Staying Organized During the 75 Hard Challenge

As I enter week 3 of the 75 Hard Challenge, I have noticed the importance of staying organized during this whole process. I have learned that keeping a general schedule of workout times, eating, reading, journaling, parenting, and working, is crucial! I also discovered that planning out healthy meal and snack items are a must and in doing so, you are put right on track for reaching your diet goals. Lastly, keeping a tidy home tremendously helps keep you focused on the days tasks so that your mind isn’t distracted by household duties. Let me dive in a bit about each one of these topics and suggest some methods that may encourage you to make time for those things that are important to you.

Boy oh boy do things get hectic when I don’t have my days planned out during this Challenge. Waking up late is the worst because half of my day is wasted and I have 2 workouts to get in, 10 pages to read, child to pick up from school, dinner to cook, journaling to do, and a diet to uphold all before or after my workday, if I have a client to see or drinks to sling. Sounds like a lot, right? I figured out very quickly during my first week that I couldn’t go through this challenge successfully if I didn’t get my organizational skills involved. So, I developed a routine for my days – one for daytime working and one for nighttime working. But for the most part the beginning of my days starts like this.

Wake up - 6:45 am

Get Lola dressed and dropped off at school - 7:30 am

Return Home - 7:45 am

Make coffee & eat (some kind of) breakfast – Sometimes eggs (which is a good day) other times a couple strawberries or something small. I often struggle with eating in the mornings because I’m never really that hungry when I first get up, but my challenge advisor tells us how important it is to get those first meals in to get the body’s metabolism kickstarted. So, I do it as best I can. - 8:30 am

Quick Tidy the house – ex: start a load of laundry, run the dishwasher, make beds, and turn on the Ion-vac (robot vacuum, thank God for that thing) - 9:30 am

From there I start planning my workouts. What am I going to do for my outdoor workout? Bike ride, walk, run? I start there and pick one because normally I start off with one of those to get warmed up for my actual workouts that 1st Phorm puts together for me. Once I have decided which outdoor activity I want to do, I then check out what my workout is for the day so I can prepare for that as well. Is it one I can do at home, or will I need to use the weights at the gym? From there I get a game plan. Bike ride for 1 hour and head to the gym for legs and back where I will need to use the smith. Planning usually takes about 30 minutes. – 10:00 am

Get ready! Change into workout gear, make my pre workout, fill my water bottles, make my protein shake for afterwards and gather other little items that I will need like my speaker and/or headphones. – 10:30 am

Leave the house – 10:35 am

Finish 1st outdoor workout – 11:30 am

Hit the gym (or set up at home workout) – 11:45 am

Finish 2nd workout – 12:30 pm

Lunch time! I probably get my most calories from this meal because I am usually starving by then! So, eat a meal and drink my protein shake. – 1:00 pm

From here, my schedule changes daily, I may need to shower and get ready for work at 3:30 (service) before I pick Lola up from school. If I have a

client to work with during the day this whole schedule pauses between 8:30 and 9:30 am and I pick it back up at 3:00 pm. And If I don’t work until 8:00 pm at my service job it doesn’t change, and I get to add some fun stuff in with Lola. Reading and journaling fall in the down time that I get between jobs or tasks. Usually at the end of my days. My point with sharing this is that I know life can get busy, but you can still stay organized along the way. By generating a basic schedule, you can manage your time for each task and execute it with ease.

Now, let's chat about organizing meals! For some reason (I can’t imagine why Kara) the one thing that repeats in my head is PROTEIN, PROTEIN, PROTEIN! Protein is super important when working out every day. It helps repair muscles and bones and is a great energy source. A lot of people do meal preps, where they cook everything in one day for the week so that its ready and convenient. People who do this don’t have to worry about making anything on spot. I do a half and half kind of thing. At the beginning of my week, I spend some time meal prepping. I cut up my fresh fruits like watermelon and pineapple and store them so that I have a healthy snack ready at a moment’s notice. Then I plan out 2 or 3 dinners for the week. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I will have chicken with 2 types of veggies. Thursday and Friday I might have steak with another 2 choices of vegetable. And Saturday and Sunday are usually days for eating out and finishing whatever leftovers, with using healthy mindful choices of course. But let’s not forget that being organized isn’t just in planning out what meals I decide to have but also in the fridge as well. Cleaning out unhealthy items or bad items are a must so that my healthy items can stand out! If you are on a no alcohol diet it is encouraged to not have any on site. Give it to a friend or if you must... dump it down the drain. Keeping items that fit your diet only in your fridge will help you to meet your goals.

OK! Last, but not least, keeping a tidy home. Before I started this challenge I cleaned and organized my home exactly how I like it. I washed, folded, and put away all my laundry. Washed and put away all my dishes. I filed papers and dusted all my surfaces. I mopped the floors and helped Lola organize her room. I discarded and got rid of things that don’t serve a purpose for me anymore and prepped my house for my new challenge. Doing these things all at once put me in a state of focus. Once everything is in its place, I can see clearly without the background stirring around in my mind. At this point I was ready. No household chores to distract me, and with my 30 minutes each morning of the Quick Tidy, everything has stayed organized. Therefore, I’m able to put all my concentration into the activities at hand. For someone with organizational trouble it is recommended to have a professional organizer come in and help you get the clutter out before starting, they can give you tips and tricks on ways to keep your home tidy with little effort so that you can achieve those goals you have set for yourself.

If you have a desire to start a health challenge, like the 75 Hard. Keep these thoughts in mind when preparing yourself for it. Luckily as a professional organizer, I had already known that this how I should approach this challenge, so I knew where to begin. But if you need help, reach out to someone who can point you in the right direction. You want to go into these kind of lifestyle changes with as much ease as possible so that you can complete it fully and with ultimate satisfaction.