The Fed+Fit Podcast | Nurturing a Healthy Mindset for a Healthy Lifestyle
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Ep. 55: 5 Things You Can Do to Have a GREAT Day
Today is a unique podcast, as I recorded it live during a Periscope. Please forgive some of the poor audio, and my getting sidetracked by a couple of questions. In this episode, you’re going to hear my 5 methods that help to ensure I personally have a great day. I hope you enjoy it, and are able to apply some of the tips in your own life.
Cassy Joy: So, today what we’re going to talk about is how to have a happier, healthier day. And I have prepared some notes, and I’m going to kind of work through them, but I would love to see this kind of turn into a forum and would like to get your thoughts as we’re working through it.
Alrighty; so to start off, what we’re going to talk about today. You know, it’s really just some basic stuff that sounds so common sense; yeah, it’s like a forum, exactly! I have to do better about responding to you guys without derailing my thoughts. I’m going to work on being a better multitasker. These are really, really basic practices, and they kind of sound like “no-duh” moments. They’re going to sound very intuitive, but at the end of the day these are all these things I personally have to remind myself of and I’m not always great about staying on top of them. So I think it’s good just to flesh these ideas out, and talk about things that we can do both today and tomorrow to make tomorrow a really, really great day.
Thank you guys so much for inviting followers; I really appreciate that. This is going to a pretty short scope; probably 15 minutes or so, just to give yourself an idea.
So let’s jump into it. Basic practices that make a huge difference, right? We all have a lot of things going on. We’ve got a lot of goals, we’ve got a lot of balls up in the air. I constantly have the analogy of little plates on dowels that we’re spinning and we’re trying to keep all of them balanced and we have to move from one plate to another to spin it, and thanks again for inviting followers guys. I think there’s a way to really maximize your efforts and feel like you’re still in control. Because what we really want to avoid is that feeling at the end of the day; it’s like 2 p.m. rolls around and we feel like we’re just now starting the day. Has anybody else ever had that feeling? Where you start off with great intentions, you jump out of bed in the morning, and then you start working on some things, maybe you hadn’t planned on working on. You unload the dishwasher, and that turns into; oh, you know I really need to go to the grocery store and restock on this, and the next thing you know the afternoon rolls around and you’re just now jumping into the things that you really wanted to accomplish for that day.
So this whole idea that I want to talk about is things we can do to put ourselves in the driver’s seat really purposefully and make the most happen.
So tip number one; I say we write tomorrow’s to-do list today. And again, this might sound like a, “well, no kidding,” moment to a lot of people listening, but I’m the kind of person that, in the past I like to write the to-do list first thing in the morning. I’d sit down with my cup of coffee, and I’d think; oh, these are the things I want to do today. And I’d write them down, and I would say; that’s my plan. However, let me tell you the reason why; it’s exactly right. It is so easy to do small house chores instead of the big important thing. Because if you’re like me, and you’re a list person, it feels so great to cross things off your list. And if it’s a bunch of little things, you feel like you’re accomplishing a whole lot, and we tend to avoid those big hairy; the ugly frogs if you’ve ever read the book Eat the Ugly Frogs First. We tend to avoid those big ugly frogs. And that’s fine; there are times to do both.
Ok, so the to-do list. Here’s a perspective that dawned on me recently and I wanted to share it with you guys. You know, at the beginning of the day when we’re refreshed, let’s say we’ve had a full night’s sleep. We’re feeling great, we’ve got a cup of coffee in our hand, we’ve got some caffeine in our system, we’ve had a great breakfast and we’re going to write our to-do list. In the mornings, we feel like we can do it all. Right? We’re like, “I’m going to do everything! My to-do list is going to have 97 things on it, and I’m going to do them all. And I’m going to do them all great.” So that’s what we think; that’s what powers our to-do list writing first thing in the morning.
It’s so me too; I’m so the same way. I over commit first thing in the morning. But the reason why I started writing my to-do list right before I went to bed is because we’re much more reasonable at the end of the day, right? We’ve got great intentions, totally, but at the end of the day we’re more wise to what we’re actually able to accomplish. And there’s something that happens between the end of the day and the beginning of the morning where we kind of lose that wisdom a little bit. We go from being reasonable and knowing what we can accomplish and a little bit unreasonable.
