Healthy Habits Reboot – Try These 6 Tips

When I retired, I got out of my normal routine.  I’m such a creature of habit that I really need a routine to make things happen.  Even vacations pull me out of my routine, and I forget to do normal things such as take my vitamins or put on sunscreen.  I have to set mindfulness alarms for myself.  I’m such an “in the moment”, very focused person, that I set my Fitbit to vibrate midday to remind me to take a lunchtime dose of medication, or I’ll forget.  Even when I no longer took the medication, I kept the reminder going so I’d get up and refill my water and do a quick chore or take a short walk around the house.  It’s easy for me to forget to eat lunch until 2pm or 3pm.  My appetite alarm isn’t enough to distract me.  To help me get back on track, I’m starting phase two of my Healthy Habits Reboot.

It’s a Slippery Slope

First, I needed to understand what went wrong.  Not going to the office at a set time has completely wrecked my healthy habits.  I stopped taking vitamins, which is a problem because my body runs deficient in vitamin D, among other things. More carbs crept into my diet.  I got a lot less activity in my day, and although I was sleeping more hours, I’m a night owl and my natural body clock puts me to sleep at 1am.  So, I was sleeping until almost 9am. I stopped drinking as much water and started drinking more wine.  I was waking up late, reading in bed for an hour, or so, and then having home-made sourdough waffles for breakfast.  By the time I was up and doing stuff, it was almost noon. 

Don’t Forget Your Vitamins

I didn’t really notice how much damage my lack of discipline was doing to my body and my mindset.  But I started feeling terrible, a little blue, and aimless.  Normally, I’m very self-motivated and have a great work ethic, but here I was without a purpose.  My regular well-woman blood test indicated that I was significantly deficient in Vitamin D, and the doctor prescribed a weekly mega-dose to set me right.  It made all the difference in my mood and energy level.  It was literally night and day, as though she flipped a switch and my body went into gear.  Note to self:  Never stop taking vitamin D supplements.

Phase 1 Review

Then, six weeks ago, I woke up motivated.  Not sure what was the impetus, but I was tired of lazing my day away and not doing much of anything.  That morning, I got up early, took a shower, got dressed, and even put on a little make-up and earrings, something I had stopped doing since I didn’t need to leave the house during the day.  I grabbed my morning tea and went into our home office to start working on setting up the website for this blog.  Just like that, I had a purpose and a voice.  I made a daily commitment to myself.  My calendar and a writing schedule solidified.  I was back! Phase one of my healthy habits reboot was complete.

Healthy Habits Reboot – Phase 2

My brain is engaged, and I have professional motivation, but one major factor remains unfinished.  I’ve gained 20 pounds this year, and that has to go. I don’t have any clothes that fit, and even my yoga pants are starting to chafe.  Effective this morning, I am starting phase two of my healthy habits reboot!  Here are the five habits I find most productive for better health and weight management.

Drink More Water

This should be an easy one.  I went over 4 years without drinking a soda or eating any artificially sweetened drinks and foods.  During our many road trips back and forth to California for my chorus rehearsals, I started drinking sodas again.  This is coming to a halt.  I will drink a gallon of water a day to improve hydration, flush the toxins from my system, and help me to feel more full throughout the day.

Get More Sleep

The research is clear.  Sleep is essential to weight loss.  There are many articles on the topic, but this one from WebMD is a quick and simple read.  I know I feel best with 8 hours of sleep.  This has always been my go-to number, but I function quite well on 5 or 6 hours.  During my work years, I slept only that much each night, but by Friday I was sleep deprived.  I used to joke that I was stupid by Friday. After a long week of a packed calendar and little sleep, my brain couldn’t even bring up my vocabulary very quickly.  Exhaustion does that to us.  It makes it harder to think clearly, and it slows down our brains. But sleep loss also affects our cortisol levels, which impacts inflammation and weight.  I don’t have a good excuse for not getting enough sleep.  So effective immediately it’ll be lights out by 11:00 – 12pm in order to fit in a solid 7 – 8 hours of shut eye.

Get a Move On!

That “exercise” word really kind of demotivates me.  I’ve never enjoyed exercise.  I really disliked P.E. in school, and I didn’t even enjoy recess. I’m still bitter over Dodge Ball.  Athletic competition brings the worst out in some people, and I just can’t abide that negative energy.  But I do enjoy dancing, Pilates, yoga, bike riding, hiking and long walks.  I enjoyed hopscotch, and the rings, and the monkey bars. In fact, when I was younger, I could hang from my feet from the money bars, and “walk” the length of the bars that way.  I loved gymnastics, and synchronized swim.  I hate to exercise, but there are many ways I do enjoy moving my body.  I’m going to do more of that.  This morning I took a yoga class that I found free on Amazon Prime.  I have a friend whose sister does a zoom class 3 mornings a week, which I plan to join next week, and another friend who has invited me to an online dance class.   At least 6 days a week, I’m going to commit to at 30 minutes of body movement.

Make Better Food Choices

The single biggest impact any of us can make to help manage our weight, is to eat better. I’ve been baking bread, cookies, muffins, and waffles for far too long. You can read about my sourdough infatuation here. The truth is, simple carbohydrates go straight to my booty in the form of stored fat.  But also, they don’t stay with me very long.  An English muffin will fill me up for an hour, but after that I’m hungry again.  I can add peanut butter to it, but now I’ve added nearly 200 calories to my 130-calorie carb bomb.  For those same 330 calories, I can eat two scrambled eggs and 2 pieces of bacon, which will stay with me until lunchtime.  Of course, I don’t need to be eating bacon every day, but yogurt and blueberries is high protein, low carb, too.  There are lots of great choices, including protein shakes for on-the-go.  Lunch will be a salad of some sort, and then dinner will be more meat and veggies based.

Track Eating on the Lose It App

This one little tweak does more toward helping me manage my weight than any other thing.  Lose It is a free app where you can track your food and set weight goals.  It also integrates with Fitbit, to add in your activity and allow for those earned calories.  Over the years, I have a pretty robust database of foods that I’ve entered, as well as their vast database of foods and brands.  It makes entering what you eat quite easy.  You can set goals for how much weight you want to lose, and how fast.  It doesn’t like you to eat fewer than 1200 calories, so be aware of that. The free version will show you how much protein, carb count, etc., in case you’re keeping track of your macros.  If you want to pay for the upgrade, you can track your sleep and water input, but I can do those free on the Fitbit app, if I want to.  I’ve used the free version for years, and it has everything I need.  I enjoy keeping track of my eating habits and having the data to look back on over the years. It’s easy to review weeks when I’ve lost a lot of weight and replicate those meals for continued success.

Make it Sustainable

I typically have great results on low-carb, or keto diets.  But the truth is that I have a hard time staying on them. I also don’t think it’s healthy to eliminate entire food groups, like grains.  Complex carbs are great for our digestion, among other things.  This time, I’m going to simply make better choices, stay within my daily calories, and increase my activity.  This way, I can still have Friday pizza night, or taco Tuesday, as long as I choose wisely for the rest of the day. 

Wish me luck on phase two of my healthy habits reboot. I think the work for June will be restorative.  What are your plans to up your health game? I’d love to hear your success stories!