“Are you feeling like the pandemic broke your health systems?” I know for me it has felt exactly like that. It took about a month for me to grieve what life used to be like and the everyday luxuries I took for granted. With some time and reflections, I was able to make changes and acceptances to what is the new “normal” and build systems to help me get back on track.
It’s all about systems…
One thing I know about myself; I’m a systems person. I have routines that help me prep for work, healthy eating, workouts, and weekends. With COVID, all my routines and systems were forced to change. In order to find new ways to adjust it requires acceptance, time, and mental energy to notice what’s been broken. Once you figure out what is broken you can work on how to fix it.
We need systems more than ever. During our normal life, we get why it matters, but in a time that we are experiencing something completely out of our norm, it’s hard to find that “balance”. We need to think twice as much about the decisions we need to make to come up with our new daily routines.
Ask yourself the following questions to build systems that will work for you and where you’re at:
Access where you’re at…
- Currently, what are your top priorities? Is it to connect with your friends and family? To ensure you are safe and as healthy as possible to avoid getting sick? Spending 30 minutes being active vs an hour a day because your schedule has changed so much?
- What dropped in importance? That extra 5lbs bothered you, but maybe now is not the time it does? Were you avoiding eating certain types of foods for physique purposes?
Where do you want to be?
- Do your current actions line up with what’s most important to you now?
- What were the old systems that helped you to stay healthy?
- What systems did you have in place to make those habits feel easy?
- What systems do you need now?
- How might your old systems help you feel good about starting your morning off in the right direction?
- How might they help you make it easy to live a healthy life?
Here’s an example I have been doing even though I am not heading to the gym and my gym is my living room: Every night before I go to bed I lay out my workout clothes the night before and I pack my lunch even though I’m working from home.
Another example you can try is to create a workout space (ie) garage, living room, or bedroom and give this bodyweight workout a try.
This may be a time to shift your attention to another area of your health vs what was important to you pre-pandemic.
Of course, if you need some extra reflective time or finding it difficult to ask yourself these questions you can always contact me for a complimentary coaching session where we can help you sort out your new values and come up with decisions that take the stress out of deciding what is necessary and what you need to let go of. Simply apply here and let me know. I would love to help!
