Get Off the Couch! Three Simple Tips to Find Motivation

 I know what I need to do, but I find that I don't have the motivation to get up and do what I need to do to take care of me.  How do I make myself get up and get moving?

I was presented with this question multiple times this past week.  It's a great question!  We often do know the healthy choices we can make - step outside for a walk, cook a meal instead of ordering pizza, go to the support group meeting, look up a mindfulness practice on-line and do it - but where we get stuck is following through and actually doing it.  We're literally stuck sitting on the couch because we stopped moving and now we're too tired.  The self-induced pressure of completing our long To Do list is so heavy.  We're too overwhelmed to take action.  We just don't want to do it.  

Here are three simple things that I do when I'm lacking the motivation to get up and take action on that healthy choice.  

1) Countdown - Sometimes I start at 10.  Sometimes I start at 3.  Out loud I countdown to GO!  It may be a barely audible whisper.  I may shout it at the top of my lungs.  Setting the immediate goal that I'm going to get up at "GO" does the trick when I am lacking ambition.

GO!

2) Play a Pump-Up Song - Putting on a song that I know will inspire me, that will get my foot tapping and my hips shaking or that I can sing along to will fill me with energy.  Remember Newton's Law?  An object in motion stays in motion.  Once I'm moving it's very easy to keep moving and start that healthy activity.

3) Repeat my WHY - Why am I doing this?  Why is being healthy important to me?  The other day I pulled up to my house after work.  I had one hour before an appointment.  On one hand this was the perfect time to fit in a walk.  On the other hand it was the perfect time for a quick power nap.  Honestly, either of those would have been a healthy choice, but on that day the walk was the better choice for me. I found myself sitting in my car struggling to find the energy to even open the door.  As the debate battled in my mind, I thought of WHY I continue to push myself to move.  I keep myself moving to keep my joints moving (gotta love arthritis!).  I keep myself moving so that I can continue to take care of my family.  I started repeating "For my joints! For my family!" and after a few minutes I got out of the car, went inside, changed my clothes and headed out for a walk. 

It's so easy to get stuck.  Stuck in that moment where you know what the healthy choice is but it feels much easier to not make it. It's in those moments that I encourage you to give these simple tips a try.  They will kick your motivation in gear!  

Being a Caring Co-Worker

This month I have the pleasure of being the featured staff member for Community LIFE's Supportive Services Newsletter.  I've been working with our staff to educate them about and give them opportunities to practice self-care during this time of living and working through COVID-19.  It wasn't until listening to an episode of Brene Brown's dare to lead podcast that I was reminded of the importance of also caring for our Teammates.  Here is the article that I wrote for the newsletter focusing on caring for our Team.

Connecting with and Caring for Your Team

“The cure for burnout isn’t and can’t be self-care.  It has to be all of us caring for each other.”

~ Emily & Amelia Nagoski ~

dare to lead podcast with Brene Brown

I have spent a lot of time over the past several months talking about self-care – taking care of you so that you can take care of others.  In my mind, I defined others as our families and Participants.  However, I now realize that there is another group that needs to be included – our co-workers.  

I am reminded of a time several years ago when the East End Social Work department was going through a time of great transition.  I was extremely stressed.  My blood pressure was up.  I was not sleeping.  I even began breaking out into hives.  I was struggling.  Obviously, I made it through, but I honestly don’t think I would have without one thing . . . my Team.  

I would come back to the office to find treats on my desk.  Notes of encouragement showed up in my mailbox and tucked in my windshield wiper.  Team members would remind me to eat and fill my water bottle.   Hugs were limitless.  I felt uplifted.  I felt strengthened.  My Team carried me through that difficult time.

We have been physically separated from our co-workers for most of the past year.  Companies are starting to see the impact that this separation is having on peer relationships within the workplace which in turn is impacting job satisfaction and performance.  

As we enter this second year of life with COVID, we continue to live in a time of uncertainty.  We expect things to be changing on a regular basis yet change seems to happen unexpectedly.  Life at work . . . life at home . . . there is no escaping the madness.  Look around you.  Do you see co-workers who are feeling stressed?  Worn out?  Disconnected?  

We expect things to be changing on a regular basis
yet change seems to happen unexpectedly.

Rather than looking the other way, I encourage you to pause and think of what you can do to connect with your co-workers.  Need some ideas?  Here are four simple and safe ways that we can show each other that we care:

1. Leave a note – Whether it’s a post-it note stuck to a desk phone for a specific person to find or stuck to the coffee pot in the break room for everyone to see, write an inspirational quote or friendly greeting to brighten someone’s day.

2. Invite someone to lunch – Schedule a Teams call and eat lunch together.  Or pack a lunch and make plans to meet in a park or outside of the Center.

3. Embrace Spontaneous Contact – Team members are constantly coming and going from apartment buildings, homes and Centers.  Instead of waving and moving on, pause and ask your co-worker how she is doing.  If you are one of the first ones on a Teams’ meeting, start a conversation with your colleagues rather than hitting mute until the meeting starts.  Embrace those moments of being together when you have a little time to take the focus off work.

