Week 13: Sleep First, Gym Next

After a lot of “Let’s go!” followed by “I’m too tired, maybe tomorrow…”, I finally managed to hit the gym four days in a row this week. And the secret? Not motivation. Not pre-workout. Not some fancy fitness tracker. It was 8+ hours of good quality sleep every night. Yep. That’s it.

For the longest time, I thought I just lacked discipline. Some days, I’d be pumped with motivation, hit the gym like a beast, and then disappear for two weeks. It was frustrating. I wanted to go, but my body just said, “Nah, not today!”

Turns out, the missing piece was staring me in the face every morning—sleep. Or rather, the lack of it.

It’s a basic rule, really. We all know sleep is important. But how often do we actually respect it? With IPL matches, endless Instagram scrolls, and late-night Slack messages pretending to be urgent, our nights are basically a war zone for attention. And somehow, sleep always loses.

So this week, I tried something different. Right after putting the kids to bed, I’d leave my phone in the office room and head straight to bed. No distractions. I started sleeping between 9:30 and 10:30 PM and waking up around 6:00 to 6:30 AM.

I felt well-rested and clear-headed every morning. I had more energy, didn’t feel sleepy during noon calls, and most importantly, I showed up at the gym without needing a pep talk.

Better sleep = Better workouts = Better me.