Living a healthy lifestyle - Bedtime Routine - Part 1
Living a healthy lifestyle can be a challenge. After experimenting for many years and reading up as much as I can, I've finally found a great formula at 51 years old.
After 51 years I have finally found an incredibly good routine that works for me in terms of health. I've really struggled most of my life with health, hovering being between overweight and overeating, to being overstressed and not getting around to doing anything. Then every few years I would get a bee in my bonnet and really focus on good health, only to get results for a short while and then lose the goodness again. I would gain some success but it would be fleeting.
The major breakthrough this round was a combination of things, with one things in particular standing out. Generally I've found that making positive lifestyle means you have to change more than one thing. You can't just address one thing, although this can help. To get to the point what I finally found to work for me is routine.
Up to a year ago I when someone suggestion routine I would immediately shoot them down. I don't do routine. I have ADHD and people with ADHD struggle with routine. I've had routine issues most of my life. Many excuses and a lack of will to get routine right.
The breakthrough this round was that I programmed my home smart speaker to start sending me positive and motivational messages every day. Not many, but just a few core ones that helped me live my fullest and most healthy life. So, now every night at 8.30 PM, Alexa reminds me:
"Get ready for bed. Become calm and put away all devices. Find a nice book to read. Develop a good bedtime routine."
It took a while before I got this right, but finally I decided to force myself to be in bed and try to sleep every night at 10PM. I would say it took around 6 to 8 weeks to start having great results. In the beginning I would wake up at strange hours, and struggle to get back to sleep. But repeatedly trying this every single day meant I started getting results.
I believe good health is about three things, and almost in this order:
Healthy eating
Regular Exercise
Great Sleep
So by forcing myself to get great sleep, I was able to almost fully incorporate one important aspect of good health. If you sleep well your day starts well. If your day starts well you might have a great day too. I've had good sleep on and off, but by forcing routine I'm having great sleep much more often.
This is part 1 of a series covering amazing health. In the following topics we'll cover:
Alcohol
Healthy eating
Exercise
Mental Health