It’s Monday, and each time the start of a new week rolls around it’s a great way to get started on a new healthy-week plan. I don’t know about you, but generally on the weekends I love to indulge a little with friends and family, and not watch very closely what I eat or when. Weekends aren’t exactly a license to eat whatever, but it’s certainly time to enjoy yourself.
Then, during the work week, it’s time to re-establish healthy habits and live by the 80/20 rule – 80 per cent healthy eating and exercise, and 20 per cent enjoyment. It’s a nice way to live, and it’s sustainable.
Here’s how I generally prepare for my weeks in order to create balance in my life.
Plan ahead
Healthy habits don’t just kick-start themselves. Planning ahead is a must. Not only will creating a weekly menu and shopping ahead keep you healthy in the long run, it will also save you a ton of cash on eating out. The investment of a couple of hours on the weekend, planning a menu and shopping, has the best rewards.
Invest in some great, healthy cook books or just look online at the huge array of recipes available, and save them in an Evernote file or something similar. Write your recipe choices down and stick them on your fridge so that when you are time-poor during the week, you have everything set to go. If you can cook on the weekends and freeze, that’s a great option but if not, make sure you choose recipes that are fairly quick and easy to make. If you can make double quantities so you have enough for lunch, that’s always a win. If not, plan ahead with some go-to items to make healthy salads with protein like chicken, eggs, nuts, seeds and legumes and mix them the night before for lunch the next day. Healthy snacks are handy to have too.
Create a priority list for your week – on the weekend before
If you do nothing else this week, what are the top five items that you would be happy to achieve this week? We do this so often with work, but it’s way too easy to neglect prioritising within our own lives. I don’t stop at this. I like to also prioritise the feelings that I want to feel, and the habits that I want to construct in my life that will serve me.
Create a list for yourself. Mine looks list this:
- Enjoy the moment
- Feel gratitude for all that I have
- Instead of dwelling on the past, creative positive action steps for the future
- Live wholly and fully
- Trust my instincts
- Follow the feelings that feel right for me
- Accept funky feelings, and don’t latch on to them
- Spend time with with my partner, friends and family
- Nurture new relationships
- Feel the fear, and do it anyway
- Meditate twice per day
- Exercise daily – whether it’s a walk, run, yoga or the gym
Can you see how the feelings and intentions actually come before the action steps, such as exercise and meditation? I find that when I set out to achieve the things that I know will really create meaning in my life, and nurture my soul and my emotions, I will be much better placed to carry out the action steps to support this.
Take time each day to give yourself a break
This is not just classified as a ‘taking a break’. It’s about giving yourself a break. It’s about self-love and nurturing yourself. By reminding yourself daily that you come first in your life you will be in a good position to creating nurturing habits. And if you’re treating yourself well, and looking after yourself, so it follows that others will treat you well, and you will treat others well.
Giving yourself a break includes daily reminders about your intentions and goals for the week (see the list above), taking time to actually enact the rituals that you have set in place, eating well and getting proper sleep, nurturing your relationships at work and outside of them, taking a lunch break or short breaks throughout the day when you need them, taking several deep breaths and getting back to your center when you’re feeling stressed, and taking time to do some of the things that you love, such as having a long bath, reading a great book or having dinner with a friend. If you fall down, or you don’t do what you said you were going to do one day, don’t sweat it. Just jump back on board tomorrow.
How do you get started with your healthy weeks?
