AIBU to ask you if a daily habit has transformed your life?

Oops sorry, just noticed this is an old thread. Hope you are all benefitting from your healthy habits

Love this thread. I am a big fine of micro exercise where you squeeze in a few moves whenever possible for a few seconds or minutes at a time during the day. I often balance on one leg whilst I am making dinner: I am dyspraxia and autistic and this has massively helped my balance. I also do squats, lunges, wall sits, jog on spot, push ups etc when I have a spare moment, waiting for kettle to boil, brush teeth etc. I also do a 30 second plank daily - when I first started a few months ago I could only just manage 7 seconds! My core is more toned and I have actual definition in my upper arms now just from this!

I’m 2 weeks in to getting up early (5ish) and meditating. Already seeing the benefits of this 😊

Meditation

I found this thread last night while I was lying in bed getting cross at not being asleep (I know that playing on my phone won't have helped!), and it totally improved my mood just reading about what you were all doing last summer. Hope you are all keeping well now.

I decided to get out of bed at 5 and use my time more productively than fuming at DH for being asleep. So I got a couple of hours of work done before breakfast. Either way I am going to be knackered this afternoon, so I may as well have cleared some of my to-do list.

My good habits I've started this year-

• eating 100% plant based/whole foods/cook from scratch. I was probably at 80% plant based last year, but the real killer was the snacking on crap. I've cut all that out, and am 30lbs down in 11 weeks. My gut feels much better, I am not craving any rubbish. I have 2 or 3 meals a day, depending on how hungry I am, and maybe a snack if I am hungry mid-afternoon. I am enjoying the cooking too as it is a 30 mins alone in the kitchen listening to music, away from screens.

• ditched the booze, drinking water - I stopped drinking when I decided to get serious about losing weight, and now I don't miss it. I won't go as far as saying I'm never drinking again, but I am content that I am not drinking today. I could always "take it or leave it" but over the winter there was a lot more taking than leaving! I have a herbal tea at around 9pm now, which at the start was a distraction and now is a comforting part of my wind-down for bed. I am getting 2L of water most days. WFH = comfort to pee around the clock ☺

Habits I want to pick up

• more walking - I need the fresh air. Being stuck inside all day isn't great for me. I do it in fits and starts, not consistently.
• other exercise - maybe a dance based cardio from YouTube
• be tidier - I am trying to keep on top of our kitchen counters and dishes. We are naturally lazy, so I try to do a tidy up after dinner and first thing in the morning, so it is clear during the day.
• make proper to-do lists and actually complete them!

Posting for accountability: NC with my toxic ex, water, moving my body, vitamins, reading, sleeping: basics!

new habits for me recently:

(just) an egg for breakfast (keeps me full all day)

no caffeine after 6pm (still sleeping badly but it has to help)

more water - enough to make wee colourless (fewer headaches, skin better)

Oh, I have one of those two. Ds1 went back to school first in september, I was at work and came home to find he had put his mask in the washing machine and lunchbox next to the sink so I decided to get ds2 to do it too. I finish work earlier now so am there when they get home, I added on reading letters and their planners to me.

Asking my 8 year old to make his bed in the morning, turning his light off and opening curtains. It's teaching him responsibility and saves me having to do one less task
a day.

Great thread. I need to do the drinking more water one, and fancy trying the Wim Hof breathing/cold water thing.

As for housework etc, I listen to foreign language audio books while I'm doing it. Enjoyable and educational! Also I've started using a customisable app called LadyFly (vaguely based on the Fly Lady method). The morning routine I put on there is really making a difference to my day.

Anyone who's wondering about trying the 16:8 fasting but worried that they can't cope with skipping breakfast or their miljy tea in the morning - honestly, it's easy after a few days. You just stop being hungry in the morning. I've realised that breakfast just kicks my appetite into action for the day. After a few days I'm barely hungrier by noon having skipped breakfast than I am if I've had breakfast. I've started having green tea, jasmine or mango tea in the morning instead of my usual Assam with milk, which I save for later in the day.

