There is always a routine but some we realize some we don’t. Some naturally become part of us and some naturally we end. But again some routines we need to cultivate and then evolve over time.

I was always a morning person. Or I should say staying late at night is not my natural self. I say that because I have had and even now have some late nights that keeps me awake till like 4 AM. But I don’t like it. I like to hit the bed by 10 PM. And I cannot sleep beyond 7 AM. Usually I wake up around 6AM with an 8 hour sleep give and take a few.

What happens after you wake up is where the routines starts. My current routine has evolved over time. For quite a long time I have had the idea that one should do some exercise in the morning. Or Morning is my preferred time to exercise. The day feels better when I do it and I kind of like to get it done with.

With Pandemic it worked well as we could just do it from home and the time was easily manageable and no rush in the morning. I started this year with a target for 25 Sun Salutations, 50 Squats, 50 Pushups and 50 Sit ups. And an occasional walk in the afternoon. But once I hit my goal and developed a shoulder pain, I decided to just walk which seemed more natural.

So summer had started and I started walking 5 miles in the morning. This went fine till I found the shoes was not good. I had written about the need for good shoes a while back. Bought a new lighter shoes and continued and then developed pain on my feet. This could be because of the body weight and lack of practice of walking for long distances. So I decided to break it into two sessions. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. This went on well for a while till schools reopened.

I hate rushing through my mornings. I need my time to get ready for the day. Going out of the house for an hour in the morning just increases my pressure thinking of all the things I got to do after coming home. So I decided to switch back to my ground exercises and some weights in the morning and do my walk in the afternoon. Also helps me multitask a lot in the morning. More on Multi Tasking on a later day.

So I started with a mix routine. Stretching with 10 Sun Salutations, Weights with two 20 Pound dumbbells, Squats between reps and then some Cardio. 3 reps of 15 is what I do on weights and I max at 50 Squats.

For Cardio I started doing jumping jacks, I wanted to do skipping, but not having done that as a kid, I just can’t get to match that coordination and so Jumping jacks were the alternative. I got to doing around 250 Jumping jacks every day. Till a small pain on my left foot started. Just so you know, I listen a lot to what my body has to say to me. The jumping and landing on ground was speaking to me.

So now I continue the same routine in the morning and have replaced the Jumping Jack with mountain climber, I do around 100 mountain climbers now.

The point I want to make is not everything is for everyone and we all need to listen to what and how our body feels and responds to us. This helps us evolve our routines. I also do a 45 minute walk every afternoon.

Since summer is officially coming to an end, I am thinking this will help me continue the routine through winter because I hate going out for a walk in the morning when it is cold and drizzling.

In coming days I want to share with some of the things I have not been able to do and also we will chat about what I would think my ideal healthy look would be and what all I should be able to perform at that stage. More in coming days,

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Categories: Health, Life and Happiness, Writing Project

Tags: healthy routine, morning person, routine