As someone who is a perfectionist, likes certainty, always has a plan with 50 other backup plans just in case and have planned 40 years of my life so far (lol), routines are my go to. There's days obviously are out of my control sometimes and the whole routine is thrown out of the window and I often put myself down quite a bit about it, especially when it comes to things like the gym, which I will save that talk for a future blog about exercise and my struggles. I do love routines in general, more so morning because by 3pm, my brain is clocking out for the day and I tend to slow down especially a long day of either working, tafe or just life in general. This blog we will have a deep dive into why having a morning routine especially has been so positive and why you should atleast write down 5 things you want to achieve before your day starts.
I am not a morning person just to put it out there, I hate waking up and thinking about what I have to do, what I have to eat, clean, work etc, and its worse when its a 5am shift too. However, in recent times when I started my new job, gained my licence and started going to the gym, I have made it a priority to achieve what I want to achieve in the morning to set me for the day. I always aim for 7-8 hours of sleep, sleep is so essential and again I want to dive into that topic a bit further down the track because I can talk about sleep for days on end. I aim for atleast 7-7:30am wake up, often if I start work at 5,6 or 7 it will be earlier. As a general, most of my days for work and tafe start around 10am an onwards. Waking around that time surprisingly in my town, makes my drives a lot more relaxed to the gym as the town hustles a lot later around 8;30am-9ish. I aim to workout at least 4-5 days a week, I am not really a gym rat, more for mental wellbeing and maintaing an active lifestyle. After 45-50 minutes of whatever I choose that day I drive home and enjoy the silence, funny enough I thought I would listen to music more often when I drive, however driving without nothing is somewhat soothing and keeps me more relaxed.
As soon as I step foot into the house, I am straight to the shower, face is washed and off I get changed. Now this is something that has been quite controversial in my life, breakfast..... I hated breakfast, something I skipped while I was at school. I couldn't stomach it, it almost felt like the food I just ate for dinner, wasn't finished digesting yet. My opinion changed drarastically though, after I left school, I fell in a deep depressive state mode and my anxiety went through the roof, to the point where I chose not to eat because I was so nauseaous 24/7. It wasn't until mid this year where I chose to get into the breakfast habit. When you think about it, usually dinner is around 5-6pm then lets say you went to bed at 9pm full and wake up at 7am which means you haven't eaten for 13 hours and you decide to skip breakfast and you end up having your first break to eat at 10:30-11am, thats like nearly 17 hours!!!!!! Why do you think its called breakfast, break-fast, your breaking your fast after sleeping so long, breakfast is just a non-negotiable. Let me just give a quick few facts why you need to have something:
Replenishes energy levels to keep you energised for your day.
It maintains your metabolism cycle and keeps the digestive system active. When I didn't eat and was so stress where I lost so much weight in a short span of time, I was and still get so sick. This is something that truly is not spoken enough in my opinion with disorded eating. Sometimes restricting is not the solution to achieving results, one of my biggest regrets was restricting because there were so many days where I couldn't go out and isolated myself because I was too unwell to do simple tasks.
Maintains the immune system functions
Manages food appetite - having a high protein breakfast like a smoothie, eggs and fibre like oatmeal. These ingredients truly help control those levels to avoid feeling sluggish and fatigued or tempting you to binge on unhealthy snacks.
Obviously there are a variety of benefits I just wanted to list a few to get the ball rolling. They don't have to be full cooked meals though, it can be simple as a protein smoothie with a fruit in it like berries or a banana, meal prep oats or even just some eggs and avocado toast, it doesn't have to be something we should dread, it can be simple, filling and easy. Now off the breakfast topic, we exercised, ate, had the shower and are dressed, now this is the time I like silence. I don't meditate or journal, I want to be very open with that, I am not like those other people on social media who will journal 5 pages and meditate for 20 minutes morning and night. Those are positive tools that I am trying out myself though, my goal in 2024 is to journal and take meditation seriously. If you do have the time though, those are nice ways to untilise your spare morning time without going on your phone. If I don't feel like sitting in silence on my phone or listening to music and have time before I have to leave the house, I do tasks around the house that can be done now rather then later.
One task that seems to be piling up is laundry. With 2 brothers, mum, dad and my clothes there are sure to be some sort of washing to be done. Just doing a simple task in my morning routine gets me going for the day and makes me happy knowing thats one less thing on my plate. Thats really my morning routine, very simple just exercise, eat, shower/dress, do chores/tasks and then off I go. Morning routines overall are made to prioritise time and influence more productivity. As I said before, I have good day and bad days and that is OKAY!! Life isn't perfect as we all know surprises are always going to pop up. You could wake up unwell, don't push yourself! My big lesson from routines that they are just there like a calender, just to have on hand and occasionally utilise to keep yourself on track.
My take notes from this blog post for those who don't feel like reading all that :)))):
Aim to get in bed for a good solid sleep as this why allow you to have motivation to wake up a little bit earlier to focus on yourself before the hustle and bustle begins.
Routines are there as a guide, one day you mess up, that is okay. We are all human, we can't predict the future nor the past, however we can predict how we respond to those situations and our thoughts to ourselves.
Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast..... It doesn't need to be big but it needs to be something to break that fast and energise yourself.
Aim to go for a 30-45 minute exercise, it can be just a walk around the neighbourhood. Just go off how you feel, don't put yourself down about it if you miss a day.
Enjoy the silence, embrace it. I do go on my phone if I free time, I don't feel bad about it. I might scroll on my feed or listen to music, that is totally fine. However, please do limit, we all know it is addictive especially before bed. I know the journal/meditation words are very cliche, but truly it is something I encourage even myself I am trying.
If spare time, just smash those tasks that can be done now rather then later. Even if its just putting a few glasses in the dishwasher, or making a doctors appointment, you did something that could have been forgotten or left to the last minute.
I hope you enjoyed and took some snippets out of todays blog, again please follow our social media like Instagram, all linked on the site so you do not miss a Live For The Moments Blog post!
Signing off,
Marcus :))
Comments