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What do you mean, "have a Healthy Lifestyle"?

Look at a day in your life – what does it look like? Here’s mine

5:25am – Alarm, agony, why do I do this to myself, blah, blah, blah. Brush teeth. Start coffee, feed furbabies, mix up amino energy drink, grab laptop, prep mentally for the day.

5:45am – Class starts, Aimee is mid warmup run passing by garage gym entrance with a “good morning!” I wonder how she’s so peppy this early Every. Damn. Morning. Class ensues, sweat drips, awesome is achieved. Clean garage gym. Now on to the rest of the morning

 7:00am – Wash, prep tomorrows workout, pack lunch for kid, drive kid to school.

8:00am – Time to pay the bills = 7 hours of work for my day job, which is currently in my foryer/home office chained to laptop. Eat something quick between calls.

3:00pm – Pick up kid, afternoon snack, more day job work until volleyball practice, game, or whatever extracurricular activity du jour.

7:30pm-ish – Feed family (usually consisting of fend for yourself or takeout) unwind with man companion while kid unwinds and homeworks.

9:30-10:30pm – brush teeth, hit bed sack, round or 5 of toonblast, listen to daily devotion, sleep.

This is a typical day. As a coach, it’s FROUGHT with bad habits – bed too late, not enough time in kitchen making quality fuel, not enough whole family quality time. I’m getting my training in, but on a balanced triangle of rest, training, fueling with mental health in the center, my triangle looks more like a lopsided isosceles than a beautiful equilateral triangle.

WHY would I tell you that?!?! I’m selling fitness for freaks sake!! I tell you that because, I’m in the majority too. I have a life, and it often gets in the way of the picture I paint when I’m designing my perfect day. I work hard, I train hard, and sometimes they get more of me than the other parts. Other days, I rest hard and eat horribly – sometimes that wins. I strive of 80% on a good day, 90% on a great day and that’s where real balance lies for me.

What do you do to get to 90% though? 

Figure out what 90% looks like!

Really break down what a great, hit all the pedals day looks like for you. Break down each waking hour and fill in what you could be doing if you were really nailing it. For me it looks like this:

5:25am – Alarm, agony, why do I do this to myself, blah, blah, blah. Brush teeth. Start coffee, feed furbabies, mix up amino energy drink, grab laptop, prep mentally for the day.

5:45am – Class starts, Aimee is mid warmup run passing by garage gym entrance with a “good morning!” I wonder how she’s so peppy this early Every. Damn. Morning. Class ensues, sweat drips, awesome is achieved. Clean garage gym. Now on to the rest of the morning…

 7:00am – Wash, prep tomorrows workout, quick nutritious breakfast (3/2 eggs and spinach), pack lunch for kid, drive kid to school.

8:00am – Time to pay the bills = 7 hours of work for my day job, which is currently in my foryer/home office chained to laptop. Eat leftovers from last nights dinner, or freezer prepped meat/veggies.

3:00pm – Pick up kid, afternoon snack from meals/snacks planned on Sunday, more day job work until volleyball practice, game, or whatever extracurricular activity du jour.

(NOTE: NOT MUCH CHANGES HERE – I’m nailing it about 14 hours a day, but some small tweaks crank it up a notch, ok a BIG CHUNK considering I’m fueling for tomorrow and recovering from today’s training!

7:30pm – Cook dinner with man companion based on my weekly menu planned on Sunday based on the crazy extracurricular activities of the week. Sit down to dinner with the family catching up on the day and their lives, then make them help clean up dinner mess together, suffering as a family.

8:30pm – Unwind with the man companion while kid unwinds, bathes and preps for her day tomorrow.

9:15 - 10:30pm – brush teeth, hit bed sack, round or 5 of toonblast, listen to daily devotion, sleep.

So in the whole, I have  the last 2ish hours that I could correct that could make a 100% change in my quality of life, but it took some planning, not a TON, but some conscious effort to look at current state, map out ideal state, and see where I can change and when to really get the most out of the day.

Just start where you are, don’t wait for you to magically get better to make changes. Pick a piece and work on it until you have it nailed down, then move on to the next demon. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

Next time, we’ll talk about that prep-time. What you can do a couple hours a week to give yourself all that and more time back all week long.

Eat Clean, Train Dirty, Earn Your Beer Thirty


 

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