“Falling” Into Routine
In some ways, I hate to utter the word ‘fall’ as it is a reminder of shorter, cooler days to come. However, I do enjoy the return to routine and structure that autumn brings.
After being a student myself and then having my own kids in the school system for so long, fall in many ways seems like the ‘new year’. It’s a time to reflect on our summer adventures and transition into a more normal routine. This time of year is when we reflect and commit to what we want to allocate our time (and resources) to, as we sign up for activities and commit to volunteer projects.
However with the change of the season come barriers that keep us from achieving our health goals: the biggest being failure to plan.
Here are three areas that you can plan for to ensure a happy and less stressful fall:
Plan Your Meals
Get back into the routine of making lunches (yes, I am groaning as well), and planning suppers for busy evenings.
If we don’t take the time to plan, we fall prey to chaotic eating which will drain our energy, ramp up our hunger and cravings, and leave us vulnerable to drive-thru dining. Take some time to review your upcoming week and create a plan.
Here are some blog posts to help you get started:
- Batch Cooking 101
- How do I Handle Being Busy at Work?
- How do I Handle Evening Extracurriculars?
- Menu Planning School Lunches for Kids!
- How do I Handle Back-to-School Meals?
- Simple Back-to-School Recipes
- 10 Best Back-to-School Lunch Ideas
Plan For Fitness
Now is the time to start planning how to meet your activity goals with cooler weather, darker nights and slippery sidewalks in our future. Failure to plan will make it easy choose inactivity and make it harder and harder to get going again. Here are some tips:
Create a habit where you go for a walk or stretch at home every morning or every night.
Sign-up for a weekly class at your local gym or studio.
Plan a Balance
We have blogged on this numerous times but it is still one of the main reasons why our clients engage in problem eating – they are not getting the basics and over whelmed, tired and have created a habit of eating. That doesn’t meet the need and negatively impacts their health, weight and wellness.
If you want to stay on track with your health goals and not fall into emotional, stress or mindless eating – you need to make sure you are getting the basics in terms of balance and self care. That means getting enough sleep, taking time to relax and laugh, and enjoying the beauty of the moment.
By embracing the structure and routine of fall, we hope you’ll have your best fall yet!
