Building your daily routine

Everything changed

There was one important thing I noticed after the surgery. My daily routine changed altogether. I am quite an organized person, so I used to have some kind of daily organization at hand. But after the surgery, it was no longer viable. Everything changed.

It was the best time to organize myself again from scratch. The healing time was a terrible mess. I couldn’t follow any kind of regular activities at all. It was way too much for me at that time. I did try. But it was futile. I did things when I could and when I had some willpower to do them. I was doing my best and it had to be good enough.

Need for a new routine

But once the worst was over, it was pretty clear that I needed some organization of my days and weeks. I felt somewhat overwhelmed by all the responsibilities and must-dos that showed up. It needed some kind of rules and planning. Why am I saying this?

It is as simple as this: there are so many things we need/must/should do daily that if don’t have some kind of list of them all and if we don’t plan them, they simply won’t happen. At least some of them. And they will all show up later as a major crisis we will have to deal with. Nobody wants that.

That is why I consider planning as a crucial activity. Some people will say: yeah, it is nice to have plans but they will always change. My reply: you can’t change a plan if you don’t have it.

If you know that you didn’t do something today (and you should), you can move it to tomorrow or find some other time to do it. But if you don’t, the thing will stay hovering in the vacuum and fall on your head later, exactly in the worst possible time imaginable. It is always like this. And this is how disasters happen.

It doesn’t have to be overwhelming

So, where to start? First of all, it is necessary to know what needs to be done. Make a list. Put there everything. All that pops up in your mind, put on paper. There will be many things. From picking up clothes from dry cleaners to your meals. Some of the activities will be repeated every day, some only on weekdays and some on weekends. And some will be one-time events.

Most likely it will take some time to put it all together. It might feel even overwhelming. But it is worth it. Don’t give up. Especially if you are doing this for the first time, this can look like an insurmountable obstacle. But once it starts shaping up, you will see that it makes a lot of sense and all the difference.

The way it fits YOU

In my case, I spend a lot of time working on my laptop, so my go-to system is Outlook. I love this thing. It has reminders, recurrent events, to-lists, you name it. And my two monitors make it easy to use.

Obviously, this won’t work for someone who is not as tech-hooked as me 😀maybe you will prefer some paper-based agenda. It is perfectly fine. I used to have many before as well and I loved them. To tell the truth, it is irrelevant what other people use, it must fit YOUR needs. That is what counts.

My priorities

As I mentioned in other posts, I have “problems” with eating and drinking, so I have all these activities logged. The reminders to eat and drink are crucial to me. I don’t feel hungry, so I would be able to go easily the whole day without eating, and then in the afternoon freak out that I won’t meet my protein goal. You know best what I mean.

And it is the same with exercise. If I don’t plan it, it won’t happen. I would keep postponing it during the day, working, and then it would be 10 pm and to my horror, exercise still didn’t happen.

To tell the truth, I like working out in the morning before my brain fully wakes up and realizes what I am doing 😀 but yes, having some time every day blocked for doing some physical movement, helped me immensely. I rarely skip. And this is what matters. Consistency is the key. The less you skip, the more likely you are to keep up with the routine. And this is how you keep your weight under control.

Planning for exceptions

Planning things became an absolute must when I travel. Things are not “normal” and that is the problem. There are still things to do, food to eat, and liquids to drink. But if I don’t plan it, it will be a good mess and I will easily slip. I am not a slave to a military-like routine, but it is good to know what is going on, and how much I ate and drank in the day. At least I know what went in and what should go out. Numbers don’t lie.

I “somehow” lost 5 kilos this summer. To tell the truth, it was not “somehow”. I checked on what happened and how. Aha! I was more consistent with my planning and being a “good girl”.

I was counting more calories in and out, I was more consistent with my exercise, and I was still having fun around food, it is very easy in Spain, but I was aware of the numbers, so my occasional feasts and “sins” meant nothing to my long-term maintenance. I take the extra lost weight as a perk. It was not planned, but it feels good anyway. And it is not too much, so I don’t have to buy a new wardrobe.

Planning is useful

There is one more good thing about planning. You don’t forget things, you are usually on time, things are under control and you are way less stressed. And it is good for you. Stress increases cortisol, and cortisol makes you more anxious and more likely to overeat. We don’t want this. You are calmer, you feel like you are winning in the game, and it makes you more likely to stick to the routine.

There is no need to be obsessing and be a slave to your agenda. Sometimes things happen and we are not able to tick everything off.

Hihi, a very good advice is to allow way more time than you think to the finishing of an activity. Not endless time, you might fall into the trap of “the activity always takes as much time as you give it”, which is not what we want. But some reasonable time is a good idea. Some things need time. If you plan to spend an hour on something that will take three hours in reality, your planning will crumble before lunchtime.

You can plan to have fun!

And you know what is the absolute best about planning? You can plan for your free time and for fun activities as well! If it is on your agenda, it will very likely happen. So yes, you can plan for your cinema, holidays, going out with friends. You won’t put any work there. Everything is under control 🙂

And one last thing about planning. It won’t work unless you do. It is nice to put things in the agenda but someone will have to do them to be able to tick them off. And that someone will be you. Also, anything new that shows up, will have to be on your agenda. If you don’t put it there and you think you will remember, you are doomed. No, you won’t. You will forget. Even the faintest ink is better than your memory. Again, consistency is the key.

You will get used to it

In the long term, you will like it. You won’t have to rely on your memory. It will have much more space for being creative and focusing better on tasks and you will be calmer on the whole because you know that there is nothing that is slipping between your fingers and will come back to get you as a boomerang.

I have to admit that the surgery affected me in some areas. It changed my peak time – the time when I focus the best, I need some more sleep, so I plan for it. All my meals and drinks are on my agenda as well as my exercise routine. And my doctor’s appointments, are also there. I have a special part for my meal planning and grocery shopping as well.

Keep up the good work

I can’t say that everything is completely different, but many things changed and I know that to keep up the good work, I need to track them and follow some routines. And I know that my planning and my agenda help me a lot to do this all. That is why I keep doing it. I developed my color coding, my system, and my routine. Of course, I skip and slip sometimes, and not every day is perfect. But at least I know what needs to be rescheduled and what to improve.

I am 2,5 years after the surgery and I still keep doing what we should be doing. I eat right (95% of the time, I am no saint), I do my exercise, I am drinking enough – this is a challenge, and I meet my protein goal – without meal planning, it would be impossible. And that is why I maintain the weight, I take my vitamins on time, and I am physically active. Things can be done. But they need planning.

How about you? Are you a fan of planning or are you living day by day as things come? And how is it working for you? Let me know 🙂