So I really try to write my to-do list before I go to bed at night, because I have a day behind me, I know what I was able to accomplish, I know how much time certain things took, and I’m able to really be practical and intentional with my to-do list. So writing them at the end of the day is a great way to do that.
And something else that I think in the morning; what I really want to avoid; there’s nothing wrong with writing a really long, comprehensive to-do list. Nothing wrong with that. About once every couple of weeks, I get to that point where I’m like; you know what, even if I’m only going to be able to accomplish 5 things tomorrow morning, I just want to at least see them all on the page. So I’ll write them all out. There’s nothing wrong with that. But committing your heart to knowing that you’re going to try to do all of those things is painful when you’re not able to actually accomplish them. And I don’t want you to feel like you’re letting yourself down, because you overcommitted first thing in the morning when you were on that coffee train.
I have multiple lists too; I totally hear you there. So that’s one of the reasons why I encourage you to write tomorrow’s to-do list today. So that’s tip number one.
Tip number two; set up your dominos, your first dominos before you go to bed. And again, basic practices, right? That’s what we’re talking about. We’ve all done this every once in a while. We all know the power in this. But again, just keep it in mind, it can be really, really helpful. So what are those first dominos first thing in the morning? That could be packing the kid’s lunches, which you won’t do again until Sunday night, but pack those lunches in the evening. Set out your gym clothes for the next morning. Right? If you like to work out in the morning, or even if you just take your gym bag with you to work so you can work out on the way home, pack it the night before so you don’t even have to think about what am I going to wear to the gym, and am I actually going to go to the gym. Because you’re going to be more inclined to honor that commitment the night before, and have great intentions the night before than maybe the day of. So set out your gym clothes, set out your work clothes, what you’re going to wear the next day. Fill the coffee maker. Fill that coffee machine before you go to bed; that’s a great one to just help you get your day off on the right food; right? We want to protect our mornings.
The mornings are such crucial times for our day. That’s when it all happens you guys. That sets the tone. It’s kind of like when we were back in school; our teachers used to always tell us that it’s so much easier to maintain a good grade than to have a bad grade and try to make it up. Plan; exactly, plans are so grossly underestimated. And I’m a creative; I’m a person who is a very spontaneous, creative person, and I try to just live by fly by the seat of my pants, that’s my inclination. But that being said; when I’m just in an entirely creative state, I get absolutely nothing really accomplished, and it’s good to go back and forth between those two things, but at the end of the day when I tuck myself into bed and I feel super accomplished, it’s because I did some of these things.
It’s kind of reverse engineering; what the heck did I do to have such an awesome day? And these are some of those practices. So protect your mornings. Protect that time when you’re really able to make the most out of those hours before noon.
Ok, and another reason why I think it’s important to pack the kids lunches the night before, pack your lunch, maybe prepare your breakfast a little bit before, set out your clothes, is because if you guys are new to my podcast you may not have heard me talk about this yet, but there’s such a thing as decision fatigue. And if any of you have ever felt that, I am with you, ok. Decision fatigue is a real thing. You know how at the end of the day, you come home to your husband; hypothetically, you’re all married women. You come home to your husband, and he says honey what do you want for dinner? And you’re response is, I don’t even know. I couldn’t possibly make another decision today, you please decide for me. Right?
Decision fatigue is a real thing, and I almost have to think of myself as protecting those decisions. I need to reserve those decisions for things that really matter, right? These programs that I’m working on. Talking with clients. Getting out and speaking to people in a public forum. I like to reserve some of those decisions and that freshness so I’m sharp for you guys, right? And I don’t need to waste those decisions on which blouse am I going to wear; am I going to go workout; what workout pants am I going to wear. You know, those are silly things I don’t need to waste decisions on, so protect your mornings and protect your decisions.
Ok, third point out of five. It’s a good perspective and it’s something that really helps me. It really helps motivate me to be protective over my mornings, and set myself up for success. Plan, that 4-letter word. Ok, so number 3; this is, again, a no-brainer, but it’s important to remember. Go to bed early. That’s a great thing we can do today that will make tomorrow awesome. I know it’s so tempting; you are knee-deep in a new Netflix show and you’re like; I could do one more. What’s 45 minutes? What, really, is 45 minutes really going to make a huge difference? Go to bed early. Try to honor your bedtime like you would honor lunch with your best friend. Because at the end of the day; and if you guys want to know more about sleep, and what sleep does for the body and all the wonderful ways it can help and ways it can hurt us if we don’t get enough, you should scroll back through the archives of the Fed and Fit podcast; I’ve recorded a couple of episodes on sleep.
