If you’re looking to make changes or set yourself some challenges for 2023, it isn’t enough to just want things to change, you need to work out what actions you need to take to make those changes happen.
Here’s a podcast all about goals, what, why and how…
https://anchor.fm/heather-sherwood/episodes/Goal-Setting-Your-Why-and-How-e1pver7
Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed with everything that is going on?
I suspect a lot of people do because one of the most common reasons people give for not exercising or looking at what they eat is that they are too busy.
I’ve said here before that really this can be overcome with planning, working out what you need to prioritise and what you can realistically do, being realistic about your goals. I stand by this, but I also get it.
I think it’s a natural feeling to have sometimes, to be completely overwhelmed. Whether you already train regularly, eat pretty well, juggle lots of jobs and tasks or whether these are things you aspire to do but don’t feel like you do right now, sometimes it just feels like there’s too much stuff.
Sometimes out of nowhere the balls your kept in the air for ages feel like too many balls or trying to change one small thing in your house of cards feels like it will bring the whole thing down.
This is when you need to stop and evaluate.
‘Hustle’ is great. If you want things you do have to work, whether that be in your career or working towards your ideal physique, but when you attempt to do everything perfectly you can end up reaching the point you actually are doing nothing because it’s all just got too much.
Sometimes you need to sit and look at everything on your to do list. Take off some of the pointless tasks that don’t really matter. Look at your training, look at your diet and pin point exactly what is you need to focus on right now and forget about everything else you hear about and think maybe you should be doing too.
My plan for the 6 weeks or so before Christmas? Well I noticed these last few days I’ve been putting off important shit because I’ve felt a little bit overwhelmed. When I’m overwhelmed i comfort eat, when I comfort eat I feel sluggish and don’t really want to train.
I’ve stripped my work load back to a manageable amount of work, with the things that will earn me money taking priority. I know I’ll get more results taking longer to do things I want to do but actually doing them rather than just saying I really must get on with that.
I’m going to track my food, not cut stuff out or eat differently (It’s Christmas, there’s going to be cake and I’m not saying no!) just make sure I’m staying within my TDEE. That will make me feel better about training – Training I want to hit hard. Not hard as in spend hours in the gym, but plan my sessions in and treat them like appointments and be 100% present in the session to be the best of my ability that day.
Essentially I’m planning to finish 2019 by focusing on doing the basics well. That’s going to make life feel simpler and therefore reduce that feeling of juggling lots of balls.
If right now you feel like you can’t hit your fitness goals because you’ve too much on try taking a look, seeing what you can drop and what really simple things you can commit to right now to get you closer to your goals by the end of 2019.
I’ve been AWOL for the last week, rather busy between a mixture of work and personal stuff, and I started writing this blog last Thursday but then never got round to finishing it. I could have finished it if I’m honest, it’s just that in the grand scheme of things a few other things were more urgent.
So I guess that’s the lesson for me on week 8 of Jump 4.2; time management, priorities and allowing things to slide occasionally.
As a PA / administrator I would like to say I am pretty organised and hitting deadlines is vital for me to be good at my job, this blog would suggest otherwise perhaps, BUT another thing that is vital is knowing how to prioritise your work and getting the most important things done first.
A heavy workload last week, along with a spa afternoon booked in and mum mum visiting for the weekend meant I was a bit limited on time to do things I enjoy but aren’t money earners (like this blog) or non negotiable appointments (my mum, the spa). So I accepted that some things I wanted to get done but which weren’t essential needed to be put on the back burner.
The thing is (and we all do it) it is easy to get caught up in the tasks we enjoy or feel comfortable with, but sometimes we need to be strict with our own time management to be more productive and serve our self the best we can. Your priorities will constantly evolve so just being aware of what you need to do compared to what you’d do in a ideal world is the best thing you can do to stay organised.
By organised I actually mean sane. When you don’t feel on top of your to do list (at work or at home) it’s difficult to feel good within yourself as stress levels rise and self care may begin to slip. Can you always be on top of your to do list though? Unless your superwoman/man probably not. So as much as planning and sticking to your plan is important, part of time management in itself is knowing when to put something on the back burner for a bit, so you can get the important stuff done and feel positive rather than like a failure.
So what did I do in week 8 of Jump? Well I stayed aware of my calorie intake even though I wasn’t actively aiming for a deficit, I stuck to lots of positive habits most days, I barely trained but decided around Wednesday that I’d accept that because I was actually a bit tired and felt like I needed a rest. Oh and I had a massage! That’s not sticking to Jump 100% but it’s not a bad week either.
