My lists as of July 2024.
Ways I look after my body
- Hot tubs (morning, noon, and/or night!)
- Swimming (ditto; mostly gentle breast stroke)
- Intuitive lifting (including high-bar squat)
- Sunbathing
- Lying on the floor
- Mountain hikes
- Yoga (currently 3 different teachers/styles)
- Full-body massages
- At-home massage gun
- Osteo sessions with Patrick (when in Oxford!)
- Short HIIT sequences (morning)
- Headstand stool
- Swanky office chair
- Tennis ball on hips and glutes
- Foam rolling (ideally with Rumble Roller!)
- Voodoo floss
- Not wearing much makeup
- Using plenty of Hawaiian Tropic suncream on my body and Supergoop on my face
- Using retinol
- Not wearing high heels
- Using rucksacks
- Not wearing jeans or other harsh waistbands
- Paying attention to posture (e.g. squeezing glutes, not sitting with legs crossed)
- Not being “on a diet”
- Very rarely drinking caffeine
- Very rarely using an alarm clock
- Drinking plenty of tea first thing
- Eating big breakfasts
- Eating lots of fat
- Choosing to live in a warm dry sunny climate
Ways I expect too much of my body
- Long working hours at the laptop
Neutral/mixed things
- Cycling quite a bit to get around (good for cardio, can tighten up the quads too much)
- Dyeing my hair weird colours!
- Showering and washing my hair rarely
- Alcohol (has lots of benefits but also some drawbacks)
Things I might like to do more of
- Structured breathing (e.g. cardiac coherence or the Yoga Soup breathwork method)
- Maybe interesting combinations (e.g. follow up tennis ball with headstand stool, maybe with music?)
You can read my exploration of these lists on Psychology Today.