Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. I don't know about you, but my life seems to go a lot better when I have a plan in place,

when there's a routine and I follow that routine.

For example, during the summer holidays, I don't have to take my kids to school because they get to sleep in and do other things.

However, I keep to my routine.

I get up in the morning, I meditate, I go to the gym, I come back, then I go to yoga, and then I'm off to work.

Now you may think that's boring, but what the routine does, it allows me just to get up and do what I need to do

and if it's the same thing every day then it's simple I just do what is supposed to be done that day and

if they're good things for me it's a good thing because I don't

skip them and I don't miss them. Now of course there has to be some flexibility in my

routine because with everything things change. Sometimes I'm on vacation, sometimes traveling for work,

sometimes it's a holiday or weekend. Things change and I adjust, though I try to overall stick pretty close to my routine. I find it simple, I find it works

well, and I find because I have good things in place, it keeps me healthy. For example, I think

we all know people who struggle with eating well or not exercising,

and it usually gets down to a lack of routine. They just do what they feel like at that moment,

and it often doesn't include good things for

their body.

When I was younger growing up in the Midwest, I remember being in high school eating what

sounded good, period. There wasn't any sense of is this good for me? Is this going to have any effects? Because I was younger. It didn't matter that much at that point because I probably wasn't going to put on weight or get unhealthy.

But if I had kept that routine up, it would have been bad for my body.

One of the sort of semi-researched things that I've done over the years is ask people who are older, who I find are very fit in doing well in life, how did they end up being so fit and healthy at the end of their lives?

And I always get the same response.

They'd done it throughout their life.

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