Routines

So I have previously written about the power of habits and routines and what great tools these are for creating positive (or negative) change. On this page I will detail the actions, habits, etc that I have found worthwhile enough to incorporate into my daily/weekly routines. Whilst I find that these routines are beneficial and fit in with my lifestyle they won’t suit everyone so just treat this as ‘for information’. That being said I would strongly urge you to take a look at your current routines and decide whether you could benefit from some tweaks.

Morning Routine

I’ve tweaked my morning schedule quite a bit and it will continue to evolve. I find that I do better with a bit of a plan in the morning to get the most bang for my buck (in terms of time spent). Here is my schedule in its current form. I’ll go through this routine pretty much every morning (unless travel gets in the way) and it takes about 45-60 minutes all in. Timings are approximate and will depend when I wake up.

0700 Wake up if possible without alarm. Some mornings will require an alarm (early work appointment, etc) but as a rule I wake up naturally (or with a small child jumping on my head!).

0705 Have a shower, regular warm shower to wash and then 30 second cold shower. Guaranteed to be fully awake after that!

0715  Rehydrate properly by drinking a glass of water with 1 tspn of salt and half a lemon/lime in it and put the coffee onto brew, I tend to do a French press coffee so it takes a while to brew.

0715 Whilst the Coffee is brewing I stick a spoon of coconut oil in my mouth and do 15 minutes of yoga/stretching whilst oil pulling. I have a quick routine that goes through stretching out every major muscle group and at the same time I get a good oral cleanse (who says men cant multitask!)

0730 Follow up the morning stretches with a set of deep squats, push ups & pull-ups.

0735 Coffee is done now so I make myself a butter coffee.

0740 The kids will be well and truly awake by now so I’ll generally have my coffee whilst they have breakfast so this is a good chance for a bit of family time before work/school.

0755 Brush my teeth, using the techniques described in my oral health page.

0800 Say goodbye to the kids and start my days work. I work from home most of the time so I don’t have to far to travel!

I find morning routines in general have such powerful effects, and now I have this dialed in it really sets me up for the day and incorporates a whole bunch of health promoting activities in a really efficient manner. Important to note that I don’t pick up my phone or turn on my computer until I have completed my morning schedule. When I wake up I focus on myself, my family and then the rest of the world, in that order of importance.

During the day

The rest of my day is not so regimented and I tend to try and avoid any other schedules (until bedtime), variety is just as important. There are a number of activities I generally incorporate on a regular basis though, such as:

• Following my morning butter coffee I don’t eat till around 1300. I tend to do my eating between 1300 and 2000 so effectively a compressed eating window of 7hrs and a 17hr fast (with a bit of butter coffee) most days. I’ll break this routine on Sundays as we tend to have a family fry up on Sunday mornings (mmmm Bacon).
• I use a stand-up desk the majority of the time when working at my computer.
• Ill make sure I take a walk or two.
• I will incorporate a 30-45 minute exercise session into my day everyday, this will either be a cardio session (run, bike, swim) or resistance session (using a combination of bodyweight & weights).
• Drink a glass of Kombucha and a mug of bone broth a day. There are days when I skip this due to lack of supplies or travel but generally I try and stick to this.

Night time

I’m not sure whether the beginning of the day routines or the end of day routines are the most important. They are probably of equal importance although I tend to incorporate far more activities in my mornings. My night time routine is focused on getting to sleep at approximately 1030 and achieving the best nights sleep possible and is as much about what I don’t do as what I do.  I’m a lot more flexible with my night time routine than I am with my mornings but generally I will try for the following:

• My wind down starts around 2000. I’ll stick on a pair of blue light blocking glasses and wont eat anything after this time. 
• I try to avoid any screen time after 2100 unless there’s something I really want to watch on TV and tend to turn the lights down low and do some writing or catch up on some of the many books I want to read for the last hour before lights out.
• At around 2200 Ill do my teeth and get into bed and finish my reading, lights out before 1030 and I'm normally asleep shortly after.