Please recommend simple ways to feel fitter and healthier

[Ichangedmynameonce]

Hello
I'm not sure this is the right topic for this, but I'd really appreciate your top easy tips to feel healthier, fitter and to have more energy.

I'm in my 40s and knackered. I have 3 kids including a toddler and I don't really look after myself. Nothing major (I don't drink alcohol or smoke) but I dont eat much fruit or veg, don't exercise it get enough sleep.

As a result I'm shattered mentally and physically and I think that its impacting on my family life and parenting. I think I'm going a crappy job.

I'd really appreciate easy ways to improve things.

thank you

oops that should have read "I don't get enough sleep"

It’s really hard when you don’t get enough sleep and I think you’ve identified all your priorities!
Sleep
Fruit and veg (5 portions is a good goal)
Some exercise
I would add drinking lots of water and taking some floradix daily.

Is there any way you can get a couple of earlier nights a week?

For exercise, a short brisk walk, a 10 minute YouTube video here and there are good starts.

thank you @Beechview. I think just writing it down was helpful, as is your list.

it doesn't sound like much to achieve but somehow I dont manage. I think lockdown has made everything worse (as for everyone) as I don't have a moment.

Those are the things that are always on my to do list! I pretty much manage the floradix and some exercise a day, but too many late nights and not enough fruit and veg or water has been an issue lately.
At least, I know what I need to navigate back to.
Good luck

I notice a marked difference in how I feel when I do the following:

• graze on salad snacks whilst I work (cucumber, celery, raw carrot, a handful of cherry tomatoes) Stops me reaching for the chocolate and easy way of getting vitamins C,A and some potassium in
• take iron supplements. I am a veggie and however hard I try I just can't get anywhere near enough iron in diet
• exercise "mindfully". Sometimes I don't wanna run. Simple as. So I stretch, do Pilates (badly), lift some weights all whilst listening to a podcast that I love or an audiobook. Probably not burning loads of calories but it's better than nothing! I do it late at night instead of watch telly
• quick tidy round every night before bed so I don't wake up to clutter (I'm talking 10 minutes max)
• i write a to-do list every night before bed for the next day as it empties my brain of jobs as I don't have to 'remember them' as such

A friend of mine does medication and swears by it but I cba but horses for courses and all that.

And good luck OP. Modern life is such a drain on our mental and physical health.

@cancelculturemeinyellow thank you. lots of simple easy tips I can at least try some

start with some basics. dental cleaning and a dr.'s check over.
then hair care. and clean clothing daily.
drink water with lemon/turmeric/ginger/maple syrup (it's an immune booster combo) or any other infusion to make you feel like you're doing more.
yes to the exercise even if only 15 minutes a day of dedicated time to your fitness.

Exercise is the most important thing you can do and will make you feel so much better. Start off slowly and build up to half an hour of getting sweaty and out of breath, 3 x a week. Such a brilliant stress reliever, you'll sleep and feel so much better and it's great for your heart, lungs, bowels - everything really!

8min abs on YouTube, quick start to your day.
Not heavy carby food
Lots of water.

thank you both.

@bluejelly how long does it take for exercise to make you feel better, if you do it regularly? I've never got past feeling worse! thanks

I think the key with exercise is to build up slowly from a point you don't dread it. After lockdown I dreaded getting back on the treadmill to run for 20 mins straight, so I decided to do 5 min walk, 5 min run, 5 min walk, 5 min run. Last summer it was 30 seconds run, 1.5 mins walk x7.

Sometimes I just don't want to, so I pop headphones in and lift heavy weights.

Do you have a gym membership?

I'm 40's and notice if I get to bed at 10.30 I feel great the next day. The later I sleep the worse I feel - even if I get the same number of hours.
Also I get you're doing a great job, don't put yourself down.

Hope you are ok.

My tips are:
Exercise - I do 20 minute HIIT and / or 20-30 minute run a day
Planning - some nice things with friends / family to look forward to
Meditation - time out to switch off
Bedtime - get a good bedtime routine you need to sleep properly (exercise will help this)
Be kind to yourself - positive affirmations, pamper, self care
I've started having B12 injections and I feel like a new woman :) x

I hear you. It's very tough.

I would say that although some of the exercise tips on here are great, they are likely to feel out of reach for you if you're anything like me. I would suggest starting extremely small with something like:

• 5/10 min brisk walk round the block each day or even every other day (without children after they've gone to bed even better). Build up if you can, but don't worry if you can't.
• 5 mins yoga/Pilates before bed, build it into your routine same as brushing teeth. Again build up if you can, but not if you can't.

Sleep is of course the big one but it might not be feasible to get more.

I always feel better if I reduce my carbs a bit and eat more veg and protein.

Call a friend and have an old fashioned chat.

Haircut.

Order a new face serum online and slap it on before bed.

Ask for someone to look after the kids so you can have an hour to yourself once a week

This phase will pass. Be kind to yourself and talk to yourself as you would to a friend.

Ps being kind to yourself doesn't need to mean being positive. Notice how you're feeling and tell yourself it's ok to feel that way. Just validate it and allow the feeling to be there. Take a breath. Do something small that soothes you.

@onesteptwosteps I really agree with this. I spent so long trying to fix everything I felt. In fact it's ok just to be :)

Exercise made the biggest difference for me, and I say this as a woman who hated P.E., detests sports in most forms and has never stuck at a team sport for more than a year.
I started lifting weights, just dumbbells and doing simple circuits and I felt and saw results so quickly that it was a real buzz. I used Darebee to get some ideas.

Now I combine that with some YouTube vids- I swear by emkfit if I’m having a bad day- she’s the opposite of those glam, willowy sweat-free trainers but she is so fun and inspiring that I often find myself doing much more exercise than I intended! Her 80s HIIT dancing is such a laugh, and she has beginner/low-impact versions when needed.

I went from sitting on the sofa, eating most of a sharing bag of chocolate and feeling shattered to working out at least 5 times a week, eating way more healthily and feeling a lot more energised.
Would honestly not have believed the change if you’d told me a year ago!

this is all so helpful. I think its helping me to see how rubbish I feel (I know I'm lucky in so many ways that I dont really feel it's ok to feel crap) but also to see that there are some steps to feel better.

I'm going to start today but putting my fruit for the day on the worktop, so its visible, reminding me to eat it. Small steps.

thanks for being so kind.

OP use this thread to let us know how you are getting on. We all feel this way some times x

Do one of the things on your list for a week, then incorporate the second and so on. Less likely to overwhelm you that way. So, this week, walk every day and drink more water, next week, plan meals around veg and snack on fruit, then start a sleep routine .

Small habits like those mentioned (and the daily habits thread posted recently!) are great! Just go gradually and don’t try to change everything at once - and if it’s something you want to do every day, don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day, as (for me anyway) that can lead to giving up.

Every good decision you make is progress!

I don’t want to sound negative but you have a toddler, that makes it 5x harder.

Do what you can but take it easy on yourself, when the youngest is at school that’s when it becomes so so much easier to spend time on yourself

My kids are older and when I look back I remember the intensity of having to be always available and enthusiastic.
At that stage I used to try to read for a little while every evening just to get a mental break. Nothing too heavy either, something funny if possible. I know somebody with toddlers who has started doing needlepoint for a while in the evenings.
Is there anything like that which might interest you and give you a mental break? I think it's hard to get into an exercise routine when you're mentally tired.

Large glass of water first thing in the morning before any other food and drink. Helps flush your system out.