Yesterday, was a close call. I nearly sabotaged my own progress and came off the rails. Nearly.
I was out of the house 630am-930pm so it was a long day. I didn’t sleep well the night before so was extremely tired. I didn’t prep my food the night before because I got distracted. It’s the last week in my cycle so I want to eat constantly. I pushed through a tough leg session, so felt genuinely ravenous afterwards.
I have been training, prepping and planning ahead for the best part of 8 years, and I still have days that I struggle to get it right. On these days, there are a couple of things that help me:
Knowledge is Power
I know when we are tired, our hormone balance changes telling us we are hungry, so we reach for food as a direct response
I know when we are tired our rational brain function takes a back seat and we go into our urgent survival mode to find fuel
I know when we are busy, we need to minimise the amount of decisions we have to make to keep our stress levels down
I know we make upwards of 35,000 decisions each day and over 200 relate to food. Thats exhausting!
I know that hormone changes depending on your female cycle impact hunger, fatigue and overall energy levels which can lead to relying on caffeine or food for a boost
I know when we exert more energy or increase our activity, we need to replenish our bodies to help them recover and refuel
If you have a goal, willpower only gets you so far, and then you have to have discipline!
You have to acknowledge that life will happen. It will be busy, you will have work stress, family stress, social events. It’s unavoidable. So that means you have even more reason to follow these simple steps;
Plan ahead - make a plan for your training, food and life style with your goals in mind
Get 7-9hrs sleep a night
Plan ahead - prepare food in advance so you can minimise your daily decision making
Track your cycle - you can optimise your training and eating for every stage
Plan ahead - if you are on the go, know what foods you can grab from grocery store to stay on plan (this saved me yesterday!)
Rest & Recover - make sure you refuel with nutritionally dense food and rest after you have trained your body
Plan ahead - prioritise what’s most important to help you reach your goals on a daily basis. Small wins and progress every day leads to the big goal!
I made it through the day, maybe not with glowing colours but I made it through and I didn’t just throw in the towel.
Having a plan, applying discipline and staying consistent will get you to your goal. I believe that each of you have the grit and determination to get what you really want.
If you need support, I am here to chat, so let me know!
Comments