Do you find yourself week after week feeling rushed, time crunched and ill prepared for all of the activities in your life?
I’m not talking about work, I’m talking about the things outside of work. Things like finding time for your workouts, finding time to create healthy meals, finding time to meditate, finding time to really work on your goals. If this sounds like you, read on!
Life is busy. Busier now than ever before. Time flies by and we can’t explain where it went. It
just “went”. Never to be returned.
Do you know that the average American spends 34 hours a week watching TV? We also tend to spend time on various social media platforms.
When Facebook first came out, I found myself getting sucked into the hole of social media. I
would find myself waking up on a weekend, hopping on Facebook to see what happened while I was getting my much-needed rest only to find myself 2 hours later still scrolling. I quickly realized that Facebook was not going to be my best use of time. It was fun, but, it was 2 hours I was never going to get back and it literally did nothing in helping me move toward my goals.
In fact, it was doing just the opposite. Facebook and I have continued to have a relationship,
but, it is definitely a “long distance” relationship that I continue to be very mindful of when
considering hopping back on.
Here are a few simple tricks that have worked for myself and for my clients:
1. Know your goals.
2. Plan ahead- take a look at your schedule for the week. What are your obligations?
Work, kid schedules, family time, social gatherings.
3. Determine EXACTLY when you are going to get your goal focused work in. For example,
if your goal is to improve fitness or performance schedule your workouts. I highly
recommend getting your workouts in early in the day to prevent the unexpected things
from interfering with your goals.
4. Determine when you are going to grocery shop as well as creating the list of “what” you
are shopping for.
5. Find a chunk of time to meal prep. I have found that cooking all (or most) of my
proteins on Sunday works great. I marinate my chicken and vegetables, beets, in
addition to chicken sausages, or whatever I have decided sounds great, fire up the grill
and in about 15 minutes, I have the base of a great meal for every day of the week.
6. I will also spend time mixing up what I refer to as “Turkey Cupcakes” or meatloaf,
cutting sweet potatoes putting those in the oven while I am at it.
7. While those things are cooking, I can quickly make a batch of quinoa, farro or other
grain that will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days
8. For breakfast, consider prepping Overnight Oats or an egg bake. You can even take that
egg bake and pour it into cupcake tins, cook them and freeze them just I do with the
turkey cupcakes.
9. Figure out what your go-to snacks will be so you are not finding yourself hungry and
hitting a gas station for chips or, a drive thru to curb your appetite. I love things like
hard boiled eggs, string cheese, nuts, lean meat snacks.
10. If you need more help, check out Ai Grocery list and Weekly planning generator to assist
with healthy and affordable meal options.
Even with all of these ideas, there will be weeks when not everything goes perfectly.
Let’s call these “plot twists”. In these situations, don’t let your goals slip away. If your goal was to get your 30 minute workout in first thing in the morning and you overslept, or, your covers just wouldn’t let you out of bed, don’t give up. Try to find 10-15 minutes to get a workout in. Even if it wasn’t the planned workout, I guarantee that by getting something in, you will feel more accomplished than not doing anything at all.