I was diagnosed with premature menopause when I was in my 30s so I changed a lot around my daily routine because I was all the time tired. I had more time for myself because I was Sham for long time.
I'm 41 now and started working full time so I'm up at 6. 50 am I need to have a good sleep around 9 hours I wish can sleep less. I already have lunch box prepared for work. I make a coffee for work and take care of my skin face cream, bb cream and maskara a little bit of blush. I purposely don't use a car only take a bus that make me walk about 1 hour per day. I do intermittent fasting so I don't eat breakfast only lunch and dinner around 6.30 pm. I take a shower aroud 8 pm and my supplements magnesium, vit d, high dosages of vit c , b complex. I'm in bed around 10 pm . I have wine only on Fridays take away food or restaurant on Saturday. During a week I eat fresh food.
Saturday and sunday I go for small run around 2 miles before I started working I was exercising more.
In the evening I like to light the candle end relax and mostly read mumsnet

I've just found this thread and am interested to know how everyone is getting on with their new habits?

Gym before work.

Mine is a small one but instead of rushing straight to my DC when they call (or scream!) for me in the morning, I take care of my basic needs first.

Before it was a case of being woken up by the sound of one of them shouting/calling, I'd jump out of bed and go straight in to get them up/nappies changed/ breakfast etc. and it could be hours before I'd realize my hair was like a nest atop my head, I hadn't even brushed my teeth and my bed was a crumpled mess and I'd be mortified if a courier knocked on the door unexpectedly!

Now as soon as I wake I go to the toilet, brush my teeth, comb my hair, open my curtains and make my bed. I feel so much more "together" and ready to start the day. If my two year old is being particularly vocal I just grab her really quick and plop her on my bed until I'm ready but I take care of me first. It's made a huge impact mentally - I never realized how frazzled and stressed the old way made me feel.

Great thread. I used to drink 8-10 cups of tea a day and told myself all the antioxidants were doing me good. Then I read about a man who OD’d on tanin drinking too much tea (I think it was 18 cups of iced tea but anyway). I used pregnancy as an excuse to give up caffeine and now I just stick to a couple of cups of decaf tea a day and one coffee in the morning - I sooo look forward to that coffee now. 🤤

Going to choose 2 other habits now from previous posts, although as a pp said with a toddler it’s quite tricky. Most habits/routines are necessarily for them...

Put the washing machine on just before I go to bed, then the washing is ready to be hung out whilst I boil the kettle in the morning...

@CityDweller Me too, and I’ve found the only thing that works is the Pomodoro technique, basically about setting a timer to get things done. It not only makes you realise that most stuff takes less time than you think it will (particularly if you do it NOW rather than three weeks later), but if it’s a bigger job you can both break it into manageable chunks where you can see progress being made, but also build up momentum. I get larger tasks done in a day when they would previously have taken weeks if not months of me saying, Later later later...

I really recommend it (and there’s free app versions too, although they’re called something slightly different to avoid copyright issues ).

Thanks @AlrightTreacle - I’ll keep an eye out for that book.

Actually, inspired by this thread, I’ve determined to sort out my work habits. My new habit is to meditate (using the Mindspace app) when I sit down at my desk each day to help me focus rather than fanny around. Started this morning and had a really productive day. Hopefully I can make the habit stick!

@CityDweller

I'm terrible for procrastinating too, the woman who came up with the organised mum method has got a book out next month called "the organised time method" which I'm hoping has the answers! Going to download it on audible so I can listen to it while I multi task

Weighing/ tracking what I eat everyday was the thing that helped me lose that ‘last 10lbs’. At 44 I’m the lightest I’ve been my adult life.

Since lockdown I’ve been getting up before the rest of the family mon-fri to exercise (running or weights). Helped hugely with my state of mind.

But I’ve always been able to be disciplined about diet and exercise. My work habits on the other hand are atrocious. I’m an awful procrastinator and waste so much time each day. If someone could tell me how to buckle down I’d be much happier (and probably a lot more successful).

I'm just coming back to this thread to say thank you to whoever suggested racing the kettle for unloading / loading the dishwasher. It's been transformative to the state of my kitchen.

I'm also nearing the end of 30 days of yoga with Adriene in the True series which has made my back feel so much better. Think I'm going to do it again once I'm done.

Using cerave rough and bumpy cream on my face every night. I’ve thrown out all my other products it’s so great, has transformed my knobbly pimply skin into a shining smooth surface! Amazing.

Oh and keep a period and fertility tracker. Not just for those who want to concieve it warns me when I'm going to be grumpy, horny, tired, energetic, productive and exhausted

Wake up when partner goes to work even if I'm off.

Tell the bitchy voice in my head to go fuck it's self... Every single day.

Write a list of what needs done. Score out all but 3 if it doesn't fit on a postit I'm unlikely to get it done. No point beating myself up.

10 min tidy