Develop New Routines

Adding color to your home will improve your mood!

Routines. Do you develop a new routine when you decide to make changes in your life? I do. I have found that making a change in the way you do things will become your routine after as little as a week or two. It can be in any part of your life. Something as simple as changing to grinding your coffee beans every evening for coffee tomorrow. Or hanging up your coat and putting away your keys and purse as soon as you come in your door. Since I have lived here, going on four years in May, I have developed many new habits or routines. As I grow older, I try to make my life as easy as possible. 

Sometimes I find a change I made in my daily routine is not easier or that I just do not like it. So I eliminate it from my routine. Then there are changes I need to do......but find them hard to carry out. One of those is Dry Brushing for my Lymphedema. The lymph massage too. I will go through my whole day and find that I did not do it even once. I am supposed to try for at least twice a day. The Dry Brushing should be done before every shower. Yet many times I am in the shower already before I remember I did not do it. Again!

My Lists!

To get started on changing your routine, you need to make a list of everything you want to do that day. I write out a list every evening. The next day I look at the list and try to accomplish each thing on it. Most days I don't do every single thing but close to it. When you do not have a job I find your time can get away from you being at home all day. By having a routine you feel like you have accomplished something at the end of your day. Even with limited mobility I am able to do most everything I need to do.

My home!

If there is something you need and don't know how to include it in your routine, do a search on the internet to see what others do. I do this all the time and that is how I find many answers to my problems. By changing my routine this year, I was able to finally change my diet for good. The health benefits of not eating certain foods was well worth it. I regret that I did not do it sooner. Of course, any change, diet or otherwise, takes a bit of time. Three weeks is usually what I found in my research but it depends on what the change is. Some take more time and some barely any at all.

Rabbit enjoying his morning banana!

Take a look at your pets. They live by your routines that you have taught them. Maybe you think you do not have a routine but change one thing and how do they react? I have seen it many years with all my various pets. I see it with my house bunny, Rabbit. He knows when I go in the kitchen to get my 2nd cup of coffee I will get his morning banana. He can be in his cage and hear me in the kitchen getting that coffee and he hurries out of his cage to the kitchen doorway. If I don't get his banana (or heaven help me, I am out of them!) he sits outside the kitchen doorway staring me down. Showing me the floor in front of him is empty. No banana there. So I make sure I am never out of bananas! 

More Lists!

Right now, start a list of things you already do as part of your daily routine. Mornings, what do you do? Then do the same with your evening routine. Is there something in there you really wish you did not do? Eliminate it from the list and stop doing it. An example would be eating a high sugar dessert just before bedtime. I would work on one bad habit at a time. Not all at once. Then add one good habit that you want to do. Maybe something like reading a chapter of a book or writing a letter instead of eating the snack. 

First time making ice cream!

For me the worse thing I was doing was buying ice cream and then I would eat it for every meal. I loved it, no matter if it was cold or hot out. I started drinking a meal replacement shake for one meal a day. I bought an ice cream maker and if I want ice cream now, I make it with the shake. What a game changer that was! If I want to eat ice cream for my whole meal I can. It is actually good for me! Just using that meal replacement as ice cream, a shake or pudding helped me to finally realize my goal of sticking with the Ketogenic lifestyle permanently. 

Keto Chow makes keto easy!

Nobody can make you do something you do not want to do. You have to do that for yourself! Take it slow and don't be mad at yourself if you fail. Just start over immediately. Making the effort is worth it. So try.  

Copyright © 2022 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2022  Kathleen G. Lupole