No time like the present
IT’S the final day of November which can mean only ONE thing… It’s December tomorrow. I love the sun and I love the summer months but WOW do I love the month of December. How can you not love it?
Christmas Trees
Christmas lights
Christmas celebrations
Christmas treats
Christmas drinks
Christmas parties
Christmas presents
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day
Literally WOW, WOW, WOW!
It really is the time to be jolly and happy but I know for some people out there it can actually cause some extra stress due to more apparent obstacles coming towards you due to the above examples.
Just talking about STRESS for a minute… do you know what the term STRESS actually means? In psychology, stress is a feeling of strain and pressure ...
Us humans experience stress, or perceive things as threatening, when we do not believe that our resources for coping with obstacles (stimuli, people, situations, etc.) are enough for what the circumstances demand.
In basic terms which I always like to work on (why over complicate things right?), I believe this means when you don’t believe you can do something with the internal skills you currently have. If you could do something then you wouldn’t be stressed right? If you didn’t feel you could do something then the levels of stress go up.
So now we know what stress actually is, how does this relate to today’s column, Chris?
December and all the amazing associations that it has with it can sometimes cause STRESS as it can mean a change of routine and a few extra obstacles that we need to navigate around.
Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle
What can we do to foresee the next few weeks and what can we do to give ourselves the best chance of success? Well in my opinion it is all about preparation and looking for ways to be a ninja when it comes to time management and a ninja when it comes to managing your energy balance. So what tips can I give you to help you on your way?
Early Christmas present 1
Get everything you need to do DONE as early as possible in the day.
December days are short due to the darkness and also various events can cause your day to fly by so smash your days nice and early. Get up earlier, get stuff done.
Early Christmas present 2
If you know you are having snacks at the office or festive drinks out, skip a meal or have a really small meal at some point during the day. The easiest way to manage your energy balance is to pick your least favourite meal each day and half it. This gives you some calories to play with.
Early Christmas present 3
Have a month where you reduce your rest periods in your training programme. Let’s say you rest in between sets for 2 minutes and you rest between exercises for 3 minutes.
If you did three sets per exercise and 10 exercises per workout and reduced your rest by 50% you would save over 30 minutes per workout. Saving this amount of time can free up some time for other festive events you have going on. More time = less stress.
Early Christmas present 4
Do something nice and buy a present for someone that isn’t expecting it. It doesn’t need to be expensive and it doesn’t need to be huge, just do it. It feels great and the fact that you will be making someone else really, really happy will in fact make you really happy.
This week I have placed my Christmas tree up at The Hub where I work from.
Under the tree are a large amount of envelopes for all my clients and also everyone that works at my development… I am sure they are going to make someone’s Christmas even better.
Early Christmas present 5
Prepare some simple go to snacks and meals for various days. I like to use myself as a guinea pig from time-to-time and last week I did just that. On at least two of the days last week I ate the following items throughout the day:
Large pack of pre-cooked chicken drumsticks
2 apples
1 banana
Pack of ready to eat fish and seafood medley Green tea
Cucumber
Guess what?
I didn’t feel hungry and, to be honest, I felt pretty good. OK, I am not saying that the exact meal plan above will work for everyone as it probably won’t as everyone is different but it gave me some options.
It gave me calories in the bank and it gave me time.
Doing this for two days gave me around 3,500 calories to play with as I ate less than normal, handy if you are also going out for Christmas drinks and food right?
Also there was literally no preparation time so I saved around an hour over the two days which was pretty cool. In December you could use that time for something handy couldn’t you?
Is it nice knowing Christmas has come early? Is it comforting to know you can put some simple strategies in place to reduce the stress during December?
How does it now feel to know you can be in complete control during the next month?
Control the things you can control.
Enjoy this last day of November and let’s smash the month of December together!