It feels like my whole life I’ve been striving to be a healthier version of myself, to take better care of me. I never made it a priority though. There is always something ‘more important’. Do you really resonate with this? You put yourself second, never make the time for your own health? I do too!
I always put my school work/study, and other people’s needs, ahead of my own. Now that I have chronic back pain from constantly slouching over my books, never getting a proper night’s rest, constant overwork, eating just to survive, I really regret it.
Even without school work now, these bad habits are still stuck with me. I still don’t get enough sleep, despite having so much more time for it. I still put off eating until I really need it. I still drop all the things I have to do if someone asks me for the smallest thing, causing so much unnecessary stress into my life.
I’m sure there are thousands of us in this similar situation. We really only value our health when we don’t have it, and that’s when it might be too late to start taking care of it. But really, nothing else matters in life without health. You can’t enjoy anything, if you’re in constant pain or discomfort.
Where to begin to improve?
Add Your Heading Text HereWe’ll start by asking: Do you feel healthy?
If not, what areas in your life can you improve that will make you feel healthier, happier, less stressed, satisfied? You can probably think of an endless list, so we’ll start slow.
Think of three areas in your life that really need a change. Write these down and underneath write down the reasons why you encounter problems in this area, all the reasons you can think of. You may be surprised that there probably aren’t as many as you think!
My three areas would be sleep, exercise, and eating. These are super broad, and I’m sure these are problematic areas for probably 90% of people. So maybe my process will help get the ball rolling for you.
- Sleep
- Spend too much time scrolling through social media.
- Spend too much time on Netflix.
- Too lazy to get up and brush my teeth, but I refuse to sleep without brushing them.
- Panic about tomorrow’s work and decide to work late into the night.
- Exercise
- Don’t make the time for it.
- Can’t decide what kind of exercises to do.
- Get annoyed picking the clothes to wear.
- Eating
- Always wait until I’m way too hungry and have to eat something ASAP. So I don’t give myself enough time to make something of sustenance.
- Always pick an easy snack that curbs my appetite.
- Forget to eat when I’m really focused on a task.
- Don’t have an idea of what I want to eat.
- Grocery shop for good foods in general, instead of with an idea in mind of what to make.
Truly, there are numerous reasons why we can have problems in these areas of our life. I’m very fortunate to be at a stage in my life where others are not directly my responsibility. I have the opportunity to fix these areas right now, in the future it might not be so easy.
Look through Your reasons, and highlight the ones that you can control.
Since you are in control of these ones, think, why do you let these prevent you from doing something good for yourself? How can you stop doing them, so they won’t be bothersome anymore? How can you prevent yourself from doing them? How can you eliminate them?
Make it actionable. For example, if you want to go to bed earlier to get more sleep, but you can’t help but scroll through your phone and get caught up on social media; then put your phone to charge in a different room; move your charger outside your bedroom, and leave your phone there before going to bed. Now, you can’t scroll through social media all comfy and cozy in bed.
Once you eliminate the bad actions that are preventing you from taking care of yourself, it’ll be so much easier to pay attention to you.
- Sleep
Spend too much time scrolling through social media.→ Move phone charger outside of room, and leave phone there when going to bed.Spend too much time on Netflix.→ Don’t turn on the TV to watch something. Put the remote on the other side of the room when going into bed.Too tired to get up and brush my teeth, but I refuse to sleep without brushing them.→ Set a timer to brush teeth and get ready for bed 30 minutes after dinner, when I’m not as tired.Panic about tomorrow’s work and decide to work late into the night.→ Set a hard cut-off time to stop working and shut down laptop.
- Exercise
Don’t make the time for it.→ Find a free hour 4-6 days a week, and mark it my calendar.Can’t decide what kind of exercises to do.→ Pre-plan workouts; pick exercises, videos, running path, gym, etc.Get annoyed picking the clothes to wear.→ Pick clothes the day before based off of pre-planned workout.
- Eating
Always wait until I’m way too hungry and have to eat something ASAP. So I don’t give myself enough time to make something of sustenance.→ Pre-make some meals over the weekend, so they can just be warmed up during the week.Always pick an easy snack that curbs my appetite.→ Put easy snacks in cupboard out of sight.Forget to eat when I’m really focused on a task.→ Set an alarm to take a break every 1-2 hours and reflect, am I hungry? How long since I last ate?Don’t have an idea of what I want to eat.→ Keep a notebook to write ideas of what to eat, and a meal I really enjoy, or meals I want to try. Scan the list of ideas when planning grocery list so I have the ingredients for meals I want to eat.Grocery shop for good foods in general, instead of with an idea in mind of what to make and when. → Make grocery list based off the recipes I would like to make that week.
Think of a way to measure your improvement.
Tracking your improvement (it can be as easy as – are you feeling healthier?) will help you keep going. It’ll remind you that you’re doing something good for yourself, something that makes you feel better, and you should keep doing it! It’s a way to physically see the fruits of your effort.
This can be tough, and the method I’ve found that helps me visualize my progress the most, is a habit tracker or another form of tracker in my bullet journal. For example, every morning, when I wake up, I record the number of hours I slept. Once I start implementing the actions from above, I’ll see if the amount of sleep I’m getting is increasing. At the end of the month, I calculate the average time when I went to sleep/woke up, and the number of hours I slept.
For exercise, it’s good to start off tracking generally, not as extreme as you think. It’s great to see the number of kilos you can lift growing, but it’s also a lot of work to keep track of reps and weight and whatnot. In the beginning, celebrate the little wins. Just make exercise one of the categories in your habit tracker, and fill in the box for every day that you get in some fast heart-pumping activity. Or print out a monthly calendar on a sheet of paper, and cross off each day that you exercised. Once those X’s start to pile up, you won’t want to stop.
Eating is tough to keep track of because it can negatively impact your eating habits. It can be easy to become obsessed with numbers or to feel bad about yourself if you eat too many desserts. As such, I don’t think I’ll be tracking this one in a conventional way. I’m going to track whether or not I ate fast food that day, or if I cooked, that’s it. I’m going to eat based off my body’s hunger ques, and try to eat healthier by limiting fast-food consumption and increasing the number of times I cook at home. If you’re trying to improve in your eating habits, try to think of it in a similar way, not in a “how much am I consuming?” kind of way, which can be more detrimental than helpful.
To go one step further, record how you’re feeling as well! Are you less tired? Less cranky? More focused? Feeling refreshed? Is your face not as puffy? Are your trips to the bathroom more regular? Do you feel happier? Try out a bullet journal mood tracker and you can see the correlations! For example, if you worked out every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, are these days marked as happier moods? Maybe it’s due to exercising!
So, what do you think? Are you ready to start putting yourself first right now? Take care of you starting TODAY! If any of my tips help you, message me and let me know, I’d love to celebrate your wins together!