The Truth About Establishing Routine

This is about to be a really honest post. I have been in Wales for a while now, and the truth is that I have not established proper routines yet. I tend to come home, spend way too much time relaxing, then give up sleep to finish my lesson plans. I have been living in a permanent state of exhaustion. I sleep in way too late on Saturdays and then I start feeling bad. I don’t have enough organisation for proper meal planning, so my eating habits haven’t been great. Soon, I will have to start planning ten hours of lessons a week. At the moment, those are taking me at least two hours to complete. I can’t sustain this way of living. I need to change.

To give you some context to this realisation, the people over at Elysium Health recently highlighted some of my tips on how to make your day just a little bit healthier. Once the graphic was published, I procrastinated. Then I procrastinated some more. Today, I finally took a good look at the infographic. I was floored by how relevant it was to me right now. I bet some of you reading this have a very similar story to mine. I bet some of you want to change the way I want to. With the help of this infographic and one week off (thank goodness for half-term), I am setting myself some goals. I need to set myself some healthy routines before I get into the swing of things when I head back to placement. 

1.       Get to bed at a decent time.

As it says in the infographic, sleep is vital for weight loss. That is still my goal (even if I haven’t done much about that recently), so I need to make sure I’m giving my body enough rest. I need to stop watching Netflix before bed and start getting into better bedtime routines.

2.       Add in movement as much as I can.

I say movement because I realise that exercise is just not realistic for me every day. However, I took a walk in the park today, and it was great. I can shorten my loop and make it a quick 15-20 minute walk right after dinner. As long as I get some type of movement into my day, I will consider myself successful.

3.       Meal plan

I saw some planning sheets in a store that will help me immensely. I need the visual reminder of what I am going to eat. I need to remember to take out the meat I need so I’m not stuck eating frozen pizza or grilled cheese.

4.       Establish better “me” time.

I do believe this is important. I have let this slip completely. Me time is NOT Netflix. I have always loved journaling, but I have been rubbish at keeping up with it while I’ve been here. I need that time. I also need to give myself time to read before bed. I keep forgetting that I can read for pleasure now. I have given myself a personal goal of finishing three books while I’m off. I’m already halfway through one, so wish me luck!

Thanks to Elysium Health for giving me the push I need to make small changes in my life to make it better. To learn more about Elysium's own mission of healthy, small changes, you can check out this page to see some of the science behind their NAD+ supplement. I will check back in with everyone to see where I’m at.

What are your goals for improving your life in little ways?

Daniella