How to "put me first" general thread for ideas

I’m on the usual quest to loose weight and signed up to the local area’s support chat sessions, councelling I suppose you would call it.
Chatted away and seems one of my obstacles is never putting myself first or giving my own health and well being priority.
I thought it would be a good thing to discuss on here as we can all benefit from looking after ourselves a bit better.
So ideas welcome, thoughts, tips, successful practices.
I suspect most of us on here are not that selfish as to put ourselves first, so let’s put on a collective hat and start improving our own well being.

We live with too much stress. Now widowed, with a son who lives away some of the time, I now have “non negotiable” holiday time in Greece, 2 weeks of being me without the stress.

It’s taken me years to reach this point, after years of putting everyone else’s needs first.

I’m now 67, look back with many regrets. I should have looked after myself better, but how could I when at every turn my carees were let down by Social Services?

I don’t see putting my own physical and mental heath needs first as “selfish”, I see it as an underpinning necessity which is non-negotiable.
I first worked this out when I became a spouse and a parent. There was no way I could give quality support to my family if I was exhausted or anxious all the time.
By taking a balanced amount of time to look after myself I had the strength and ability to care.

I don’t mean to take all the time just to look after me ignoring everyone else and letting them rot or fester, but simply to take a set, short space of time to make sure I am fit and ready for the tasks ahead. For me its 2-3 hours a week for physical exercise minimum and when my caring load was really high and stressful 1-2 hours of counselling and many hours on this forum!

Caring for oneself is not selfish. If the carer doesn’t care for themselves they will be unable to continue caring, or giving a good quality of care.
It’s simply a matter of working out what works best for your own needs (e.g. Bowlingbuns 2 weeks holidays or a daily walk or weekly yoga class for example) then making sure that diary time is protected. If that means the caree has to be looked after by somone else or amuse themselves so be it. Better they have a healthy you for 95% of the time than a run ragged exhausted you operating at say 30% for all the time.

It all comes down to balance. 100% selfish carer doesn’t work equally as much as a caree needing or demanding 100%. It’s a seesaw and everyone’s balance point will be different, and more easily found if the caring load is spread over a team, whether that’s family, friends or paid care.

I believe I am a carer, not a doormat. I am worthy of attention too. I deserve to look after my own physical and mental well being and I firmly believe my carers are all the better cared for because of that.