75 Hard Restart Day 10: Monkey Mind, Distractions & Learning to Refocus
Restart Day 10.
We slept in.
And we needed it.
After the travel, the airports, the graduation, the delayed flights, and the exhaustion finally catching up to me, sleeping felt good.
I woke up around 6:30.
Or at least that’s when I officially woke up.
I laid around in bed for a while before finally deciding to get up.
And from the second I got up, my brain was all over the place.
You know those days when you know exactly what you need to do, but somehow every other thing in the world suddenly seems more important?
That was today.
Monkey Mind
My plan was simple.
Read my pages.
Eat breakfast.
Get some work done.
Take my walk.
Record my podcast.
Easy.
Except my brain had other ideas.
I got distracted by dishes.
Then I got distracted because I needed to get my walk in before it got too hot.
Then I got distracted because I was hungry.
Then I got distracted by blogs.
Then podcasts.
Then programs.
Then something else entirely.
One distraction after another.
And before I knew it, most of the morning had disappeared.
I kept bouncing between tasks without actually completing any of them.
And around that point I realized:
If I didn’t get outside soon, it was going to be way too hot for my walk.
So I finally stopped negotiating with myself.
And went.
Walking First
By the time I got outside, it was pushing toward noon.
The sun was getting stronger.
The temperature was climbing.
And I was very aware that I had waited longer than I should have.
So I headed out for my walk.
No breakfast.
No reading.
No coffee.
Just movement.
And once I got moving, I felt better.
Sometimes the fastest way to quiet a busy brain is to give your body something to do.
All that scattered energy finally had somewhere to go.
By the time I got home, I felt much more grounded.
Not perfect.
But definitely better.
Breakfast
After my walk, I finally made breakfast.
Two eggs.
Sourdough toast.
Five strawberries.
And an Americano.
No avocado.
We were out.
Which is basically a household emergency around here.
There is something about sitting down after a walk with a hot breakfast and a cup of coffee that feels like a reset button.
And after spending most of the morning bouncing around mentally, I needed that reset.
Returning Again and Again
The rest of the day became an exercise in returning.
I sat down to work on the blogs.
My mind wandered.
I brought it back.
I started working on a program.
My mind wandered.
I brought it back.
I started organizing podcast notes.
My mind wandered.
I brought it back.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Not with frustration.
Not with criticism.
Just noticing and returning.
That became the theme of the day.
Recording the Podcast
One thing I was determined to finish was my podcast.
And I’m really glad I did.
Because it ended up being one of my favorite episodes in a while.
I talked about the graduation trip.
The airport chaos.
The delayed flights.
The lost luggage.
The lost parking ticket.
And the idea of genres.
Because the same exact events can become completely different stories depending on how we choose to frame them.
Was my trip a horror story?
A comedy?
An adventure?
A coming-of-age movie?
The facts don’t change.
The story does.
And I think that’s true for so much of life.
By the time I finished recording, I felt proud.
It was one of those episodes where everything clicked.
Lunch
Lunch was one of my favorite simple meals:
turkey
avocado
tomato
alfalfa sprouts
red onion
sourdough bread
Nothing fancy.
Just fresh ingredients piled high on good bread.
Dinner
Dinner ended up being lemon white bean chicken soup.
And that one was a hit.
Warm.
Comforting.
Full of protein and fiber.
The kind of meal that is good when you’re trying to eat well without feeling restricted.
Evening Walk
After dinner, I headed out for another walk through the neighborhood.
At this point, walks have become one of the easiest parts of this challenge.
No planning.
No driving.
No equipment.
Just put on your shoes and go.
The weather was beautiful.
And it felt good to end the day outside.
Finishing the Day
I had my square of dark chocolate that evening.
One of my favorite little rituals.
And while I’ve stopped worrying about drinking my water first thing in the morning, I am still getting it all in.
It just tends to happen later in the day.
This night I finished my gallon around 9:30 PM.
I’m still waking up at least once during the night to use the bathroom.
But compared to those first few days when I felt like I was living in the bathroom, it’s definitely improving.
What I’m Noticing on Day 10
Today wasn’t about productivity.
It was about attention.
My brain felt like a puppy that had gotten off its leash.
Every time I tried to focus on one thing, it wanted to run toward something else.
The dishes.
The walk.
Breakfast.
The blogs.
The podcast.
Something I forgot.
Something I thought I should be doing.
Something that suddenly felt urgent.
I wasn’t being lazy.
I wasn’t avoiding anything.
My attention was simply scattered.
And I think that happens more often than we admit.
Especially after travel.
Especially after a big emotional weekend.
Especially when you’ve spent several days outside your normal rhythm.
What worked wasn’t forcing myself to focus.
What worked was returning.
Every time I noticed my mind wandering, I brought it back.
Not with criticism.
Not with frustration.
Just a simple:
“Nope. Come back.”
Again.
And again.
And again.
By the end of the day, I noticed that focus isn’t really about never getting distracted.
It’s about how quickly you notice you’ve drifted and return to what matters.
Some days alignment looks like massive action.
Some days alignment looks like gently bringing yourself back to center fifty times.
Today was definitely the second one.
Restart Day 10 Complete
Monkey mind.
Two walks.
A great podcast.
Turkey and avocado sandwich.
Lemon white bean chicken soup.
One square of dark chocolate.
And a gallon of water finished by 9:30 PM.
