Too Busy to Take Care of YOU? Let's Figure Out What to Do About That...

Today I’m sitting at an airport, traveling home for two days to see my family for two days before heading out on another work assignment. All of this airport time gets me thinking about my relationship with open eating. I face many of the struggles of the working parent, whether at home or on the road. One of the key aspects of learning how to Open Eat is to be able to take the time to listen to what your body wants, and react to it in a positive way, amidst all of the responsibilities that come with parenting, maintaining a household, working a high-demand job… where does Open Eating even fit in?

• The good news is that it can fit in amidst all of that. 
• The better news is that being able to learn to Open Eat while confronting daily challenges, will make you more likely to succeed. You don’t have to have a perfectly balanced life to find peace with eating. 
• The best news is that it is possible and busy life is actually a better training ground for building a healthy relationship with food.

Why would this be the case? Wouldn’t changing my life be easier if I were able to focus on it? Nope. That all-or-none mentality is actually not sustainable… and it surely won’t stick as soon as something changes your ability to give your ALL to this effort.

If you’re just starting to read this blog, I urge you to go back a few weeks to the very beginning to review exactly what Open Eating is. It is the path that will help you to mend your relationship with food, remove guilt about food choices, and bring you confidence in your path toward a healthy weight and body.

Open Eating is not an all-or-none project. It is made up of tiny steps that change how you interact with food. Those tiny puzzle pieces eventually turn to the bigger picture, your approach to living a healthy lifestyle. I’ve been coaching it for years, and I know it works.

So back to my airport trip… and all of those other responsibilities. Most of the time, I work a remote job from my home office. It is fast-paced and highly demanding… for my brain- but NOT at all for my body. There are times I’ll sit down at 6 am to just start my day, hoping to take my 1-hour exercise break mid-morning and gear up for a light lunch. 

Then I find myself multi-tasking with my work responsibilities, all while getting the kids off to school, only to look up and find it’s already time to pick them up. I might have forgotten to eat, and I most certainly didn’t get my exercise in. NOT in a positive mindset, and NOT listening to what my body wants and providing it the nutrients and movement it needs through Open Eating.

Then, during the travel weeks, I gear up, hoping for more headspace and movement, but find myself in an airport… sitting some more. It’s Ugly. So how do I fix this? 

The key is small steps that make big impacts. My joints hurt and my energy is low when I live unbalanced like this. It’s my body telling me, I need to get more nutrients and I need to move. 

I’ve taken 3 steps to improve my ability to make time to Open Eat and improve my life balance. 

1. Bring me back into my orbit.

I know I need nutrients and I know I need to move. What are the best moments for me to do these? It’s clear that getting an hour to exercise simply isn’t going to happen, so what is? What will pull me out of my focused work time to remember to eat? Taking a real inventory of where the problem lies is the first step to fixing it.

2. Set a SMART goal: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. What does that look like? 

• I’m going to set an alarm on my phone to eat breakfast, either a snack or meal, at 8 am so I don’t miss it. I’ll do the same at noon, and 5 pm for at least 5 days per week, for 2 weeks. I’ll re-evaluate after 2 weeks.
• I’m going to set an alarm every hour to stand up and stretch and let my brain listen to my body for 3 minutes, 5 days per week for 2 weeks. (That’s a total of 30 minutes during a 10-hour day- simple, but better than nothing. After 2 weeks, I’ll re-evaluate.
• Specific- Meals and Movements (could even be more specific by planning out what your meals are made of, and the movements that you want to do- i.e. step in place, yoga stretch, etc.)
• Measurable- 3 meals per day, 30 minutes of movement
• Achievable- yes, it’s much more reasonable. 1 hour wasn’t reasonable for my schedule before. Maybe I can build to that in time, but for now, 30 minutes is achievable. For times I can’t get away for a meal, I should have healthy snacks available.
• Relevant- yes, it is helping me achieve my goals toward Open Eating
• Timely- 5 days per week, for 2 weeks, then evaluate what is working and what’s not. 

3. Be forgiving of me.

Look… I’ve failed, a lot. Am I going to let that stop me? Nope. I’m going to learn from it. Every time I don’t meet my goal, it is because I misjudged my previous goal. Either it wasn’t specific enough, or the measure didn’t make sense. It could be that it simply wasn’t achievable, or I missed the target on relevance. Maybe the time factor wasn’t right. Every one of those is an opportunity to learn what works and what doesn’t. If I give in to feelings of failure and shame, I go nowhere. If I forgive myself and learn from it, I change direction. Eventually, it will be the right one. 

Long blog post today… but these are real principles that work for even the busiest of lifestyles.

What busy barriers do you find stopping you from Open Eating? I’d love to help you find a solution!