Health routine and goals: September 2018
This is the first year I've had to make food for myself and boy is it a doozy
Food & Drink
I normally start off my day with a cup of coffee. This is arguably a set-up for failure, because it's very dehydrating, but that's just what I've started doing to jog my brain in the morning. I didn't drink coffee in college except during finals season and I'm surprised by how quickly I've gotten used to this daily routine. My morning drink goal for September is to try to switch to teas 50% of the time, because I don't want to feed this addiction. And in general, I want to work my way up to drinking the requisite 8 cups of water a day. (Currently, my shameful average is 2 cups per day)
As far as food goes, I think I'm doing pretty well. I typically get two to three servings of fruit and the same amount of vegetables per day. My wonderful friends have been complimenting me on my healthy food choices, but I honestly feel like I'm slacking compared to how much nutritious food my mom used to make fresh for me back home.
My lunch and dinners are normally steamed rice with a vegetable dish and some type of protein. Sometimes I switch it up and throw together a burrito or a Banh Mi, which let me chow down while also sneaking in some raw veggies. In the mornings, I typically make myself either an omlette with veggies or a fruit and spinach smoothie. At first I was keeping my snacks healthy and only stocking up on yogurt and fruit, but I've been slacking lately. Last week I ate 12 Chik Fil A nuggets for dinner and called it a night. This month's food goal isn't a quantity, it's a habit. I want to keep a food journal and track how many servings of fruits and vegetables I get per day, and how much of that is raw/processed/frozen/homemade. (If I make a successful bullet journal spread, I'll share it here.)
Exercise
I have not exercised more than twice in the whole month and a half since I moved to a new city for law school. (yikes!) Truth be told, I don't miss it too much. I used to be on various dance teams, and I'm sort of enjoying not having that commitment eating up all my free time, but I can feel the effects of not exercising on my body.
My legs have softened, my posture is less stable, and my asthma makes sudden unwanted reappearances these days. If nothing else, I want to establish a better fitness routine so that I don't wreck the progress I've made in the past few years on expanding my lung capacity. My goal for this month is to attend at least 5 zumba (or similar workout) classes at my school's gym, and to do at least 5 hours of at-home exercise.
Sleep
This ties into exercise for me. I find that my sleep schedule is harder to regulate when I'm not exercising multiple times per week, so hopefully my exercise goals will naturally lead to a healthier sleep pattern, but I also want to improve my sleep quality. Unlike many of my peers, I get 7-8 hours of sleep every day. This is a point of personal pride. However, I often fall asleep at my table, head down in an open contracts textbook, with my day clothes and my bedroom lights all on. I want to quit this black-out-from-exhaustion habit, because it just feels gross when I wake up and realize what I've done. Also, it's stressful to wake up and realize that I haven't charged my phone/packed my bag/finished my reading/prepped my outfit. This month, my goal is to stop working by 11:15. This way, the last 30 minutes of my waking hours can be spent preparing for the next day and cozying up in bed with a good book instead of staring at a bright beam of information overload from my laptop or phone screen.
TBD how difficult achieving these goals will be. I'll write an update next month. Is there a category I'm missing? This feels a bit short, but I want to keep this list of goals reasonable. What are your strategies for holding down the fort health-wise? And has that changed when you entered/left school?(Featured image by Lisa Fotios via Pexels)