Trying to start the day right

I used to go the gym pretty regularly. Every weekday, around noon I'd go and do some weightlifting. It was great. I was able to notice the improvements in my physique over time and I felt really good about myself, the strength I'd developed and my body. But after several months of not having a reliable income I decided I couldn't afford the gym. This has made working out harder. I no longer have access to the weight machines I enjoyed. I no longer have that environment that got me in the state of mind for working out. Trying to work out in my bedroom is difficult as that is also the place I sleep, work on my projects and play video games, not to mention my anxiousness over the noise I make when working out. I don't want to be stamping on the floor and bother the people living in the flat below me.

But I know it's something I need to do. Back when I was doing the 75 Hard I had to do a workout outdoors everyday. I would go for a run every morning. It was something I liked and I got into a good routine with it. With that in mind it's something I know I should really get back to it. This week so far I've managed to go for the run twice. It's better than the zero times each week I've done it before. One thing that's helped push me to it is my best friend telling me he's starting going for runs every morning. Well, I can't let him be the one who makes the responsible choice out of the two of us. And on those mornings I've gone for a run, my mood has been improved throughout the day. I feel proud of myself for getting out of my comfortable bed and going for that run.

There's a few other bad habits that I need to try and avoid. I've started charging my phone away from my bed, on my desk so that I can't reach for it and scroll through of night when I go to bed or grab when I wake up in the morning. So far this has been succesful, but there's many mornings where I end up just watching slop on YouTube on my tablet instead. When I go to sleep I use my tablet to play an audiobook that I like to listen to (I'm currently on book number 40 of the Horus Heresy series) and so moving it off my bedside table isn't really an option. Perhaps having a way to block YouTube in the morning is the way to go.

Another bad habit is taking my breakfast of a jar of overnight oats, and again watching nonsense on YouTube as I eat, this time on my PC. This is the same place I'm supposed to be working. So a new habit I'm trying to stick to is having my breakfast in the living room of my flat, sitting on the stool at the kitchen island, not the sofa, and watching one episode of X-Men: The Animated Series, (I like comic book superheroes). Just one episode, and I keep my phone away so I can't scroll. It's a nice start to the day.

The next thing I really need to start trying is proper journalling. I currently have a journal page on Notion, with templates for morning and evening reflections that I use to write out how I'm feeling, some things I'm grateful for and what I plan to get done that day. However, I'm aware that the better option is probably to use an actual notebook and pen. I have a few decent quality notebooks already that I'd planned to use for other purposes but I think I should try to follow the single, everyday notebook method, possibly the bullet journal method. This is something I'm going to start preparing for.

There's a lot to do, and it's not going to be perfect from the get go. That's always going to be the way of it.