What I’ve learnt over the eight weeks is more important than what I’ve done this last week. What I have learnt is to be a bit more pragmatic about my diet and training. Accept I’m in control of it, but it will still never be perfect because I’m an average person who will have social occasions to go to and days when I want ice cream for breakfast. The key is to acknowledge that for every few ‘good’ days there might be some ‘bad’ days, yet one bad day doesn’t ruin a week that has otherwise been positive. In training your mind to accept this you allow yourself the freedom to improve your training and nutrition rather than staying trapped in a never ending cycle of assuming you need perfection to achieve results.
So your training and nutrition is much like your to do list, sometimes you need to adjust your expectations and be flexible with timescales and actions to keep yourself sane, it doesn’t mean you’re doing badly just that your managing your time and your priorities appropriately.
Two things to finish:
Time management has nothing to do with fitness right?
Well in a way no, because what will ultimately bring you results is eating and training appropriately to your goals.
But in order to do that you need to have time to get to the gym or your class or out for a run, time to shop and prepare meals. Sometimes with work and hectic social lives fitness goals fall by the wayside. The most common reason I hear from people struggling to get into a routine that allows them to reach their goals is ‘I don’t have time.’
The specifics vary. I’m busy with the kids, I work long hours, I don’t have time at the weekend to food prep and so on. Essentially though, many reasons come down to the fact that we feel like we are at capacity with what we already have on and adding extra to that feels impossible.
What I’m about to say from here on in may sound harsh. I don’t mean it to be but I feel it’s something that most of us need to hear and understand if we want to achieve our goals, and if I pussy foot around it maybe the message will be lost.
YOU ARE NOT BUSIER THAN ANYONE ELSE.
Chances are you objected to that statement as you were still reading it. I’m not saying you aren’t busy. In fact these days almost everyone is very busy a lot of the time, almost everyone has multiple commitments every day in a variety of forms. So I’m not saying you aren’t busy but I’m saying that pretty much everyone is busy, and some people do manage to fit training and eating well into their lives. It is not that those of us who go to the gym have fewer commitments, to suggest that is almost insulting to those people. What is the case is that those people have managed their time to fit training and eating that allows them to work to their goals into their life.
So if you aren’t too busy to fit some form of fitness into your life what is the issue?
It’s three fold:
You’ve already decided you can’t fit it in. I refer back to the paragraph above. Whilst I’m not saying everyone has lots and lots of time to devote to the gym, everyone can make some changes to work towards their goal. If, every time a PT, fitness professional or someone close to you suggests something you could do to get started you can think of an excuse then you are stopping yourself from even getting started. You need to be open to the possibility of changing your behaviour before you can change your body or health itself and if you won’t do this no amount of time in the world will help. So here, essentially, you need to decide if you really do want to change in the way you think you do. Do you want to drop a dress size, be able to run a 5k, be able to climb stairs and not get out of breath, whatever the goal do you actually want to work towards it?
You’ve accepted you need to make changes but what changes? Here is where you do need to be realistic with yourself. As established above we all have commitments which take up our time. There may be some commitments you can change or drop, there will be many you cannot. How much time a week do you actually have to train, to prepare food? What can you realistically do in that amount of time. If you have three hours a week aiming to become a body builder is setting yourself up to fail, but there’s lots you can do. If you have ten minutes a day aiming to train for an hour three times a week doesn’t make sense – training 5 times a week for 10 minutes would though. This is about accepting that this isn’t about following a set guideline of what you should be doing but about working out what you really can do to improve your health and then actually doing that.
Now you have your realistic goals it’s about managing your time. Here we go back to everyday life time management. I’m guessing you’re pretty good at managing your work diary? I’d put money on you know where the kids need to be and when all this week and that morning / bed time routines are probably military tight timing wise! Really, it’s about fitting your health goals into your week as you do all other appointments. Diarise workouts, block out that slot for meal prep on a Sunday, work out time saving hacks like you do elsewhere in your life- online shopping, meal prep companies, whatever works for you.
Essentially success with your fitness goals comes down to being good with time management. Working out when you can train, knowing when you need to think ahead food wise to prevent Uber Eats being utilised as a dinner option and being committed to wanting to make the changes you need to make within your week.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 