This past week was a refreshing one.

I managed to wake up early enough to finish my daily run and squeeze in a writing session, all while arriving at the office on time for my day job.

After returning from work, I cooked dinner and took time to relax by listening to Spotify or watching my favorite YouTube videos.

Here’s a look at my week 1502.

1. From Working on What I Eat

This week, my recovery level changed for the better.

I stayed clean without any days in the red zone and hovered in the yellow zone. After reviewing last week, I decided to focus on my food this week.

For the entire week, I avoided snacking, made homemade dinners, and finished my last meal before 8 PM.

Except for yesterday.

I have to confess that last night, I lost to my craving for late-night snacking and ended up indulging in waffle pizza and waffle parfait, which I Ubered from Waffle Khan after finishing a full dinner at 8 PM. Oh boy.

I seem to have trouble talking myself out of the dopamine rush. I remember logging into my UberEats account and starting to browse for an acai yogurt bowl, but somehow what arrived at my door half an hour later was the complete opposite on the junkiness spectrum.

But I still consider this week an improvement over the previous week because such a junky meal did not repeat.

I want to give myself a pat on the back for that.

The recovery level did not improve as much as I expected with the improvement in my food intake.

Wearing this health tracker for the past several months, I already have some clues about what else I can work on to improve my recovery level and turn it more green.

However, it amuses me how much there is to discover about my relationship with my body. It offers a whole world of interesting insights, and it is worth exploring.

2. From Changing My Alarm to a Spotify Song

In the past weeks, I struggled to get myself to run in the mornings.

This led to having to find time after work to complete my daily run in the evening, which isn’t the end of the world but usually requires rearranging my schedule to clear a slot, something I would ideally like to avoid.

I noticed my day feels less organized when I don’t run in the morning.

• I become more prone to binge eating, snacking, and even feeling too lazy to go to the office, often giving in to working from home.
• This triggers more unnecessary eating throughout the day.
• To make matters worse, this doesn’t just affect one day. It starts a negative spiral that impacts the following days as well.

To break this toxic habit, I sat down last weekend and asked myself:

“What makes me not want to go for a run in the morning? How can I change it so that I can wake up excited to run?”

The answer I arrived at was to install an app on my iPhone — “Alarm Clock for Spotify.”

I might delve deeper into the reasons behind this choice another time, but for now, I want to note that it’s already working.

I’ve been enjoying waking up to my favorite artists and heading to the treadmill with a more inspired mindset to start a new day.

3. From Joining a Merchant Call

Last Thursday, I participated in a merchant call at my day job.

This was my first call after the case review, where I realized I needed to improve my availability for such discussions.

Sadly, I wasn’t off to a good start.

I miscalculated the time zone difference, which led me to join the call 30 minutes late, only after the merchant called the account manager to ask where I was.

So here’s another lesson I need to take away:

Triple-check the time when dealing with time zone differences.

Despite the rocky beginning, I recovered and came out of the call strong.

• I was able to calmly navigate the merchant through troubleshooting, asking questions to identify where the cause might be.
• While we didn’t arrive at a complete resolution during the call, gathering information about their challenges was valuable.
• The call gave me a clearer understanding of their needs and obstacles, positioning me way better to provide the right support moving forward.

Moreover, my takeaway from the call was that

Merchants are much less scary than my self-inflicted fear led me to believe.

They were genuinely appreciative of the call and grateful for the opportunity to communicate beyond email exchanges. I could sense their positive reactions throughout the conversation, despite my tardiness.

This experience helped boost my confidence for future calls and encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone.

Overall, it was a good week, and I hope it was the same for you.

Catch you next week!