Your healthiest habits and how you stick to them?

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I feel a little stuck in a rut and I want to try and get some more energy so I feel more motivated to start exercising again so I’m looking at what ways I can improve things.

Im thinking walking more, drinking more water, reading for a small amount of time each day, making sure I have some fun, taking some vitamins.

What are your healthy habits and how to you make sure you stick to them?!

Hours dog walk before work everyday. Eat 80-100g protein per day and try and turn my phone off at 9pm.

No to biscuits or other snacks between meals.

I try to make sticking to my habits as easy as possible.
So for example, I bought gummy vitamins as I know I will happily take them over chewable tablets.
I bought a water bottle with a sports top so I can drink easily and quickly without having to even take a lid off.
I keep my yoga mat and trainers in the car boot so I have no excuse to skip a gym session/class.
I read 10 mins of my kindle right before bed etc
I also spent a bit of time really thinking about what works for me personally. So I realised I could skip breakfast happily and do intermittent fasting without feeling like I am sacrificing 'nice food' and eating together as a family.

Basically I try to combat my laziness by making things easy to stick to!

Running - make myself
go by having an audiobook I want to listen to

I eat protein at every meal - more than I'd think id need - because that helps me not to snack.

I exercise most days because instead of doing gym I found two sports that are sociable and challenging, so I go to those because I want to see my friends and because I'm wanting to learn the skills im being taught.

There's a good series on Radio 4 called Just One Thing - little things you can do to improve your physical and mental health. I practice standing on one leg while I brush my teeth and take a cold blast at the end of every shower.

I've also been doing yoga every day (the Yoga with Adriene threads on here are really good for keeping motivated)

And I try and run three times a week.

But any one of something is better than nothing

I’m not great at most healthy habits. The only one I remember is taking vitamins because I do it when I give them to the kids.

I stick to something if I do it at the same time each day, it then becomes routine.

Spf on face every morning (I do this after I’ve washed and dressed and done teeth in a morning) I do those things every day, before I would do spf at a different time and often forget, so added the step in there after teeth as I never miss my teeth so no excuse not to keep up with it.

Vitamins I take 9pm every night before I go up to clean teeth and put my face creams on, again I used to forget my vitamins but now I do it at the same time as teeth and face cream as those things are done nightly so vitamins is now just a normal part of that routine.

Try something OP and do it every day at the same time and watch how quick it becomes normal.

Gym 4 times a week
Yoga at home 3 times a week

It's honestly just down to bloody well making yourself do it! When it comes to getting out of bed at 6.30am, or doing another set of reps in the gym, I often say to myself 'you don't have to like it, you just have to do it!'. Focusing on the results, like how great I feel, really helps too

Drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of sleep too, but I actually enjoy those so theres no motivation required 😁

Thank you everyone! For those of you who take vitamins what do you take?

Running three times a week. Has just become a habit now. It makes my baseline level of physical and mental health so much better and also I'm not very good at restricting food and can't be arsed with diets so I prefer to burn off fat than calorie count.

It's fine in the spring/summer/autumn months. Not so much fun getting up at 5.30am when its pitch black and sub-zero but I always feel better afterwards.

As a PP said, sometimes you just have to force yourself.

I’m not healthy at the moment. My diet needs cleaning up and I need to exercise. I don’t smoke or drink alcohol ever though so guess that’s something.

Drink large glass of water with Meds
Needing to pee desperately so Get Up On Time
Feed chickens
Walk Dog for one hour at a cracking pace
Practise Morning Gratitude on the walk (vaguely in the sun’s direction if I can’t actually see it.)
Eat fish or flaxseed infested breakfast (usually sardines)
Tidy Up Routine
Daily Stoic listening while tidying
Clear head for work with New Day coaching (very zesty)
Set out top 3 priorities
Note additional goals
Check diary
Meditate
Deep Work
Back, shoulder and neck 10 minute guided seated stretching
Eat fruit and wholemeal something for lunch
Binaural Beats 25 minutes power nap (may include dribbling)
Invigorate head with Work Day coaching (very Stoic)
More Deep Work
Pootle About A bit
Cook
Clean up
Take other meds
Relax in any fashion I feel like
Induce relaxation via night time coaching session (v. soothing)
Up to bed with the next morning’s glass of water

About 15 months ago my sole habit was to be the worst example of ADHD in Self Destruction Mode. Poor diet, poor sleep, dehydrated, made a sloth look like Kobe in comparison, I dithered through my days more by accident than design.