4. Send a Gratitude email –Let your co-workers know that you appreciate them.  What a great e-mail that would be to find amongst the hundred you get in a day!  

Connecting with a co-worker builds a caring work community.  A caring work community is a happier place to work for all of us.    

   

Escaping my Emotional Eating Escapade

This week was the perfect trifecta of stress for me.  I know that anytime I have high stress there is always a risk of my health journey taking a random sudden turn off road.

One - There was a holiday.  I secretly hate holidays (guess it's not much of a secret anymore!).  They make me feel like crap.  They never meet the expectations I have in my mind (And no we cannot blame this on my potentially unhealthy love of Hallmark movies as I'm sure some of you who know me may be thinking.  I am fully aware that they are completely unrealistic and unreasonably perky.).  Overtime I have learned to lower my expectations and always think that I'm going into the day with the right attitude and then BAM - sadness hits me in the face like a boxing glove.

Two - Work was stressful this week.  I love my job and I thrive on the chaotic world that exists within the four walls of the Adult Day Health Center.  But this week was tough.

Three - My delightful (she seriously can be quite delightful!) daughter worked six days in a row before jetting off to Puerto Rico at 3AM this morning for a week-long Missions Trip.  I don't need to say anymore here.  If you have a teenage daughter, granddaughter, niece, neighbor - you know.

My downfall started when I went to the grocery store on the Fourth of July.  My daughter wanted to make her favorite Buffalo Chicken Dip so I popped into the grocery store to get her the ingredients.  And it was there that I paused in front of the large Oreo cookie display.  In that very brief moment, I made the dreadful decision to put a pack of original Oreos into my cart.

I am tuned in to the fact that Oreos are my weakness.  I normally walk past that display at a quick pace with my back to the rows of blue and white packages.  I don't even look at them.  But on this day they were calling me and in my state of mind I felt that I needed them.  I needed the comfort of the cream filled chocolate cookie paired with a glass of cold milk.  So I bought them.  And I went home and proceeded to eat an entire row.  They tasted so good.

Later in the week my co-worker asked me if I wanted anything from the corner store when she was running over for lunch.  I handed her a couple bucks and asked her to get me a Pepsi.  WHAT?  I rarely drink pop anymore.  What was I doing?  I was craving an ice cold Pepsi - that's what I was doing.  Hearing the fizz when I opened the bottle and feeling the tickle of the carbonated beverage slide down my throat was so good.

Then there was the secret stop for an ice cream cone on my way home from work.  On a hot day, the refreshment of that cold ice cream was so good.  And the few times I visited the candy drawer at work.  Chocolate - so good!

Last night we went out for dinner to celebrate our daughter and her best friend heading off to Puerto Rico.  The restaurant that we went to serves large and small sizes of their dishes.  I ordered the large. I hadn't given it a moment's thought until my husband and the server commented on the size of my burrito (Yes that server did - can you believe it?!?  Don't give my husband's comment a second thought - It was made out of accountability not judgment.).  I shrugged my shoulders and enjoyed my meal.  It was so good.

Later that night my daughter asked me to help her weigh her suitcase.  We couldn't get it on the scale while being able to see the numbers.  As frustrations began to escalate, I offered to get on the scale and then get on a second time holding the suitcase.  I told my daughter that in no circumstance did I want to see or hear the number that popped up on that little screen.  I try not to focus on the scale, rather I use the jiggle of my chin fat to judge myself.

Despite my best efforts, it happened.  I saw those numbers.  YIKES!  I looked up and saw myself in the mirror.  Chin fat is in check, but that number!  UGH!!

Then CLICK!  Just as quickly as my emotional eating had kicked in to high gear in front of that Oreo display, I felt my internal dial click back over to a healthy eating focus as I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror.  I can't explain it.  I just knew that little off-road journey was over and I was back on the path determined to be as healthy as I can  be.

Why share this personal story with you?

1) If you struggle with emotional eating, please know that you are not alone.  I've been focusing on making healthy life choices for over eight years now and I still fight this battle.

2) It's important to accept the fact that you are going to have blips in your journey like this one because they are going to happen.  No one is perfect.  The key is to not give up.  Instead, do what you need to do to get yourself back on the healthy path.  Sometimes, like in this case, it just happens.  Something clicks.  Other times you'll need to fight - fight hard! - to get yourself back.  And that is OK.

3) I encourage you to spend some time getting to know yourself.  There were several times throughout this experience that I recognized important moments
     * I knew that high stress can trigger my emotional eating.
     * I could identify what was causing my stress.
     * I am tuned in to the fact that Oreos are my weakness and I made the choice to put
        them in my cart.
Knowing what will set you off can help you to avoid those situations.  And if you find yourself stuck in an emotional eating rut, being in tune with your body and your emotions can help you to escape.

Today was a good day getting back on track.  I drank lots of water.  I made myself a healthy breakfast and lunch.  I exercised.  And when my husband and I went out for dinner, I ate three slices of pizza and stopped when I really wanted to keep eating!  My hands are firmly on the steering wheel as I continue to navigate this crazy healthy journey that is my life.