I used to feel overwhelmed pretty much every day. My to-do list always exceeded my work capacity. There was always more to do than time to do, or at least that’s what I told myself.
I hear from my clients all the time that they are stressed, overwhelmed, have too much on their plate and they drop the ball on self-care because it’s just too much.
If feeling overwhelmed by life & obligations is getting in the way of taking care of yourself, you MUST make a change. Now. You cannot wait until the kids are older or you have more money saved. It has to happen now. This is more about mindset than workload and it’s time to take control.
I have a really simple strategy for days I feel overwhelmed. It is SO BASIC but it has changed my life.
Sometimes we dismiss simple solutions because they seem too basic, but this one has been a game changer for me.
I realized that my to-do lists were made up primarily of things that I wanted to get done, that needed to get done at some point, but weren’t critical for the day to which I had assigned them.
If I feel overwhelmed, I’ll take a look at my to-do list and evaluate every item on there and ask the following question:
Is this something that must get done today or just something I’d like to get done today?
80% of the things on my to-do list weren’t’ critical for the day to which I had assigned them. Sure, I wanted to get them done but the things that were absolutely CRITICAL for the day were far fewer in number.
Though I don’t take this approach every day, I absolutely turn to it when I’m overwhelmed. Every single thing that isn’t critical for the day at hand gets removed from the list.
Couldn’t be more basic, ya know? But it works!
I no longer put myself in the trap of exhausting myself with the things that aren’t critical for the day & then feeling pressured at the end of the day to rush through the things that are critical. I wasted a lot of energy because I wasn’t prioritizing and doing first things first.
Today, for example, the only things that must get done for Primal Potential are:
this blog
tomorrow’s Daily Motivation Podcast
tonight’s Masters Club webinar
Are there 25+ other things that have to get this week and I’d love to tackle today? Of course. But I can immediately ease my mind and feel more in control when I only look at what must be done today.
A workout is something I choose to fit in, but at the end of the day, it’s not required. I did make time for it today, though not at my normal time. I had to push it back a while to make room for today’s priorities.
I wasn’t really in the mood for the gym today but a 30-minute warm up and 15 minute workout made me feel infinitely happier and more energized.
On the food front:
Around 10am I had Paleo Power Meals spaghetti squash with meat sauce. It was literally the only thing I had in the fridge since it’s delivery day & I haven’t picked up this week’s food yet.
Around 3pm I had chicken & broccoli over cauliflower rice and dinner was steak frites around 6:30pm.
I picked up a bottle of Polar seltzer this weekend – pineapple grapefruit flavor – omg, it’s totally my new favorite!
Last week I shared with my Fat Loss Fast Track & Masters Club clients that I had a particularly tough day. Tough days are inevitable, but there’s so much value in improving how we respond to them.
Here’s the post I shared with my clients about that tough day.
One of my clients wrote to me a couple days later that she was relieved to hear that I have bad days. Here’s the thing: bad things happen every single day. But, good things happen every day, too! Every day is a mixed bag.
Your experience of the day comes down to what you focus on!
The more you practice directing your attention to what is right or good, the stronger that pathway becomes.
The more you practice directing your attention to what is wrong or not enough, the stronger that pathway becomes.
The choice is yours and every day serves up tons of opportunities to practice.
No surprise, I had a chance to practice during today’s workout. It was a mixed bag. At the start, I PR’d my power clean. Awesome!!!
At the end, I failed on every.single.rep of the final round of power cleans. I was tired and just didn’t have the gas in my tank. I kept trying, but failed on evvvvvvvery rep.
Mixed bag. I choose to focus on the PR and my awesome effort and attitude. It was a win.
“Behind Bars”
Power Clean: 10 min to work to heavy single
AMRAP 4:00:
400m Run
15 Burpees Over Bar
Max Power Cleans (135/95) Rest 4:00
AMRAP 4:00:
400m Run
10 Burpees Over Bar
Max Power Cleans (155/105) Rest 4:00
AMRAP 4:00:
400m Run
5 Burpees Over Bar
Max Power Cleans (185/135)
On the food front:
Gotta say, I was super hungry when I got home from my working and running a couple of errands.
Around 10am I had a cobb salad with chicken, avocado, tomatoes, egg and bacon.
At 1pm I had spaghetti squash with meat sauce and a couple handfuls of macadamia nuts.
I took advantage of the chance to eat an early dinner again (love it!) and had steak frites (sweet potato fries) – all from Paleo Power Meals. I’m so determined to make food choices each day that make me feel my absolute best. Today was a great day in that regard!
