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Body Clutter Mission: Routines
By Cindy Posey | January 10, 2008
“Your priorities will dictate…You can do this!” (Ely 80)
“A routine is a series of habits done in a specific order, much like a dance step. Use the habits you already have to help you incorporate new habits. When you partner an established habit with a new habit, you are now practicing new routines that will help you on your Body Clutter journey.”
What habits have you already established in a normal morning and evening routine? Write them down. Now add a new, small BabyStep connected to it for you to practice.
Morning Routine (7 AM): My morning routine is pretty set. When we leave the house, the only thing that gets shortchanged in computer time.
- Make bed (toss covers and comforter in a semi-neat state over the bed and top with pillows)
- Feed the little ones (One of their first comments is always, “Food, mommy. Cereal.”)
- Feed Utah and Zina
- Clean Zina’s litter box after she does her business.
- Have Breakfast (***Proper portion: Fiber rich, with 3 food groups represented.***) This is my small habit that I want to focus on during my morning routines.
- Get Dressed and put on my shoes.
- Put away dishes, clean any that I didn’t finish up the night before. Wipe the counters. Asher and Stephanie like to help unload the dish washer.
- Declutter one flat surface
- Get a load of laundry started
- Pour my cup of coffee and work in a little computer time.
- Head to the YMCA, MOMS Club Activity or Errands (9:30-10AM)
In the mornings, I let the little ones watch about an hour of television or play video games. They play well together and I can get some of the morning email/writing completed.
Evening Routine (After dinner):
- Read books or play board games with the little ones. They love Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, and The Caterpillar Game. It’s fun to see them understand how games work and wanting to play. Even Stephanie is picking up on Candy Land. Her attention span for Chutes and Ladders is not quite there, but she’ll play to a point and watch the rest of the time.
- Father time with kiddo’. My computer time.
- Put the little one’s to Bed
- Clean up kitchen
- Veg. and do something mindless. TV. I’m a big fan of the Online television viewing. (***Incorporate at least 15 minutes of Core, abdominal, or calisthenic training).
- Work on internet. Writing, reading, commenting, tutoring or inputing shops completed that day.
- Clean up Zina’s Litter bowl after she’s done her business.
- Brush teeth
- Take shower
- Go to bed (10-1PM) This fluctuates based on my tutoring hours and new blog projects (almost done with my EBOOK!). Recently, I haven’t been able to get hours in before 11PM!
Do you have a calendar and stickers that you can use to chart your success? As you practice a new habit, celebrate your accomplished ones by giving yourself a star, a happy face or any other symbol of your success.
I am lost without my big calendar on the side of the refrigerator. I make my calendar out of Print Shop and it covers 4 8 1/2 x 11 pages. It gives me plenty of room to put down reminders, events and birthdays. I haven’t incorporated my workouts with the calendar because I have a paper that has the printed program beside the calendar. I purchased the Flylady Sticker kit 2 years ago and I always place 5 or 6 on the calendar to brighten it up. I fill in the dates as I complete the workout. I like the flexibility of adjusting my routines based on how the day goes. I have a bunch of “accomplishment stickers” for the little one’s Potty training. I like the idea of giving myself a few. Oh, if they see my little symbols of success, maybe I’ll get a better response from them, too!!! What a great idea.
The questions come from the Body Clutter Journal Missions in Body Clutter: Love Your Body, Love Yourself
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Great post and just sooooooo true. I started making checklist for my kids for everything-(they had fun fonts and graphics) bathroom, am, pm, after school, outside play, car, mealtime–usually just with 3-5 items and once they mastered it we hung the laminated list up in the area in applied to, bathroom, ect (not the most chic decorating tip) , rewarded them and the desired behavior became a habit!!! It was very exciting ..probably one of my greater parenting moments. I made some for myself too..to be fair. I have them in a word doc if anyone wants to see them. I think this week , I will make some for myself regarding health/fitness/weightloss. Thanks for the great post. I love your blog/site. There is just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much useful information. Can I add you to my lonk list on my sidebar? Have a great day and KEEP UP THE GREAT work. Thanks again for the motivation. YOU ROCK!
Hi Susie,
Thank you for the great compliments! Great idea for the children’s checklists. I think that I can start with my little boy. He understands how to do things, but I don’t have routines set for them to be responsible to do. You’re more than welcome to add me to the sidebar. Thank you!