Overcoming Breaks In Routine
The vast majority of us are creatures of habit.
We have a similar work pattern.
Family routines.
And daily rituals that we follow.
Improving our health and fitness ultimately boils down to…
Building habits and routines that compliment our health and fitness goals.
But what about when those routines are interrupted?
Why we might break routine?
Have you ever been in a real groove with your training and your nutrition.
Your starting to feel good and getting results!
Then all of a sudden something comes along that breaks your rhythm.
holiday
Injury
Life events
Holidays are the most common interruption that I come across with clients.
Even though these are often planned far in advance. The effects of breaking routine are still felt.
Unexpected life events are even more challenging.
Perhaps it is an injury, illness, changes in our jobs, relationships or living conditions.
Whether it’s an expected break in our routine Or unexpected…
What can we do?
… What NOT to do!
I often see 2 ways we as humans have a tendency to handle routine breaks the wrong way.
1. We resist getting back into healthy routines.
It can be hard to get back into routine following a break.
We get into the habit, of missing our habits.
Weeks and months can go by. And slowly our hard work can begin to unravel.
I’ve seen people struggle with this for so long that they return all the way back to square
2. We overcompensate and burn out.
For some people it may be tempting to come back and try to undo all of the damage they did whilst out of routine.
They might cut their calories to a minimum.
Train even harder!
… And they’re far too hard on themselves!
This eventually leads to feeling tired, frustrated and burnt out.
Not enjoying your daily routines is the fastest way to quit on them completely.
What can we do?
What should we do?
Just don’t break routine
This may sound like an oversimplification.
But there is something to be said for just being relentlessly consistent and not breaking your routine.
My cousin once said to me.
“Protect your routine and your routine will protect you”
To give a specific example,
This is why I’m an advocate of training when on holiday!
I saw this once with a client where he had 2 holiday lined up.
The first holiday, he took gym clothes and got in a few training sessions.
He came back, as motivated as ever to train.
The second holiday he didn’t go the gym at all.
By the time he got back, he really struggled to get his motivation back.
Fortunately, he showed a lot of discipline… and kept making efforts to train despite not wanting to.
Eventually he did get back into a solid routine, but it wasn’t easy!
But it happened because he allowed his routine to break whilst on holiday.
(I know that for many of you listening the idea of working out on holiday probably sounds terrible)
But..
When you start to see training, making healthy food choices and prioritising recover as a key aspect of your identity… it doesn’t feel like a chore to do, even on holiday.
But, I’m realistic…
And I understand that this is a very aspirational level to reach.
So another really practical solution to managing breaks in routine is to
Have a Contingency plan!
A contingency plan is having certain strategies in reserve, for when we find ourselves unable to stick to Plan A.
This is my absolute PRO TIP for managing unexpected routine interruptions.
The easiest way to explain is to give an example:
Imagine your boss comes to you on a Monday morning and gives you a HUGE deadline that needs to completed by Sunday.
You end up working overtime every night and on the weekend to try and get the work done in time.
In the fridge is a weeks worth of ingredients for healthy meals.
But you have no time to cook it!
Without a contingency plan…
We could find ourselves grabbing high calorie food on the go… or having to order takeaways.
As we’ve said… breaking our routine, could lead us to struggling to get back on track or overcompensating and beating ourselves up for a “bad week”!
But what if we had prepared in advance?
Perhaps we could keep a few pre-prepared meals in our freezer that we can grab when we need them?
Or another tactic I like is to create a custom ‘takeaway menu’ where you list all of the foods you can order locally that are in alignment with your goal.
We can create contingency plans to help us stay on track even when our routine is unexpectedly changed.
Summary
Routines, habits and rituals are extremely important to successfully managing our health and fitness.
Whether our routines are broken expectedly or unexpectedly.
We should do everything we can to protect them:
Whether that’s simply grit and determination to stick to our routines no matter what.
Or
Preparing in advance to be able to implement a plan B.
If we just weren’t able to maintain our routines in any form…
Don’t delay in getting back on track, it would be ashame to lose the good progress you’ve made.
And don’t overcompensate either.
Just get straight back into your habits and routines, just like before.
Our Health & Fitness is worth the effort!