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

@Manolin you said

"Oh, I understand. I wee in the flower beds on a cool morning. I find if I wee in the vegetable patch the broccoli tastes funny. smile"

Sorry @Manolin, I don't understand your comment at all.

At best, you've misunderstood me, at worst, you are mocking me , with a play on the word "weed*

Either way, not kind

Advice to anyone starting new habits based on this thread - do it small. If you try two minutes of yoga before bed every night there's a much higher chance you will be doing 20 minutes a day this time next year than if you try doing 20 minutes a day from day 1.
This is great advice (on a really fabulous thread - thank you @CarlyWarly1980)
I have some reasonably good habits, eg phone is always in the kitchen at night; I have started my day with a mug of hot water and lemon for about 30 years now, I walk about 6-7km a day. But I can see there are lots more I could do, so I'm going to try (not all in one day, mind)
a) a bit of yoga in the morning - I was in a good yoga habit, but have lost it and would like to get it back
b) drinking more water during the day
c) the 8:16 fasting thing - I would like to read up a bit on this, so any reputable website recommendations would be welcome

Like others I have really enjoyed this thread - thanks everyone!

I think, like most of us, I have a lifetime of good and bad habits. The long ingrained good habits I don’t even think about but of course they have really added to my life. Things like cleaning as I go, sleep routine, no alcohol at home unless having friends over and journaling feel so easy now as I have done them for so long.

Changing the bad habits has been so hard but finally over the last 12 months I think I have made some credible progress. I shifted my focus from trying to achieve big changes and improvements, instead I now focus on one thing at a time. It’s taking a long time but I’m getting there.

My sweet tooth and sugar cravings are my absolute downfall. In August 2019 I focused on one thing only, kicking the 1litre per day Coca Cola habit. It was soooo hard, 11 months and 14 days later I have not had even one sip. The withdrawn headaches had to be experienced to be believed

I then moved onto chocolate (multiple bars per day) and for one month it was the sole focus. Now, I have a chocolate treat once a month. The cravings are still there but I am managing to work through them.

I then moved on to white bread, again a month long focus. Have not had a bite since. And then it was the turn of crisps, another month long focus. Have had crisps only once since then.

And then it was biscuits, haven’t had one since. You get the idea....

I know some of you reading this will wonder why I didn’t do all together - it was simply too much. I would have failed as I had many times before.

From 1st August, my focus is on water. Small first step will be 1 Litre per day everyday for the month.

Journaling is the back bone of habit improvement for me as well as helping with general life organisation - from my experience it’s absolutely worth trying.

I would also recommend Miracle Mornings and Atomic Habits as reading material. I found both very helpful.

Thanks for all the great ideas, it’s got me thinking about September focus already.

I've got into the habit of multivitamins after breakfast, 2 litres of water per day, moisture am and pm and lip balm after brushing my teeth.

However I need help with my sugar addiction/craving...... does anyone know of any podcasts/mindset changing apps

I've been running on sugar for 18 months since my daughter was born and never had a sweet tooth before but I'm really terrible now and can't seem to stop myself.

I've only ever stuck to a couple of changes really long-term, but they are small and really made a big impact on my life...

1 - I never ever (ever, ever, ever!) use the snooze button anymore. Over 10 years ago I had such a bad habit of snoozing my alarm I could almost do it in my sleep and often ended up either late or rushing. So now I set the alarm for when I actually need to get up (a battery alarm clock and no mobile in the bedroom as that's too tempting too!)

2 - when I was still working in the office (pre-lockdown) I prepped everything the night before. I hung my outfit up on the bedroom door, prepped my lunch and then put my handbag, laptop bag and my empty lunch bag together on a shelf near the front door... I had to do this with the lunch bag as if I put my lunch inside it in the fridge, more often than not I'd forget it and have to buy sarnies from the canteen, but even I don't go out the door with an empty lunch bag!

Mind you, now I'm working from home, the second one has gone out the window somewhat as I don't need to be quite as organised and any meetings I have, we are all much less dressy than when were in the office

I've restarted with the Michael Mosley time restricted eating and mediterranean style diet and am already feeling better for it (first few weeks of lockdown I stuffed myself with carbs washed down with wine )

Loving reading about what everyone does - just bought the Atomic Habits book and found Adrienne yoga, so I'll be trying to get some new habits going

