5 Steps to Avoid Hitting the Pause Button

Last week, I wrote a blog about the pause button - about not letting life, work, etc. get you to the point that you put an entire part of your life on hold. Below are some strategies to help you when those hectic times arise.

1. Look at your schedule ahead of time. I fully realize that this may not be an option for everyone. Some of you have highly fluid careers and lives and this may not be completely possible. However, looking at your week ahead can really help. What day do you have a 6am meeting so you may need to come to another class? What day might you have time to sit down for an hour and food prep for the following 3 or 4 days? Sometimes just sitting down and laying it out for yourself can make all the difference, rather than trying to do it on the fly.

2. Plan your meals ahead of time. All of our nutrition challenges have included some type of template for planning out your meals. If you have yet to do one of them, it is fairly easy. They can be as simple as a piece of paper with “Breakfast", "Lunch", and "Dinner” listed under each day of the week, or as complicated as the recipe itself at each spot so you have all your information in one place. Whatever makes it more likely to happen for you.

3. M.I.S.S (Make It Stupid Simple). For those really hectic times, make it stupid simple. By that I mean make it as simple as possible to plan your meals for the week. If you can stomach it, maybe eat the same simple recipe for breakfast every day to cut down on prep time. Or keep the meals different but try to stick to simple recipes that don’t take a ton of prep work. This may not be a good strategy for the long term because you will probably burn out on those easy to prepare foods, but in an extremely hectic time, simplicity is your ally.

4. Make training an appointment. You have heard Coach Meagan say this before and it feeds into strategy number 1. If you can figure out your schedule ahead of time, decide what days and times you are going to train and make it an appointment. Plan it ahead of time, write it down and stick to it.

5. Slow down, but never stop. This one is possibly the most important one of all. If you need to slow down, that’s understandable. If you can only make two classes a week this week and next week because work is so hectic, that’s understandable. The last thing you want to do is put off training completely, because like I said in part one, you never know what tomorrow might bring. Expecting to stop, then start again when things are “less hectic” ends in major complications the large majority of the time. So just slow down, but never stop.

Make it happen,
Coach Adam