Ep 58: Making the Most of Your Day: How to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity For Weight Loss

Hello Hello Hello and Welcome to episode number 58 of the Wellness 4 Women Show

Making the Most of Your Day: How to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity For Weight Loss

Do you ever find yourself feeling overwhelmed and frustrated? Ever feel like you are running in circles doing the same mundane tasks, but never seeing any progress towards achieving your goals? If so, this episode is for you!

In today's episode, I'm going to dive into this a little more and how day-to-day life could be knocking into your life and weight loss. We'll also be discussing some strategies for managing these emotions and the overeats that can follow.

Let me know what your take away are from this episode in the Wellness 4 Women Facebook Group? Leave a #gem plus your comment. Likewise got a question the group is the place to be for a private community and support.

Life and weight loss are connected, intertwined, two peas in the same pod, sisters in the same house. That's how I see it and that's why I talk about life a lot when discussing weight loss.

It's completely normal to feel overwhelmed and frustrated in our daily lives, whether we're at work or at home.

We can all have moments in the day or week when it feels like the world is against us, when nothing seems to be going right and everything takes longer than expected. Or maybe we feel like we have too much to do, not enough time and not enough energy.

Our brains are getting and firing signals all day every day trying to deal with the onslaught, trying to keep us safe and our bodies working in tip-top condition.

Here's the thing, our mind and body knows everything we have ever said or done. It knows are beliefs, our values, our patterns, triggers and habits.

So when we are stressed out and overwhelmed, our body will try to help us cope by providing a comforting response - for many of us working on weight loss our past go to is likely to have been in the form of food.

So it makes perfect sense when our brains start telling us the only way of solving the frustration, stress or overwhelm and to get back on an even keel is to... head to the biscuits, to check out the fridge to have a little snackette to keep us going or to boost the energy levels, if that's what we need, or to numb the feelings of frustration and overwhelm.

When we experience stress, our bodies respond by releasing several hormones that can have an immediate effect on our blood sugar levels releasing more sugar as we prepare to fight or flight.

One article I read is that our brains consume half of our daily carbohydrate requirements and that when we are under acute stress the brain requires around 12% more energy. It there stands to reason it is going to send you loads of cravings for sugar.

I am getting visions here of my brain being like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors "Feed me Seymour, feed me now!"

The stress cycle and how we burn through our fuel are again interlinked. Life and weight loss -sisters from the house remember.

We can't ever truly know 100% what is happening in our body. Listening to our thoughts and body give us clues and so it is important to listen to them but it is also about turning detective on our lives.

This is why today I want to talk about efficiency and productivity.

Working in an efficient and productive manner is an effective way to reduce stress in our daily lives.

When we work efficiently, we are able to complete tasks more quickly and with greater accuracy. This reduces the amount of time spent on a task, helping us feel less overwhelmed by the workload.

Additionally, when we are productive, we are able to accomplish more tasks in a shorter amount of time, allowing us to free up time and energy for other activities.

Getting shit done also feels good as we get a dopamine hit.

So how can you get a handle on day to day life and the stressors that may arise?

As always, I'm here with my Triple-A-Way™️ method for life and weight loss Awareness, Action & Accountability. These are the pillars for me when it comes to working out what is going on in your life and weight loss and finding ways to move forward in a positive way with more joy.

Awareness:

The first step is always awareness.

It can sometimes seem like it is easier to go about life on autopilot. To not really look at what is going on or how our actions are impacting us.

Your brain will tell you lies like 'I don't have time!', 'It won't make a difference!' or the classic 'I can't be arsed with that!'.

Thing is if you are happy with your life and weight loss then maybe you don't need to do this work.

Whereas if you want to see results, see positive changes and reach your goals then you have look at what is going on.

Maybe the next thought would be it... 'It all sounds too complicated!' Nope, another lie where your brain wants to keep you safe.

These are all just thoughts that you can choose to either not act on and stay where you are or you can act on them and move forward.

Hopefully, you are listening to this show because you want to move forward and make positive changes in your life and weight loss.

There is always two parts to awareness and in the membership and my programmes we will cover both.

Initial awareness - what do you know already? This is your low-hanging fruit as you can get straight to the action.

Gathering awareness - stuff you figure out along the way.

So what do you already know about your efficiency and productivity? What are your triggers and danger zones? What are your beliefs about efficiency and productivity? Do you believe you are an efficient person? A productive person? A busy person? An organised person? or maybe the opposite?

There is no right or wrong only noticing with loving curiosity how these impact your life and weight loss.

How could all of these be impacting your weight loss?