Man, it is all about sleep. I hear you. Austin, my husband and I, joke that we’re; he’s 32 and I’m 29, but we joke that we belong in a much older generation because of our sleeping and eating habits. But it really, really is crucial. You’re so right; you’re so right. So look up those episodes if you’d like to know more of the science; I tease apart a lot of that. I talk about cortisol levels throughout the day. Yeah; exactly. That’s pretty much what you’ve hit on, at least in these first three steps. The last two are going to talk about what to do the day of, but tomorrow’s success really, really does depend on what you do today. And it’s not to say you can’t wake up, fly by the seat of your pants, and just go on and have an awesome day. But if you really want to hedge your bets, and you really want to do all the things you can do to ensure success, that’s what you can do.
Ok, fourth tip out of five. Remember, we’ve had so far; write tomorrow’s to-do list today, set up your dominos first, right, your first dominos first. Get those teed up so all you have to do is tip them over in the morning, go to bed early, and then tip number four is to get out of bed when you’re planning to get out of bed. Now, this is sometimes a hard thing for some people, and I may be one of those people. I like sleep, and I also understand the importance of sleep, so it’s really easy to justify sleeping a little bit more. But, and keep in mind this doesn’t necessarily apply, let’s say if you’re a parent and you’ve got a newborn or a sick child and you were up all night and you and your husband were just going back and forth trying to take care of this child. I’m not talking to you guys. Having a few more hours of sleep is really important. I’m talking to the people who are habitual snooze button pushers.
These are the things; pushing that snooze button is almost like saying you are starting your day off with a compromise. You’re starting your day off saying, “Nope. I do not respect the intentions I set for today.” Because when I set my alarm for 6 a.m., if I don’t honor that 6 a.m. appointment, it’s almost like I’ve decided that today’s appointments that I set up for myself yesterday don’t really matter that much. So honor your snooze; excuse me! {laughs} Honor your alarm. Try to avoid the snooze button.
And then a tip; if that’s actually something that’s tough for you. If getting up first thing when your alarm goes off is difficult for you and you don’t really know how to put that into practice; I hear you. Something you can do is give yourself a very, very easy habit to do first thing when you wake up. So when your alarm goes off, a lot of people who hit the snooze button are overwhelmed by the day, right? They think about all the things they’ve got to do, and are like; “oh my gosh, I just want 5 more minutes of peace and quiet before I have to jump into this day.”
So instead of thinking about all of the weight of the days’ responsibilities on your shoulders, give yourself one super duper simple thing that you can do for first thing when you wake up, whether that’s splashing some water on your face, that’s the first thing you do when you wake up, you have a cup of coffee. Give yourself something very simple and direct so you just have to roll out of bed and do it, and then the rest of the day will start.
Ok, last point that I want to make of the five. It’s true; eventually you will find mornings easier when you sleep consistently, that’s very, very true. And that’s something I talk about in my sleep podcast episodes, is how to get yourself set on a regular schedule, how to know how much sleep your body actually needs because it varies by the person, just like our nutritional needs vary by each person, sleep varies as well. So keep that in mind. Listen to those episodes; I think you guys might get a lot out of them.
Ok, the fifth and final point is to honor your appointments. Fifth way to have an awesome day today is just to honor your appointments. If you wrote it down yesterday on your to-do list; honor it. If you said you were going to go to the gym today at noon, you were going to go to that ladies spin class; go. No excuses. I’m here for you, set up an accountability system. The night before, tell your girlfriend you’re going to meet her there. Honor those appointments; don’t let yourself off the hook.
Honor the time. If you’ve decided you’re going to rest tomorrow, right? This one is hard for me too. If you’re working out all the time, and you love those workouts but you know you’ve got to get in at least one rest day a week, honor that rest time. It’s so, so important. If you say you’re going to wash your hair; I know it sounds a little weird, but I talk to a lot of moms on a very regular basis, and they say that they haven’t washed their hair all week, they haven’t had time to take a shower because the kids finally took a nap and they just needed to sit down and be quiet for a second, but they always feel so great when they actually do take the time to take a shower. So honor that; if you say you’re going to do it, do it. It will make you feel great.
