Less phone scrolling, more reading
*This post contains a video that features an advertorial from Bourjois
I thought as today’s video focuses on the mindful methods that I’ve been trying to sprinkle into my morning routine, I’d share what my current evenings are looking like on here. Ever since I got back from Thailand, although the jet lag is starting to slip away now, it’s kind of the best jet lag to have in that you want to fall asleep really early in the evening, but you wake up in the morning at around 6am feeling amazing. I’m secretly trying to hold onto it for as long as I can. So when you read through the below points, just know that they’re being squeezed into a time period of about 2 hours, because I can’t currently get past 8.30pm without passing out…
The first thing is the hardest thing – knowing when to power off the laptop and put it away. I tend to use the latter part of the day to tackle my inbox and use pressing send on the final one as an indictor that it’s time to shut up shop, although it’s not alway that clear-cut. If that doesn’t work then I try to have things cleared away by around 7pm-ish, if not a little earlier if possible. Then I put my phone in another room and keep my laptop tucked away in my office to avoid any ‘Ooooh we should Google that!‘ temptations.
The other task that I’m trying to get back into the swing of things with is cooking from scratch. We seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut where one week I’m practically Nigella in the kitchen and then the next week we hop from Five Guys to Domino’s night-to-night. Mark’s off on holiday soon so we implemented a ‘No takeaways before the holiday’ rule, which so far is going well. We haven’t strayed from our kitchen for the past week and I’ve been back digging through my old cookbooks once again; The Lean Machine’s book never disappoints. We’ve been trying to up our fish intake and their Monkfish & Coconut Curry ticks all the right boxes.
Given my current sporadic and early drifting off times, I’m been pretty rotten at partaking in my evening skincare routine. I know, I know – please don’t tell Caroline Hirons. I don’t tend to wear makeup during the day anyway (unless I’m filming or have actually had to see people), so it’s not like my face needs a good ol’ scrub, but it does need a gentle cleanse. I’ve been forcing myself to cleanse, spritz, serum and oil-up immediately after dinner so Mark doesn’t have to nudge me awake to do it later on. On nights like this I find the Vitner’s Daughter Active Botanical Serum to be a godsend because it’s a one-step does-it-all job. I just cleanse, do a little spray of something hydrating and then slather this all over.
Since I’ve been back I’ve been firmly riding the fitness train again. Along with my usual three times a week resistance training sessions, I’ve been upping the ante with reformer pilates too and the combination of both means that most days of the week I wake up feeling sore/stiff as a board/needing Mark’s assistance to even walk to the toilet. To avoid this I’m trying to stretch before bed for a decent amount of time. I’m talking at least 15 minutes here. Mark is really good at remembering to do this and normally I lie in bed and scoff at his pained expressions as I eat chocolate buttons and read Women’s Health magazine, but now I’m joining in with the huffing and puffing and I definitely feel all the better for it in the morning.
The final thing that I’m trying to do will come as no surprise as I’m sure pretty much every person on earth who owns a smartphone is trying to wean themselves off of scrolling on it before bed and instead pick up some kind of reading material. I’ve mentioned before how I read Women’s Health magazine like a book and I find that reading something that’s focused on health, fitness and wellbeing before bed, puts me in a good mindset that I still wake up with when the morning rolls around. What Coco Pops, eh?
Photos by Lauren Shipley
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