Sunday Routine

How I get ready for the week ahead, in my experience, will determine the outcome. I tend to use the “Sunday routine” method to help me stay ahead of the curve. 

The Sunday Routine is simply the act of dedicating a few hours of the day to preparing for your work week. Of course, you can use whatever day of the week works best for your schedule.

If you have children and/or a spouse, then it can feel like a pretty heavy investment of time. But, it’s completely worthwhile. The return on the investment is the ability to cruise through each day in your week feeling successful, on track, and less stressed.

When time gets tight *BAM* you’ve already got plenty of food ready and waiting in the refrigerator. When your day gets hectic *SURPRISE* you already scheduled time for your evening workout, have food to eat before leaving work, and have your gym bag waiting in the trunk of your car.

My Sunday Routine always involves making sure my family is ready for the week, too. In this case, it was having some fresh cookies on hand for my kids.

How to get the Routine going:

1. Grab your calendar: get a sense of your week - are there any after work events you will be attending? What is the schedule of your kids activities? When will you fit in your trips to the gym? 

   1. Hey, while you’re in there - go ahead and schedule a time for your workouts and any other mid-week meal prep you anticipate needing to do.

      1. If the week looks really jam-packed, can you schedule time for an after dinner walk or a home workout?

   2. Does your gym require an appointment? Then go ahead and actually BOOK the appointment now. 

2. Take action! Hit the grocery store, start your laundry, clean the house… Do the actions that you can do TODAY to set yourself up for a successful week.

3. Make some food or whole meals in bulk. This doesn’t have to be fancy. And, if you’ve never done this before, be patient. The first go-round, you may not get it perfectly.

   1. Here are some of my go-to’s - they all keep well for at least a few days:

      1. Burgers (turkey or beef)

      2. Chicken (any type)

      3. Fish

      4. Beef stew

      5. Hearty soup

      6. Rice

      7. There are unlimited options here

No cookies for me, this is more what my personal prep tends to resemble!

Having the discipline to get all your meals ready and gym bag packed ahead of time is important. The more you can create a grab ‘n go situation for yourself (and even your family), the better! So, pack your meals the night before and get your clothes ready ahead of time, too.

On the occasions when I arrogantly ignore my weekly prep, foolishly thinking I’m ready, when I’m not, or that I’ll “make it through.” I always end up regretting it! Food I thought I had on hand, quickly diminishes within a day or two and low-and-behold, I have virtually no clothes to wear. Seriously, it gets bad.

Take some time today or on whatever day you like and set yourself up for success with the Sunday Routine.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

Five-Minute Actions

Believe it or not, we are officially halfway through the year. Today is July 1. And that marks the halfway point. I wanted to pause for a moment and recognize today, because it is significant. 

I know, many people are very cynical about the whole idea of setting new year's resolutions. And I am somewhat as well. But the change of the calendar year naturally marks a really great opportunity to reset yourself. It's also common that most people have some time off from work during the week or two weeks leading up to the New Year. 

So, whether you call them resolutions, goal setting, or just consider it a time where you take some time to see how things are going, I want to recognize that we are officially 50% of the way through to the next opportunity where most of us will again take serious stock of the status of our lives.

Often this time period of selfrelfection is minimized as being basic. Meaning it is fundamentally flawed because the action itself is too predictable and thus not meaningful over the long haul. Or so people say.

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As someone who thoroughly enjoys setting goals and the challenge of achieving them (or not), I don’t think we should ever minimize the ideas we come up with to better ourselves or better our lives. There are a lot of naysayers who may try to make us feel silly, embarrassed, or even guilty for being so brash as to think we can improve ourselves. I’m not the one who is going to say that though.

So, please take a moment to think back to some of the goals you’ve set for yourself in the past. No, this exercise is not limited to just the most recent New Year, think back to any goal you want to.

How are you doing with those goals? Where are things standing for you right now? 

It’s very easy, it's also very natural and traditional that people are able to hunker down for a couple weeks or a couple months and pound away at their goal. But then take their foot off the gas pedal. 

I’ll ask again: Where are you in your goal attainment? 

If things are going great, keep it up! If things aren’t going so great, please keep reading.

One of the hardest things is making progress and then trying to keep your foot on the gas and not let up. This is the natural ebb and flow of progress. It is uncomfortable. Learning to slowly move yourself forward when everything around you seems to be indicating otherwise is a skill that must be developed.

It’s easy to tie one’s own worthiness to goal achievement. But please try not to! Losing 10lbs or saving another $1,000 does not define who you are as a person and the sooner you can understand all goal achievement is tied firmly to systems and processes, the easier it is to untie YOUR SELF-WORTH from those goals.

So if you find yourself in the situation of thinking back to some of the goals that you set at the turn of the year and realize you’ve kind of forgotten those and perhaps swept them under the rug, or perhaps you're thinking “Oh, man, you know, like I made such good progress for the first three-four months of the year. What’s happened these last 2-months?”

Just know that this is all really natural, regardless of what situation you're in. 

However, I think it is important to remember and realize that at any moment in time, you can choose to take some action and reverse or improve your trajectory. I like to call these types of steps: 5-minute actions. 

A 5-minute action is simple and can be done today! It can be anything quick that gets you moving in a positive direction. We’re just after a bit of momentum. 

A few examples are: calling your doctor to schedule your annual exam, paying a couple of the bills that just arrived in the mail, setting aside 5-minutes for meditation, making a SuperShake, going for a 5-minute walk. Or, of course, something more specific to your actual goal.

5-minute Actions can literally be anything that makes you feel like you have achieved something positive and, guess what else… they add up big time! 

Once again, ask yourself, what are some of those things that you could do? Just by doing these little things regularly, you will get really positive momentum going. Even the slightest momentum is all you need to get started. 

I hope this nudges you to action, if you need it! I wish you the best as I double down on my goals for the year!

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

Maximize Each Workout: Train Like No One is Looking

Potentially - or probably - the biggest barrier keeping most people from making progress on their goals (fitness, build muscle, fat loss, strength, etc...) is their own state of mind. That feeling like "Oh, people are watching me, so I don't want to [X]..." [look like I'm trying], [fail], [struggle], [make a weird face], etc. But, all this self-limiting behavior successfully accomplishes is self-limiting progress. I've trained all over the place in a multitude of different environments and have often been seen doing off-the-beaten-path type exercises. But, even I sometimes get a little nervous about the liklihood of drawing attention to myself. When that hesitation kicks in, here are my top 3 reminders to keep my self-limiting behavior out of the way of accomplishing my goals:

1. No one is looking. Most of the time no one cares what you're up to in your daily workout and they really are not watching. Trust in this first rule.

2. Don't let your assumptions of someone else's perceptions affect your behavior. Okay, so you're doing something attention grabbing (read: weird) in your workout. Yes, you will probably catch a few eyes, so if #1 isn't working for you. Then ask yourself this: "So, someone is watching me train, why would I stop just because they're watching?" They're probably watching to learn something new. That's what I've found over the years. No one has ever approached me to tell me I'm "wrong" - rather it usually means I'll get to have a conversation with someone new about whatever it is I'm doing. They want to learn!

3. The world doesn't revolve around you. At least in the realm of weight training - I can't actually speak for other areas. This is really the bottom line. Whether you like drawing attention to yourself or dread it, the world doesn't revolve around you. So, keep your eyes down and power through on taking a small step towards whatever is going to help you accomplish your next goal.

The point in training for fitness, building muscle, or strength is making progress towards personal goals and achieving things you, personally have never achieved before. Don't allow those self-limiting behaviors derail your success!