[quote Manolin]@Glitterkitten24

04:50 Gently wake, stretch and look at the sunrise bouncing on the walls (doesn't work in winter)
05:00 Swing out of bed, throw jeans and shirt on, grab phone walk downstairs, flood the house with light (open all curtains if winter, summer they stay open at night). Put phone on charge, turn computer, printer, etc on and fire up software and start running any new updates. Get preparation out of the way.
05:10 Fill and boil kettle and make tea
05:15 Open doors and windows to let some fresh dawn air in (during May it was warm already), quick walk round garden, chickens out, check all is well outside, drink tea in garden observing nature. Hoe the flower and veg beds as it cools.
05:45 Go into office and start work, get one big piece done first, Farming Today on radio in background (I am not a farmer)
08:00 Wake everyone else with tea, make lunch for later and have breakfast
08:30 Work through to 13:00 (grab a coffee some days around 11:00)
13:00 Lunch and open post
13:30 Start work again
17:00 Finish
17:00 House chores, tea in garden, garden chores, start dinner, family time
19:30 Dinner, relax
22:30 Bed

Winter routine is similar but less time drinking tea in the garden!
Weekends start at 05:00 but not normally 'work-work', but I still take tea round at 08:00, 09:00 in winter.

We drink a lot of tea I realise.[/quote]
That sounds horrific. 😳

Water, water, water..

I agree with myself to do 15 minutes of exercise daily..then often just continue on to an hour. Whatever the amount, I must move my body daily.

Even if I’m not going out teeth, face and clean outfit. My mental health suffers if I don’t take care of my body.

Amazing thank you!

@Ace1185 I find emptying my emotional and mind bank at the end of the day very useful. I start most days thinking what I would like to achieve that day, I’m detail how I am going to do it and how it will feel when I’ve done it. At the end of the day I review my day, did I achieve what I wanted - if not will I try again tomorrow, how will I alter the outcome. I then draw a line under it. I don’t think about what lies ahead tomorrow, that is for tomorrow morning. If I wake in the night and start thinking, I remind myself that now is not the time to think about what has happened the day before as I drew a line under it before bed, nor is it time to start thinking about what tomorrow brings, that is for contemplation when I wake.

If you wake - don’t try and force yourself back to sleep, try getting up, have a warm decaffinated drink and go back to bed to start your nights sleep. If it’s happening every night you have possibly got yourself into that rythmn. Maybe try staying up 24 hours (so long as it is safe and restart your clock).

Waking is probably become a self fulfilling prophecy so maybe try meditating on sleeping through, imagine sleeping right through in a warm comfy bed, make yourself feel how refreshed you will feel every morning. Make sure your room is quiet and fully dark. Avoid screens for a few hours before bed.

Does anyone have any good habits for a restful nights sleep??

I am struggling. I fall asleep easily for roughly an hour where I'm then awake for 3/4hrs where I drift in and out of a very light sleep

On amazon up to 4000 IU at least. But apparently it's best to take with K2 to prevent calcium being deposited in place where it shouldn't (blood vessels etc)

This is what I use polly as it’s the dose my dr recommended

What high strength vitamin d is there over the counter?

I get up when I want (except on Wednesdays, when I get rudely awoken by the dustmen). I feed the pigeons; I sometimes feed the sparrows too - it gives me a sense of enormous wellbeing. Then I’m happy for the rest of the day.

I love this thread! And I need to do better at sticking to some healthy habits.

I am productive in many ways and do take positive action every day but I am terrible at being disciplined about sticking to things. :)

Thank you @Manolin. I, too, have chickens to let out and a veg patch I weed in the cool of the morning

Oh, I understand. I wee in the flower beds on a cool morning. I find if I wee in the vegetable patch the broccoli tastes funny.

Inspired by this thread, I've done 20 min yoga with Adrienne video while the baby naps. Ow - only a beginners one but I could really feel it! Will aim to do this at least 2-3 times per week to build up my frankly pathetic muscles. Also going to do the leg one!

Our habit - we both tidy up dinner stuff immediately and then while one does bedtime the other whizzes round tidying downstairs, toys, etc. Nice and tidy to relax in on a night and to come down to in the morning.

I feel like vitamins make a difference to me too. I had low levels of iron and vitamin D, I have ferroglobin instead of prescribed iron though as easier on the digestion! And it has B12 I think. I take that alongside vitamin C as it supposedly helps absorption, and I heard that vitamin D is better absorbed in the afternoon or evening so I take that later in the day now.

cremeul: thanks for info about the 50 calories. I am v greedy but think I could do the 16:8 diet, but have no chance of ever managing 5:2. Fingers crossed.

Agree on the vitamin D. I was really ill for about six months by the end of the working day I was flat out on the sofa, I thought my arthritis was progressing and that I had a serious illness. After a short while on a very high dose I felt like a new woman. I now take a high dose over the counter version every day as well as my multi vitamin

Gorygloria I've had similar with Vit D - I noticed changes the next day. I've read since that there are receptors of Vit D all over the body including most of the endocrine system and that it helps to produce hormones which may affect how other hormones and other body signals in the body are received.

Thanks for the vitamin advice. I’ll maybe look into extra Vit D as well a my multivitamin, especially in the winter.