Body Changes

All my life, I have been a night person. I hated getting up early. Seven am was the earliest I could get up without too much complaining. Eleven pm was the earliest I could go to bed without complaining. I always knew my ideal schedule would be staying up till 2 or 3 am and getting up at 10 or 11. Alas, most of the world doesn't operate on that kind of schedule, and frankly neither should our bodies.

What I've noticed this summer, however, is that I was always awake by 8am and usually ready for bed by 11 or 11:30. Part of this was a decision not to let myself get too out of whack for fall semester, but it wasn't even work. I never set my alarm; I just woke up at 7:30 or 8, and as soon as I became conscious, I was ready to get up and start the day instead of laying around for another hour or so as I would have last summer.

What's more, I found myself wanting to do things...active things. I wanted to clean my house, keep my kitchen organized, restructure my closet. I didn't want to sit still for very long. I swear, my house has never looked so organized. My parents will probably crap themselves when they see it this weekend.

Then, most surprising of all, is that I was thinking about my semester schedule, and how I wanted to structure my research and grading time. I found myself considering the option of getting up earlier than necessary to do some work before my first class. I started out thinking 6:30, so I started this week getting up then. It worked a treat. I was awake and alert at 6:30. Last night I thought, "Well, why not try 6?" The alarm went off at 6 this morning and off I went, not a complaint in the world. I went to bed at 11 last night, no problem. Will I go even earlier? Who knows?!?

The only way I can account for this madness is that I am healthy for the first time in my adult life (maybe life in general). I am eating food that gives me energy rather than merely satisfying my taste buds at the expense of my well being. I am drinking fluids that replenish my cells rather than dehydrating and overly caffeinating them. I regularly move my body with exercise, which provides energy instead of depleting it. Maybe it's not so much that I was a natural night owl before as it is that my body was completely out of whack on a holistic level. Now my body is home to itself. It is what it was meant to be.

This is the sort of thing I heard and never believed possible before, but here I am...it's nearly noon and I've been up (happily) for six hours. And I just finished a bunch of carrots and broccoli for my first course for lunch. Lesson: learned.