Honor the time to do the laundry, to sit down and do your work. It’s all about the dry shampoo; {laughs} I totally get it. Honor the time you’ve set aside to check your email or to not check your email. If you said, “well I’m only going to check my email twice a day because it totally derails my productivity,” then only check it twice a day. Respect that. Honor the time to call your mom, to walk the dog; whatever it is, you get the picture, right? Respect yourself. That is how to have an awesome day. It’s less about how much we accomplish, it’s less about how many things you cross off your to-do list. At the end of the day, that feeling of just that you owned the day really happens more often when you respected the intentions you set, either the day before or that morning. That’s how to do it, you guys. That’s the secret. Is to respect yourself enough to follow through on the intentions you set.
Ok, and I can’t help myself but I have a bonus point. So those were the 5, and here’s a bonus number 6 because I am; and I didn’t introduce myself. If you’re new here, my name is Cassy Joy Garcia. I am the founder of FedandFit.com. I am a holistic nutrition consultant, and I have a podcast, I have a nutrition program, food and fitness program that will relaunch this summer. So that bleeds into this next point. This bonus point is to stop and eat your meals. Ok? No skipping meals, you guys. Not acceptable.
I know that it’s so easy when you are chugging along and you’ve had a really good, great day productivity; you’ve got meetings after meetings, and you’re thinking that, “oh gosh I looked up and it’s 2 p.m. and I missed lunch, I’ll just wait till dinner.” That’s not a badge of honor of productivity. That is, you’re sabotaging; truly what you’ve done to your afternoon is you’re really sabotaging productivity, positivity, and ultimately your health. It’s so important to have at least 3 meals a day. So do not skip meals. It really doesn’t work in your favor. If you’re new here, there’s really no glory to your body or your mindset in cutting calories in that way.
I know; I know you moms. I totally empathize there, but do your best not to skip a meal. You’ll feel more from it if you have those meals. And for people like you busy moms, or busy professionals, whatever your job is. If that’s something that you do find that you’re really bad at, or you have trouble with, something I’ve encouraged people to do in the past is to set an alarm on their phone. If you know that you have trouble remembering to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner, set an alarm on your phone that says eat lunch, at 11:30 when little Jimmy goes down for his nap, or I drop off Susie Ann at ballet, I’m going to eat my lunch right then at that moment. Ok, so you’ve got it scheduled, something pops up to help remind you, and you’ll get it done. You’ll be more likely, at least, to get it done.
So these are some of my hacks; schedule it in. that’s it girl, schedule in those lunches. Just like you would schedule in maybe a shower, maybe laundry time, maybe a time to call your mom. We’ve got all those plates that we’re spinning, it really, really helps to schedule it, plan it, and then honor what you’ve set out. Honor those intentions.
Thank you guys for joining me! I hope you found this helpful. I am going to polish this up and then hopefully repost it as a podcast episode on Monday so you can find it there. I really enjoyed it. If you guys have any questions for me before I sign off, I’m happy to answer a couple. It doesn’t have to just be about today’s episode. But that’s what we’re up. You’re so welcome; thank you for dialing in. And you know; I announced this on Instagram today, but if you guys follow me on social media, you saw my Fed and Fit surprise project, something I’ve been working on for a really long time, and I’m finally going to announce all the juicy details on Monday. I cannot wait. It’s going out to my email subscribers first, so if you’re not on my email, you can grab it by going to my website, FedandFit.com. Just sign up right there. The email will go out at 9 a.m. central, and then after that I’ll post everything to social media.
Thanks you guys so much for calling in, or dialing in. Oh, thank you! I’m glad you like the Snapchats. I love Snapchat, if you can’t tell, it’s so much fun. I feel like my true crazy is allowed to shine through on Snapchat {laughs} so that’s why I like it so much. Ok you guys; y’all have an awesome Friday. Go out there, have fun. Before you go to bed tonight, write tomorrow’s to-do list, even though it’s Saturday, and have a really great day and remember to honor the intentions you’ve set for yourself. I’ll talk to you soon.