1. Maybe your lack time management skills or you have a tendency to be disorganised, so you miss workouts or run out of time to make nutritious meals, which can disrupt your weight loss plan as you grab go and make do?
2. Maybe you procrastasnack, putting off tasks under the guise of being busy or because your brain is telling you, you can't possibly do that task without coffee, Haribo, that leftover donut?
3. Maybe you're a baller of a multitasker but then as you are juggling so many busy balls or watching tv you throw in some mindless food eating for good measure and don't listen to your bodies cues for hunger and satisfaction.
4. Maybe decision-making is a struggle and you find yourself often saying "I'll just check Facebook whilst I think about that" or may maybe you have to make so many decisions in a day you get decision fatigue.
5. Maybe you feel like a clapped-out pigeon after overcommitting yourself or having obligations placed on you. You feel so tired you can't even begin to imagine cooking or going to the gym. Motivation -1000

Not going to lie I am speaking from experience as I have done them all! These are even cropped up this week.

Some of these I knew about, some I found out about and there will be more to learn as I continue to use my methods and as my life evolves.

I'd love to know what comes up for you. What is your low-hanging fruit? What do you already know about yourself and how you show up during the day that could be impacting your life and weight loss? Let me know in the chat.

Action:

Once we become aware, the next step is to actually take some kind of action. Action doesn't need to be drastic or something huge. I am officially a member of the 1% club and I want you to be too.

If you are already feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed or tired adding some kind of complex solution is not likely to be the answer (unless that is your genuine jam). I encourage anyone I work with or speak with to keep it simple and find a way to bring yourself more joy in the process. Start with realistic intentions. What can you easily do today to make your life or weight loss just a little bit better or more likely? What would it feel like to stretch that?

I know one thing that hoses me more than anything is having unrealistic expectations. Thinking I can do more than I actually can. Kudos to me for thinking I wear some sort of superhero cape but "with great power comes great responsibility" and I am not Spiderman. But I do have the superpowers of curiosity and kindness to help me catch myself and then step into action.

So what kind of actions can you take to maximize efficiency and productivity for weight loss?

Create and honour your boundaries

Set realistic goals and expectations - you could use the medal method of goal setting I have in the membership. Bronze being the bare minimum and Gold being if you were on fire. All are great and you can flex depending on how your day, energy, health etc is going.

Give yourself permission to rest and take stock

Resting and taking stock can have a huge impact on productivity, efficiency and weight loss.

Sometimes taking a step away, to reset your mind, allows for clearer thinking and more focused action.

<p
>Again our brain will love to tell porkies like how you 'should' keep doing that piece of work or you don't have time to stop but usually after a break you come back blazing and it is quicker than if you tried to trudge through the tar.

Additionally, spending a little time reflecting on what is going well and what you could do differently is a valuable insight into how to adjust your routines or behavior in order to maximize success in life and weight loss, lead to lasting progress towards achieving goals. It is why one of the daily steps I recommend is a curious and kind assessment.

Look at productivity tools

There are so many things out there to try. I have some in the membership that I share, plus my favourite methods, systems and apps etc.

Shake it up

We can get into a cycle of doing the same thing over and over again without taking time to consider if this is really helpful. We can be fear full of change which in itself can lead to an increase in stress, frustration, and overwhelm. The flip could also be true of course you shake it up to much as you don't like the routine it is all about what is serving you or not and trying it out and seeing what fits.

Get clear and make a plan

As the say goes a goal without a plan is just a wish. A plan without a goal is just a waste of time. You need to get clear on who you want to be and how you can take small doable steps to get there. So what have you got to do today or this week? What are you no-negotiables? What does your plan look like for the next few weeks or even months ahead if you are feeling brave? What will you do if the poop hits the fan? How will you keep it easy and fun? How can you break the tasks down and identify the first step to avoid overwhelm?

Share with others

Reach out to friends, family, your partner, the Wellness 4 Women community, for coaching if you are a member or 1 to 1 client or the even the cat. Talk about it, write about it, sing about it, dance about it. Whatever helps you to move the needle.

Accountability

Accountability is always the final piece. We can talk until the cows come home. We can share tools and coach which is such a game changer, or you could get some one to one time to woon your beliefs, whatever you do you want to try and get to the root of issue and be pragmatic but if you are not doing the do and showing up it ain't gonna happen! This is why we want to try and leverage the joy factor.

Conclusion

That's it folks round up time.

No matter what kind of well-being or weight loss journey you’re on, how you show up is what is going to change your future.

So what do you need to work on?

What actions could you take?

Will you setting boundaries, create realistic goals and expectations, take time for rest and reflect, utilise productivity tools, shake up your routine when necessary and get clear with a plan?

How will you hold yourself accountable and who can support you in that?

If you have gathered awareness about your own unique circumstances, and chosen actions that are aligned to you, kept it simple and flexible so you can gather wins I have every faith you have got the power to change your life!

Let me know inside the group I am all ears.

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>Want to get cracking and need some support you know where I am check out the description on how you can work with me.

See you next week!

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Categories: : Weight loss