After my workout today I watched a TedTalk given by Tim Ferriss and he concluded his short presentation with a quote that I absolutely adore. In fact, after I saw the quote I sat down with my journal and wrote down some ideas about how I could apply it today.
When we repeatedly make easy choices, we have a hard life. We create a hard life.
I’ve lived this one. When I constantly made “easy” choices with food – overeating, overindulging, giving in to temptation instead of resisting, my life was hard. I wasn’t happy. I was self-conscious. I was disappointed in myself and obsessed with the changes I wasn’t making.
On the flip side, hard choices create an easy life. My choices now are in fact much harder than they used to be but my life is easier.
When I started making hard financial choices, my financial life got easier. When I started making hard career choices, my career got easier. When I started making hard health choices, being healthy got easier.
Could I justify some snacks or indulgences today? Sure could! But the hard choice of saying, “No, I don’t need that” makes my life easier.
It wasn’t easy to get up early this morning, but that hard choice, repeated consistently, makes my life easier. It wasn’t easy to go to the gym today, but that hard choice makes my life easier.
Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.
I love that so much. What can you do with it today?
Today’s workout was quick but effective. My butt is going to feel those thrusters tomorrow!
Throughout this workout I kept telling myself, “You don’t have to stop, you just want to!” It definitely helped me push harder.
On the food front:
I had a large glass of cold brew coffee before my workout and then around 10:15am I had a cobb salad with extra grilled chicken.
At 1:30 I had shrimp scampi with spaghetti squash (it was seriously amazing) from Paleo Power Meals and I was happy to have an early dinner around 5pm of steak frites (sweet potato fries).
While Paleo Power Meals gives me a discount code (ebprimal20 for your first order), they certainly don’t pay me to talk about their meals but holy smokes is it making my life easier!
I don’t buy their breakfasts anymore (I did at first) but instead I plan for lunch & dinner meals Monday-Friday. I love not having to cook or think about grocery shopping and meal prepping. I’m sure I’m spending a bit more than if I were cooking but the flip side of that is I can spend more time working, so I think it balances out. The time and sanity aspects are huge!
I’m done complaining. As of last night, I’m not complaining anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, I think of myself as a very positive person but it’s so easy for me to complain about my workload, personal stressors, family dynamics, aches & pains, etc.
But here’s what I was thinking…
It sucks to listen to people complain. It’s boring. It’s pointless. I’ve been one of the people complaining and one of the people listening to others complain. It sucks.
But, on top of being annoying & not interesting, it doesn’t make me happy.
I want to be happy. I can choose to be happy regardless of what is going on in my day or life.
While I drove home last night, I was listening to a podcast that told a story of a woman who declared she was making a radical choice: I choose to be happy.
It really struck me. I choose to be happy, too.
So, I’m done complaining. There’s way more in my life that I can be grateful about than there are things to complain about. And complaining doesn’t solve problems.
I had lots of chances to practice not complaining this morning. In fact, I left myself a note last night in case I forgot about my decision this morning.
“I choose to be happy. I choose to stop complaining”
When I got to the gym about a dozen people commented to me, “Whoa, you’ve got quite a sunburn!!”
I could have easily started complaining about the burn and the fact that sunburn + mosquito bites is a special kind of hell. Sunburn + mosquito bites + a workout that requires tossing around a burlap sandbag = a much darker hell.
Instead, I chose to smile and say “I earned it while enjoying a gorgeous day biking around Martha’s Vineyard.” True story. And a much more pleasant one than bitching about my sunburn and bug bites.
Bitching about the burn & the bites doesn’t make them feel better. It only makes me notice them more and therefore feel more uncomfortable. No thanks. I choose to be happy.
How lucky am I that I got to spend the weekend on Cape Cod, enjoy a party around a fire pit on Saturday night and a day biking around an island on Sunday? There is NOTHING to complain about.
I had opportunities to practice not complaining even before I left for the gym.
I wake up between 4:30 and 5am daily and I usually get to a certain point in my work before leaving for the gym at 6:50am. Today, however, I didn’t get as far in my work as I normally do.
As I noticed a complaining thought arising, I decided against it. It doesn’t make me happy to focus on how much work there is to do as though it’s a burden.Truthfully, I’m lucky to have work.Having a lot of clients is a BLESSING, not a burden. Not even a little. And, it’s early. There’s plenty of day ahead for me to get my work done. For now, I’m grateful for the break to workout.
