I TOTALLY GET WHY IT'S HARD....

To stay on track. To meet your health, wellness, nutrition, or weight loss goals. To keep going.

I had my entire day planned out. Just like many of you do, as well. Whether it’s a loose idea of things you wanted to get done, or a detailed, meticulous plan of each thing you wanted to check off your list. You had your day planned.

Then comes the monkey-wrench getting thrown into the program. Maybe it’s a forgotten appointment. Or a work-project deadline that got bumped up without any warning. Maybe a child got sick at school, and you had to go pick them up and take them to the doctor, or just home for some medicine and rest.

For me, it was my daughter being out of school for the day, which I had completely forgotten about, and her having a long list of things SHE needed to get done as well – and some that required my help. Plus, a banquet that I had ALSO forgotten about (and I KNEW it was coming, I just forgot to put it on my calendar), so that meant the projects I intended to finish up that evening were not going to happen. These included a healthy dinner and meal prepping for the rest of the week, and taking a walk for the first evening in a week since an issue with my knee flared up and stopped me.

Basically, all the health and wellness related items I intended to do that afternoon and evening were out the window for a series of phone calls and emails, and a banquet that lasted most of the evening.

So, how does one deal with staying on track with your goals when life is throwing curveballs at you left and right?

My first suggestion is to Determine What Your TRUE Priorities Are. It’s easy to say during a peaceful, or less-stressed moment that EVERY health and wellness goal is a priority. But when that work deadline gets bumped, your kid/s are throwing up every five minutes, or you forgot you’re the snack mom and carpool driver for ALL the kids’ practices all week long, those priorities are going to shift – fast. So, it’s important for you to decide, what is your greatest priority with your health goals?

Eating healthy meals to the best of your ability? Movement? Stress Management? Maybe it can all wait for a week while you’re dealing with a sick kid or a work deadline in your face.

Once you determine what the true priority is, the next thing to figure out is, What Is the ONE THING You Can Do in that Area?

While you may WANT to keep jogging for 45 minutes every morning, you may simply not have the energy to make that happen. And that’s OKAY! There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging you’re dealing with a tough week and can’t make 45 minutes of jogging happen when you’re functioning on 3 hours of sleep.

So, what CAN you do? Maybe you – PERSONALLY – need to focus on stress-management. Or you need to stretch while your kid is sleeping because you’ve got a crick in your neck from sleeping at a weird angle for a few days. Or hunched over a computer from long hours at work.

Maybe the focus needs to be nutrition. Or if getting nourishing meals is an issue, maybe just trying to fit healthy snacks into your day is an easier option.

Then decide How Is that ONE THING Going to Work? This is more of an extension of the previous step of determining what the one thing IS, and this is the narrowing it down part. Because you’re probably (if you’re anything like me) dancing on that fine line between knowing and wanting to meet your goals, but time, energy, outside circumstances are making it difficult for those goals to happen.

You’re giving yourself permission to shift the goal FOR NOW, and come back to it another day/time when you’re in a better place.

The day of the banquet, I didn’t get my evening walk, but I came home and did some exercises in my living room. I didn’t make the healthy dinner I had planned, but I tried to include more protein and veggies with my meal, and I had fruit that night when we got home.

So, if I’m in a situation that is going to affect the actions I’m taking for the day/week, what am I doing to still move towards my goals? What ways can I simplify my actions to still be doing SOMETHING, but not stressing out over it or doing nothing at all?

Figure out what the true priority is. Then decide what’s the one thing you can do to make that priority happen. And finally, look at how that one thing is going to work, or how you’re going to accomplish it.

And be sure to give yourself some grace. Sometimes you just have to roll with the situation until you come out on the other side.

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