No I’m not sponsored by them. I’ve paid for 2 annual subscriptions and will keep doing it. Won’t work for everybody, but worked like a charm for me. Fabulous app. It’s called The Fabulous on their website, not a .com, might be .co (company ?) I use it in conjugation with Tiimo app and a mood tracker (free) to help me stay on track. I fall off the wagon from time to time. But miss the good feeling life has when I’m following the app religiously. It’s a very gradual curve and you can brake or accelerate based on your own needs and rhythms.

Changed my life. Very much for the better. Not all my days are Fabulous, I screw up, get sick and fall over. Just not all the time now. And only for a limited period. I’d go without food for three days if that’s what it took to make sure I had enough in the kitty to cough up for the new annual subscription. Try the free version first though. IIRC they gave me a free month of premium as well to try it out before I decided to upgrade from the free, but more limited, setting.

I feel like it works cos it’s the softest, loveliest, kindest velvet glove and is so nice to me that it makes me pull out my inner little bit of steel to make my hand hard enough to keep Lovely Glove open and on me all the time. If that makes sense 😂 Whatever it is, it’s not will power. Cos I didn’t get the gene.

30 secs of freezing shower in morning after normal warm shower. Sounds mental but so so good for energy levels and general well-being. I had to build up from 10 secs at first. On a sun eve I look at the week ahead and plan in 3 exercise sessions. I set out the exercise clothes/pack the bag etc on a Sun eve, so it’s all done for the week ahead and I don’t have the excuse that I can’t find the clothes/ can’t be bothered to pack

I average about 8 miles a day walk in any weather. The dog needs it so doesn't matter whether it's sunshine, rain, sleet or storm, we are outside. I also walk everywhere if I can, instead of taking the public transport.
We go hiking every weekend as a family too, instead of lounging at home. It's nice to have a very lazy day from time to time but we rather go out and do something. With a time, you build up that desire for a healthy lifestyle.

'30 secs of freezing shower in morning after normal warm shower'

Have heard that this is brilliant for you. Haven't been able to face it so far! Maybe in the summer....

Re your other point, totally agree that being prepared, being organised and sticking to your routine is so important

Can I ask what social sports you are doing/learning?

I walk twice a day every day, rain or shine. I have a dog.

I recommend the Atomic Habits book - one good idea I took from there was to anchor a new habit onto an already existing habit. Like brushing your teeth in the morning also becomes associated with taking your vitamins / doing some sit ups / whatever new habit you want to add on !

I walk my dog at least once a day for an hour minimum.
Run 5k three times a week.
Yoga class once a week.
No alcohol on week nights.
I allow myself to have cake or chocolate maximum two days a week and don't snack between meals.
I take high strength vitamin D and menopace daily and have a handful of pumpkin seeds on my yoghurt and fruit for breakfast.
I swim in the sea 2-3 times a week, all year round no wetsuit. This is the best therapy ever - I absolutely love it.

Following for inspo!

What are your healthy habits and how to you make sure you stick to them?!

Mine are:

• At least 7 hours sleep.

• Vitamins (I take a conception multivitamin as will be ttc later on in the year).

• At least 30 minutes exercise everyday.

• Drink at least 1.5 litres of water

.

• Flossing my teeth.

• Pelvic floor exercises twice a day.

I have a habit tracker on my phone to keep track.

I also second Atomic Habits by James Clear. Listened to it on audible and it changed my mindset so much.

I take vitamins
I’ve lost 30 lbs
exercise 3 x a week (joined local very nice gym and pool)
take St. John’s wort for better mood
batch cook my lunches so no buying junk
eat more veg
bought nicer clothes and shoes so I feel better each day
a silly one but important one - avoiding toxic friends and people (including work colleagues)

this was actually the most helpful to my overall well-being

For those taking vitamins what do you take?

I don't really 'exercise' as my job is very physical but I am improving my diet and sleep at the moment. I do like gardening though and that is always hard work. I prefer to have a purpose to get my exercise in as the gym, running etc is so boring.

For my diet I am sticking with the simple half plate veg or salad/quarter protein and quarter carb plus a small amount of fat. I have signed up for Planthood which is a vegan meal delivery. I'm not vegan but always looking for new ways to get more veg and more variety. They have great reviews (saw them on Dragons Den actually!).

For sleep I am going to bed earlier so I can have my time reading/watching crap on the internet and still have lights off at 11.30 so I can get 8 hours.

I don't take vitamins as I prefer to get them from food. I only drink water anyway so get plenty of that every day.

I find the only way I can stick to healthy habits is if I actually enjoy them so focus on that really.