At least one person asked me what a day in the life of the Chief Mutha looks like and how I pack it all in, so here it is, just for you!!

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4:30am	Alarm goes off—NO SNOOZE! Finally, after 43 years I have stopped snoozing! I have known about the negative effects of snoozing for ages; I just ignored them. I came across them again in the book The 5am Club and on Headspace. It wasn’t until I was in the middle of 75 Hard, did I kick the habit completely. I literally jump out of bed now the second my alarm clock goes off. I don’t even give it another thought. Otherwise, I’m sure I’d go back to snoozing. I also set my workout clothes out the night before so I know what I’m putting on and don’t have to think about it or give myself a chance to talk myself out of it.
4:40-5:00am	Coffee & Reading Read 10 pages of non-fiction. Read 10 pages of non-fiction. Currently I’m reading, Never Finished. Here is the list of books I’ve read/am reading since starting 75 Hard. I will keep updating it as I continue to read. Please share any must-reads you have! Also, pro tip: install this browser extension. You can tell it which public library is closest to you and so when you are shopping for a book on Amazon, it’ll automatically show you whether that book is available from your public library or not—so awesome!! BTW, I used to love to read. But then suddenly I had no more time. 75 Hard forced me to make time to read again. I was a bit worried because I’m such a slow reader. BUUUUUUT, I have to say, I am LOVING reading again. Often times I read more than 10 pages per day, just because I enjoy it so much.
5:00-5:46am	Workout #1 I take a 46-minute brisk walk through my neighborhood with a weighted vest and/or ankle weights. The minimum amount of time for each workout on the 75 Hard / LIVEHARD program is 45 minutes. I do 46. Read the book The Power of One More to know why. I love this time in the morning all to myself. It’s so quiet and peaceful. And it’s all for me. I know many of you, like me, would enjoy the ‘me’ time with your eyes closed, sleeping. I get that. I’m the same! I looooove my sleep. But I tell you, getting up early and working out has truly been life-changing for me. I highly recommend it. Commit to do it for 4 weeks, without fail. And tell me it wasn’t life-changing for you. I’m usually listening to a podcast while I walk. The podcasts I’m into right now are: My First Million, Tim Ferriss Show, Real AF, ChooseFI, Century Lives, Rebel Entrepreneur, and Side Hustle Show.
5:46am	Drink Himalayan salt + organic lime juice potion. I usually mix this with ¼ tsp of Himalayan salt, 1 tbsp of organic lime juice (NOT from concentrate) and 8 oz of water before I head out for my walk so that when I come back, the salt has dissolved completely and it’s ready to drink. Drinking this on an empty stomach first thing in the morning helps to detox your adrenal glands. Adrenal glands are responsible for things like your hormones and stress levels. I learned about this potion from the book, Dein Bestes Training(in German only, sorry). But this article explains more about what the adrenal glands are responsible for and why an adrenal cocktail is helpful. For me personally, I immediately noticed that when working out, running on the treadmill specifically, my legs no longer felt like cement. I felt way more light-footed and less weighed down. Plus, I felt like my stress levels were much more under control than before. I especially noticed a difference when I was traveling for business for a week and did NOT have my potion with me and how bad I felt in contrast.
5:50-6:00am	Dedicated visualization. Visualization is kind of like meditation but not. You are basically envisioning what your ideal future will look like so that you trigger your brain to start making it happen. It’s not one and done though. Doing one session of visualization won’t cut it. It’s the consistent repetition of visualizing that ideal future that starts to make your brain believe it’s true, and thus starts realizing it in real life. I’ve used this technique on and off for years and I can tell you it’s truly powerful. The end result may not be exactly what you had visualized, but it’s pretty darn close! This article helps articulate what visualization is and how you can practice it daily. I usually write my visualizations down with a pen and paper. Then I’ll read them out loud, day after day.
6:30-4:00pm	Full-time work at my day job—that I love, btw! I have a big job, HUGE. Very important. Very complex. Lots of work.
6:00-8:30am	Somewhere in this window, get kids up, fed, and to school.
2:00pm	Drink 1 Gallon (~4 liters) of Water Usually, I finish drinking my gallon of water by this time. Not that I finish drinking for the rest of the day, but I just don’t keep track after this point. I just try to get it all in by this time so I’m not peeing all night. I still drink more water after this, in fact, I start to sass up my water after this point in the day.
