Not like the Exercise Slump post, this is different. I want to know, how do you weather the storm? How do you deal with organized chaos or do you not deal at all?

So where am I going with this? With age comes wisdom is the saying but I am not always sure of that. Sometimes I wouldn’t say it’s wisdom as much as it is recognizing patterns. Say we’re on a roll of working out and eating well and we’re in a really nice groove. Life begins to get hectic and we start to fall apart. At what point does your emergency broadcasting system kick in and tell you to kick it into plan B? And if it doesn’t kick in, why not?

When I am stressed or distracted, the first thing that goes with me is food. I would rather not eat when harried than eat. Back in the day, I would allow that to happen. I would feed into it (for the lack of a better word;) and go for long periods of time before I would eat. The bad thing about that is my cortisol levels are shooting through the roof, my blood sugar is as crazy as NYC at rush hour and my thinking becomes impaired because I lack the glucose to have a coherent thought. What ensues after this is a downward spiral of what I refer to as organized chaos. I call it that because it always unfolds the same way, it has a predictable outcome but yet it wreaks havoc on my life for as long as I allow it to. Not anymore, though. Now I see the storm brewing on the horizon and I have a contingency plan in place to keep things from getting out of control.

First, I have a series of yummy meals in my freezer that are ready to go at any time. So the minute I start thinking that I don’t want to eat because “there’s nothing to eat” (my famous line when I am stressed and avoiding food), I know that that is bull. Next, I save parts of my workouts for my time with my clients. This forces me to workout with them and it keeps me in the exercise loop. Doing this primes me for my own personal workouts later in the day. Lastly, I openly recognize that this is going down. I don’t avoid it or start saying cute sounding platitudes, I literally acknowledge it, talk to it, talk about it, whatever—but I honestly take the time to point out to myself that it could get ugly.

So my question to you is, what do you do to weather the storm? Or, how do you recognize the storm is on the horizon? What makes your emergency backup system go into effect and what do you do when it does? I am hoping we can help those who do not have one in place right now or do not realize that they can have one in place thereby keeping the organized chaos to a minimum.

Hit me up and let me know what you do…:o)