A Guide to Being Your Own Accountability Coach
Routine makes my world go round (smoothly)…
I have always loved having a sense of knowing what’s around the corner, and what my daily routine consists of. I love writing lists of things to get done and get great satisfaction in ticking them off, and I truly enjoy the challenge of following through with fitness training commitments when my mind starts giving me excuses and the feelings that follow when I honour my word.
I also attribute a large portion of my career as an accountability and weight loss coach to this quality of being disciplined, progressive and consistent.
Even when I was a little girl I thoroughly enjoyed creating routine in my life – based around exercise (surprise surprise), eating, sleeping, study, social outings and anything else that gives me a sense of progression, purpose and stability.
I truly believe, that for healthy living, our bodies look for a certain amount of routine.
If you think about it, from the moment we are born, we need routine – starting with a simple sleep and feeding routine as infants, to school routine as children. It’s not until we grow a little older where we are granted more freedom from our parents and begin to choose when to go to bed, how often we eat, and then what we fill our days with living in the world as adults.
I used look at my “free flowing” (Gemini & Libran) friends and feel I was rigid and needed to be a little more spontaneous rather then being attached to a plan or forward thinking of how my day was going to run. (side note: I love spontaneity on the weekends and when on holidays)
However, I am increasingly embracing this quality I used to try to change, largely due to feeling a lot of displacement in my life over the last eighteen months (moving house four times and a series of unknowing circumstances) resulting in a lot of anxiety and quite literally becoming unwell as a result – I now feel confident that looking after me, means honoring this part of me.
I see the absolute importance of routine – a simple self accountability of “completing what you set out to do” or “doing what you say you are going to do when you say you’re going to do it”.
If you don’t share my natural propensity for creating daily habit and routines, and would like to give it a shot, I have created a list of easy routine makers, particularly useful if you’re trying to lose weight, reach a professional goal, save money to go somewhere, or generally feel like life is a little chaotic.
At the end of the day – no one will look after you, better then you. The more we show ourselves consistent acts of “showing up” the more we flourish!
How to Be Your Own Accountability Coach:
1. Find a regular eating pattern – in particular, eat breakfast at the same time each day.
2. Choose what days of the week you work out and what time of day suit you best based on your schedule & stick to them, like clock work.
3. Further from the above, choose what days you do cardio, what days you do resistance or circuit training, yoga etc.
4. Make one day per week for complete rest and leisure… Turn off your work phone (if you can) and really sink in to switching from work mode, to regenerating mode.
5. Find time every day for stillness – preferably at the same time. Take ten minutes to half and hour to either, sit on the beach, have a swim (solo), breathe, read a novel or take a nap.
6. Write lists each day of the chores & jobs you need to achieve in order of importance. Tick them off as the day goes on. The things you don’t get done can go on the top your tomorrow.
7. Spend half an hour each evening reading a book before bed – not a kindle or your instagram feed, a paper back! This is great for unwinding, switching off, increasing your imagination, and enhancing your knowledge. I alternate between novels and personal growth books.
8. Plan your meals – (this one is a working progress for me) when you’re out at the farmers market and or have children to care for- it does make life a whole lot easier.
9. Have a social occasion every week to look forward to. I do Saturday mornings as my “phone a friend” day. We catch up on life, it’s lovely and I get to look forward to a morning of good food and good company each week.
10. If you’re trying to follow a healthy eating plan, choose the days you take “off” wisely. I find, when I have a specific day I relax on what I eat, I stay on track. The times I don’t, I find I will be good for a while, and then soon enough, one bad day turns in to a bad week.
11. Clean your house on the same day each week, I get a little cray cray when my home is in a shambles. I like things to be in their place. So knowing when I clean means I am a little more relaxed when things are starting to look a little pear shaped around home. The day I do clean, I commit to it, blast some INXS and go for gold – it’s rather fulfilling.*Or hire a cleaner once a fortnight to do a thorough clean so all you need to do is a surface clean in between – this is gold for the time poor.
12. Take your vitamins at the same time each day – I know so many people who spend a lot of money on supplements and then forget to take them, and they just sit in the pantry until they go out of date. Pull them out and set reminders in your phone of when to take them if necessary.
13. Save 10% of your income in a high interest savings account each week & commit to letting it accumulate without withdrawing anything. It feels great, and though it builds slowly, you will be surprised and how much you can save.
Spend four weeks of unbroken routine commitment and see if it changes your life. And if you have an interesting story to share, feel free to let me know by commenting below.
Candice
x
