Today is Sunday and I feel AWESOME. I woke up leisurely with the sunrise this morning at 8am. Usually on weekdays I have a "fake" sunrise I wake up to. For Christmas, a friend got me a Hue Starter kit. These are LED light bulbs that have a wireless receiver in them that works off an app (or even a website) from your wireless router (they have this contraption you plug into your router called a "bridge") to control your lights. There are fun things you can do with them and they turn different colors at the swipe of a finger. Really cool stuff. The coolest thing for me is that I can program them to simulate a sunrise. For about 7 years now I have had one light in my bedroom turn on via a light timer in the morning so I wake up to light. Waking up to dark is a recipe for me to have a muddy day. Too many muddy days in a row = a muddy life, so I figured out a while ago that I need some light to literally tell my brain it was a new day to wake me up because just an alarm was ruining my mood. The problem with my light was that no matter what timer I used or lamp I used, there was always an audible "click" that sometimes jarred me awake more than the light. Also, it was BRIGHT right way - immediately my bedroom would go from dark to LIGHT. Not a gradual sunshiney brightness coming through my windows. And I used either a Reveal bulb or a "daylight" bulb so there was a harsh blueish, "apparently" full spectrum light immediately with an audible click (I started with a regular "soft glow" or whatever light bulb but that didn't get my brain out of sleep mode...only the full spectrum ones did). It worked for a number of years and it would probably still work today. But I have something better now.
For about 2 weeks now I've been waking up with an artificial sunrise -like an actual gradual light brightening sunrise full of different sunrise colors until it's a full brightness of a blue sky sunny morning. I have the program set to start every weekday before I have my alarm set to go off and on weekends, unless I really need to get up for something, I rise with the actual sun. Take this morning for example. The sunrise for today was 8:06 (via Weather Underground). I was well on my way to being awake for that by the time my clock hit about 7:55 because a clear sky sunrise was coming through my window very well. I will admit though, using the Hue lights in this way was a little hard to get used to at first. The first few times using the Hue lights to simulate a clear sky sunrise, I woke up with it as it was "rising" and my bedroom was bathed in an eery reddish orange glow from the bulbs which gradually got brighter yellow until it was just "light" - I can't describe the color.
My routine in the evenings is to put the lights on my "relax" setting which is a very warm, soft yellow-amber light and hunker into bed. It's a great way to tell my brain through my eyes that it's time to end the day and drift off into sleep. I tried to do the sunset mode, but I like to be able to control when I want the light gone and they fade into dark gently which I like. Also...I really like "real" sunsets and it's not the same with these lights - though it is pretty cool because they change colors as they "set" which really mimics the light hue in a real sunset -but if I'm awake & aware, I want a real sunset to watch/experience.
Have these light bulbs made a difference in my mood and in my life overall? Probably. If nothing else, they are versatile and convenient -not to mention fun. I have one in the living room lamp downstairs and usually I only use it as a "regular" light bulb with no fancy color program with it. It's still a great thing because if I wanted to turn it blue or green or orange, I could instantly. Someday maybe I'll switch out all or most of my light bulbs in the house with the Hue bulbs. At about $60-$90 a bulb though, I'm not in a hurry and want to be very deliberate with how many I get and where I place them. I can have up to 50 bulbs on one "bridge"...so I could light up this entire fourplex if I wanted to!
I feel good today and I feel "smaller" today -more like my young gangly long legged and long armed self. I've had a successful week of eating so far and expect it to continue, even though I have been very tempted to "just have one bite" or "just have one tiny meal" of non-protocol food. I still have to go shopping but I've decided to wait a bit on the new clothes. I'm going to give myself until the end of January and then see where I am size-wise. It will be smarter shopping then anyway because I will likely be 1/4 to 1/3 to my goal. I prepped all my food yesterday for the week (which means, I cut up veggies and bagged them up for individual meals) so I don't have too much to do food-wise today. More laundry beckons and my paperwork still needs to be done. Oh, and I need to make it to the gym today. I checked my attendance and I've been slacking. I have only 5 visits so far this month! I need 7 more. Yikes. I'd better get hopping, even if the visits are short 30mn walks.
So, if you have a hankering for a new experience with your home, check out the Hue lights. I believe they are made by Phillips. The starter kits are kind of spendy at about $150-250 depending upon where you buy them, but you won't regret it. I will admit though, if I were not given these as a gift, I never would have given a thought to buying them because of the expense. Also, they are advertised sometimes as "cool" things that you need in your home to be a "modern person" or advertised as "party" lights and that kind of advertising does not get to me -I'm too cynical to be influenced by bright & shiny things because in my experience bright & shiny things rarely have substance, depth, reliability, stability or genuinenes under that bright & shiny exterior. I would have never known how GOOD they could be for living a healthy life -or how useful I would find them in my plain, boring, straight & narrow non-bright&shiny life. As it is, I'm grateful to have them and as I figure out how I like to use them to make my life better, I'll gradually get more for my home.
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