I’ve always considered myself a creature of habit – but my habits haven’t always been the most healthy ones.  One thing I’m really good at in the health department: getting a good night’s sleep.  I may not be wonderful about daily workouts (yet) or skilled in the kitchen but I hold sleep very high in the priority department.  But what happens before I climb into bed is where I could improve a bit.

The routine isn’t extravagant. It’s simply flossing every night, rinsing after brushing with a fluoride rinse, removing all traces of makeup and washing my face, putting special moisturizer on my dry skin, not leaving any dishes in the sink, writing in my journal, and reading before turning out the light.  It’s actually a very standard (I think) evening to-do list…but I often try to cut corners.

I’ve never been good about flossing before – that’s why I have so many fillings.  Because my teeth (like the rest of me) are not getting any younger, I know I need to do what I can in the preventative health department.  Why go through all that dental work when all I truly need to do is take 2 minutes to floss each night?  It seems absurd in that logic light.

Washing my face is something that I actually quite enjoy but when it’s cold in the apartment or I’m tired, it becomes a chore.  Again, I’m not getting any younger (that tends to be a running theme in my mind as of late…), I need to do what I can to keep my skin looking good.  The idea of developing an old, wrinkly, turkey neck terrifies me…perhaps keeping a picture of what could happen in the bathroom would be helpful in the motivation department?  Nah, I wouldn’t want to scare the BBE with what I find on Google.  What I’ve learned is that once I start to get into that really tired place, I just want to flop on the bed.  I’m trying to get the evening routine done before the tired time sets in.  That does seem to help, when I remember to do it…I don’t always remember to do it.

I hate dirty dishes.  I also hate doing dishes.  The former is stronger than the latter.  When I wake up and go into the kitchen to see (and smell) a sink full of dirty dishes, it makes me feel lazy and a bit disgusted with myself.  I wouldn’t want someone to come into our home to see it like that; I don’t want to live like that.  And truth is, it doesn’t take that long to clean if you do it as you go.  Once they pile up, it does take a while (and really dries out the hands!)  So it’s about not letting it get to that piled up place to begin with.  I feel accomplished when I clean up the kitchen before I turn off the lights.  And it’s calming to walk into a clean kitchen each morning.

These changes may not seem like much in improving my health but they’ll be a wonderful baby step if I can get the routine in place to creating a good foundation for healthy habits.