used to it eventually, but it’s annoying right now.
Hey! We’re twinning. I have The English Experience on my bedside table right now. That said, I am drowning in books so I think I might set it aside for a while. I will be curious to see how you rate it and I might make my decision based on your thoughts!
I’m so happy to hear you made it back to the HIIT class and completed it without pain! Also, I’m jealous of your lunch break–coloring & friends is a delightful combo.
Me green with envy at “pick her up for morning cuddles.” Zelda HATES being picked up, so morning cuddles are always on the ground. Right now, the floor is COLD and while I like morning cuddles, I’d love to just scoop her up for them!
Hmmm…my meds/supplements are similar to yours:
AM: Multivitamin, calcium + VitD (x2), fish oil (x2), magnesium, B12, and spritz of Flonase (for now – hopefully soon I won’t need it for the winter)
PM: Birth control, allergy med, more calcium + VitD (x2)
Is that a lot? I don’t even know anymore.
If it helps, Lila would never let me pick her up for morning cuddles and Eloise tolerates it for about 30 seconds.
I just realized I should be taking TWO fish oil pills, not one. Dammit. Those pills are so big!
This post reminded me to take my fish oil. It definitely makes me burp tuna.
Weirdly, I do not have that side effect! Thank goodness!
I like how you’re really committed to fixing the back issue- starting the day with a HIIT class and ending with PT. I hope you’re getting some relief.
Right now the only supplements I’m taking are my thyroid meds, which is 2x a day, and my bone building supplements- but those are NINE PILLS, three in the morning, three at lunch and three before bed. Oh wait I forgot I also take a separate vitamin D. You’d think there would be enough of it in those nine pills, but you’d be wrong.
NINE PILLS FOR ONE THING. Ahhhh!
My phone must be too old to be eligible for the iPhone update! But I have an iPhone 13! So I should not be surprised. My work phone is newer but I barely use it so haven’t paid much attention to the changes after the update. I loathe that I have to have a different phone for work!
I have you beat on the meds/supplements front. I have the pill intake of a senior citizen, though. I was working on decreasing my bill burden this summer when my RA was in a good spot but now that’s off the table for awhile. For supplements, I take a multivitamin, magnesium, and a calcium+Vitamin D chew. It’s a good thing I handle taking meds well as I take handful of prescriptions – a max of 6 pills at a time at night – it drops to 5 in the am.
I think you can still get the upgrade, even with an iPhone 13. I had to go to settings to update – it didn’t come automatically. And I had to update to an older version of iOS before I sat the 26 version – very weird!
I have such a strong gag reflex that taking meds can be very troublesome for me! I don’t like it!
5 hours 42 minutes of sleep is not much sleep, Stephany!!! I hope you can get more tonight.
I don’t take any meds, although I will occasionally take Advil Nighttime if I had an extra-vigourous workout. I take a multivitamin/ mineral supplement, 2000IU Vitamin D (this time of year we have so little daylight up here, this is a MUST), a magnesium supplement, and Nutrafol for my old-lady hair loss! (I’ve taken it since 2022 and it has been a complete game changer, sponsor me, Nutrafol) Oh and I take BCAA five days a week and I just started a creatine supplement. We shall see how that goes. My husband and sons have long taken it, and I have read that it is good for Ladies of a Certain Age.
And I wonder why I’m so tired all the time. Could it be getting less than 6 hours of sleep? COULD IT BE THAT????
Oh Stephany, you made me laugh so hard with, “Rip off my CPAP mask and throw it on the floor.” I have done that myself SO many times! Your sleep looks a lot like mine. My machine says, “You did great!” when I’ve had 5 1/2 hours of sleep. It also tells me my mask seal was great, while my husband says it was definitely NOT great.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who does that, hahahaha. It feels so good to take it off, even though it doesn’t really bug me much. But it still feels good.
These glimpses into your days are so fun. I am super-impressed that you’ve done a HIIT class and grocery shopped all before 7:30 am on a Monday. You’re winning the day, girl!
P.S. I do take fewer supplements LOL (currently only collagen + creatine).
Wow I have the highest respect for people getting up at that hour and going to the gym…
Not me.
I am wondering, did you get the sleep stats all from the Apple Watch? I am considering buying a new one for the stats. But my gen 3 is technically still working so…
Yes, I got the sleep score + sleep duration from my Apple Watch. I had to upgrade to iOS 26 to get it, though!