4:00-5:00pm	Workout #2 I usually go to Orangetheory Fitness (OTF) 4-5 times per week. I love it. It’s an awesome, full-body workout. It’s efficient. I don’t have to think about what I need to do. Someone bosses me around and I do what they say and work hard. You could even where your weighted vest at OTF to spice it up. OTF will give you your first class for free too, btw. Maybe even a second, if you ask nicely. On the days I don’t go to OTF, I usually do another walk, go to hot yoga, do my elliptical at home, OTF at home, or go bike-riding (not my favorite…UGH!). I’m pretty much down to doing any sport, really. Except for golf. My husband wants me to learn to love it. I told him I would if he’d stop smoking—GASP! I know, right? Who smokes anymore these days…anywho…moving on…
5:15-5:20pm	5-Min Cold Shower FML, I loathe cold showers! But I feel pretty fuggin great once I get through it! Talk about tough. OMG, first off, I give myself a little pep talk before I get in. Then I usually let out a high-pitched scream upon entering the cold shower and totally immersing myself. Then I usually sound like a cussing, grunting dog while I get all wet—ahhhh! Then I hold onto the shower door handle while I run in place under the water—kinda like Tommy Boy being sprayed with the hose, remember that? Pro tip from my brother—thanks bro! It definitely helps. Then when I feel like I can finally breathe again, I wash myself. Then for the rest of the 4 minutes and 20 seconds—ha!—I just have to keep telling myself how warm it is to get through it. It’s always the longest five minutes of my life. But then I’m so frickin proud of myself when it’s over. Praised be! Note: Now that I’m done with LIVEHARD Phase 1, I no longer do the 5-min cold shower of torture anymore.
6:00pm	Dinner Time My husband, Toni, or I usually start dinner. I prep most of my meals, so for me, I just warm something up that I had already cooked and froze on the weekend. So, Toni or I cook something for the little monsters and him. We always eat dinner together as a family—unless sports schedules get in the way. I’m adamant about everyone sitting at the table and eating together. We either talk about each other’s day, quiz each other on baseball teams or stats, play telephone, or we like to use cards like Talking Point Cards or Our Moments to spark conversations. I’ve learned quite a few interesting things about my family with these cards. They are awesome! Or it’ll just be me bitching at them for peeing on the toilet or leaving their shoes and backpacks everywhere. That’s always fun too…
7:00-8:30pm	Family/Mindset Upgrade Time This is when I’m spending time with the boys, whether it’s homework or working on Mindset Upgrade (MU) together. Our MU work is usually my running our team scrum, having a 1-1 meeting with each of my boys, working on completing a task together or learning something new together. Most of the time I have these grand visions of us working together, like a well-oiled machine. Then reality sets in and it’s a 5-minute scrum meeting, followed by me doing all the work, ha! That’s fine. They are kids and want to just lamp and ignore us sometimes. It’s fine. I’ll be fine.
9:00pm	Enjoy My “Dessert” One of the tips in the 75 Hard book was to use some protein powder and make a “dessert” out of it. 1st Phorm Cinnamon Cookie Batter with a few ounces of cashew milk is great for this. Then freeze that puppy for 45-50 min. Oh my Sweet Baby J! It’s sooooo good. It’s my tasty treat after crushing another day. I literally close my eyes and savor each bite. No one’s allowed to talk while I’m eating it.
9:30-10:00pm	Time for Nigh’ Nigh’ Prep my coffee machine to automatically brew at 4:30am the next day. I get so excited prepping my coffee because I so look forward to waking up early and doing my morning routine. Drink my Magnesium Fizz for muscle restoration and overall body relaxation. Then off to bed. I usually fall asleep to Headspace’s Cabin Downpour or Ocean Pier soundscape.

…then sprinkle in my boys’ baseball and soccer practices, random school events, weekly family gatherings, and time with friends here and there.

Weekends look a little different with my kids’ games, keeping up on chores and errands, and hopefully having some sort of social life; but I still get all the LIVEHARD power tasks done.

Then there are things I do once a week, like write these blog posts and meal prepping, or once a month like run our monthly family finance meeting.

Yes, we have a monthly family finance meeting where we go through our family net worth, financial independence (FI) goal, how close we are to our goal, what our expenses look like, how they are trending month over month and where we could do better. I figure, we’re all in this together! Having this monthly meeting keeps us all engaged and focused on the big prize of living long and free, baby!

In the wise words of Peter Drucker, “what gets measured gets improved.”  And we improved our savings/wealth-building rate by over 30% within the first 2 months of measuring all our finances more closely. My Mom always used to say, “oh Dan, it’s just money!” And she was right. It is. BUT, I don’t want to be a slave to it. I want to be free.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Send me an email [email protected] or grab some time with me for a quick chat.