Does this mean I won’t complain in the next 30 days? No. I’m sure I will. But just in the first 12 hours I’ve been more mindful and that’s progress in itself.
I choose to be happy.
My life reflects my thoughts, words & actions and I choose to be happy. I choose to not complain.
That workout I mentioned? It was a doozy. I feel a great sense of accomplishment with it behind me. That rough sandbag against my sunburn over and over and over was a great reminder to use sun protection next time!!
“Air Bags”
AMRAP 25
Teams of 3:*
10 Wreck Bag Zercher Reverse Lunges (5/side), 70/50
10 Alternating Wreck Bag Shoulders, 70/50
20 Lateral 2-foot Wreck Bag Hops (1 jump = 1 rep)
200m Run
*Relay style, Athlete 2 can start once athlete 1 leaves for the run
The workout gave me so many chances to practice not complaining. I was tired on the first round but I chose to focus on the fitness I was improving with each step & rep.
On the food front:
I had a couple cups of cold brew coffee before my workout and another one afterwards. Around 11am I took a break from work to enjoy a cobb salad.
At 2:30 I had this week’s Paleo Power Meals special – shrimp scampi over cauliflower rice. It was so tasty.
When I can, I prefer to have dinner early so at 5:30pm I had some grilled chicken & a smoothie made with cacao powder, frozen cauliflower & strawberries. It was really, really tasty & a yummy way to incorporate carbs at night!
Make it a great day, guys!
PS: If you choose to give Paleo Power Meals a try, be sure to use the coupon code ebprimal20 to save 20% on your first order!
I’ve probably said this before but it’s really on my mind today: it feels amazing to feel amazing.
It feels so much better to make great choices I feel proud of than to make crappy choices I don’t feel proud of. The effort is worth it.
It feels so much better to take great care of my body than to neglect it.
It feels better physically, it feels better emotionally, it just feels better in every way.
This really comes down to perspective. When I would routinely overeat and binge, I’d focus exclusively on the short term pleasure of eating. I like food. I like to eat. That’s still true.
But what I’d choose NOT to focus on is how awful I felt afterwards. How I felt heavy, full, sick, frustrated & disappointed. How I isolated myself because I wasn’t comfortable in my body & I was ashamed of how I looked. None of my clothes fit me well and getting dressed each morning was stressful.
None of that was worth the few minutes of pleasure I’d get from overindulging.
Sure, I still love cookies & ice cream. A lot. They’re delicious. But I do not love the way they make me feel.
On the flip side, there are a ton of fat loss friendly foods I really love and also love the way they make me feel. That’s what I choose to focus on.
It’s a choice, after all. I could focus on how much it sucks to not be able to eat cookies and ice cream all day long, but really, it doesn’t suck at all. I hated my life and I hated how I felt when I did that.
I want better. I deserve better. I’m capable of better & I choose better.
Speaking of choosing better, I feel so great after today’s workout!
“Annie’s on the Run”
200 SU (single unders with a jump rope)
50 Sit-ups
200m Run
160 SU
40 Sit-ups
200m Run
120 SU
30 Sit-ups
200m Run
80 SU
20 Sit-ups
200m Run
40 SU
10 Sit-ups
200m Run
I loved this workout. It was the right amount of running for my body – it enabled me to push on pace of the jump rope & the sit-ups and still push on the run. It’s a great day for fitness! Plus, the sun was shining! It’s been cold & rainy in New England so that was a great change!
After the workout I did some work on my grip and back strength – hollow body holds, hanging knees-to-chest, ring rows and heavy farmer’s carry.
Throughout the day I hopped on my airdyne bike for a few slow rides (while watching TV) and a few fast intervals.
My body feels good today & that’s not by accident. It’s because I’m eating well and moving well.
Why? Because it feels amazing to feel amazing.
On the food front:
Instead of being staunchly attached to food rules like “I don’t eat before 10am”, I really try to listen to my body. If I think it would feel better to eat before my workout, I do. If I feel like I can avoid it, I do.
Today I wanted some fuel in my system before my workout so I made a really light shake of cold brew coffee, cacao powder, almond milk and frozen cauliflower. If you’re looking for something sweet, this isn’t it. It’s like an unsweetened iced mocha.
After the workout I had steak and veggies from Paleo Power Meals. It’s a pretty sizeable portion of steak so it held me over for a good few hours.
Around 1pm I had a cobb salad and, because it was so good, I had another one for dinner around 5pm.
When I can, I eat dinner pretty early because I feel best with a longer fasting window between dinner and my first meal the following day. I think I sleep better, too.
