Meal 1 – if you have a specific goal, plan your meals.
I’m naturally not the kind of guy who plans things, I normally wing it, and planning doesn’t come easy to be, but having a plan has helped my productivity and enjoyment of life big time.
Here are 4 tips that’ll help you get the most out of your life, workouts, meals, and work through planning.
Plan your week not your day
I used to also plan my day every morning which is a complete waste of time. Now, every Monday morning I spend 45 minutes planning out my week. I acknowledge what my strengths are, what things I need to be spending most of my time on to get the most out of my time and set aside the right amounts of time for them first.
I then go down the line and write in little details that I need to get done. For me, my workouts, writing, researching and training others are put in first. After that I put in things like paying bills, even golf, reading, fun time, getting an oil change and so on.
I hate having a super-overly structured life, but that’s not what having a plan has to be about. I simply set aside time for what will bring me the most success. If I wing it, a lot of the time I end up wasting time on useless tasks that shouldn’t be taking up most of my time and energy.
It also makes the playing part of my life a lot more enjoyable. I can be in the moment, be spontaneous, and enjoy myself because I’ve already done what I needed to do.
Have at least a 3-week plan for your workouts. A 12-week plan is even better.
I never had success in the gym until I started planning what I was doing ahead of time. I started out planning my workouts on a daily basis, which wastes a lot of valuable time and is often ineffective. I now plan my workouts every 3 weeks.
I have 3 week splits, everything is written down; my sets, reps, and rest periods are all there for me before I go to the gym. This makes my workouts fast and intense. There’s no guessing involved. I know exactly what I’m doing and the results have been great.
Have a meal plan.
If you’re after real results; if you want to get shredded or lose 50 lbs or even gain 50 lbs, you need to have a plan. I’m all about eating when I want, healthy foods, but still getting some enjoyment out of my meals, which is why the plan should have some cheat meals built in each week. But if you truly have a specific goal, then you need to have a plan that’ll help you get there.
Winging a diet will leave you guessing on meals, which is where you stop off for fast food or at a coffee shop to grab something quick. That’s where you’re going to slip up. By having a plan you know what you’re going to eat and when you’re going to eat it which will prevent the slip-ups from occurring.
Plan fun time!
One of my favorite days in recent memories was a day spent with my girlfriend wandering the streets of New York, shopping here and there, eating here and there, being pretty much random, but laughing a lot and having a great time. It was completely unplanned, and I loved it. I guess most of it was just the amazing company J But sometimes those days are the best.
The reality is it was partially planned. We had both planned to spend the whole day together, we just didn’t have a specific thing we wanted to do so we ended up doing a bunch of little things, and it ended up being a truly great day.
The point is, sometimes setting a day aside for nothing, or for some spontaneous fun, is a great way to plan and a great way to get rejuvenated. So make sure you set some “enjoying life” time aside, after-all what’s the point of living if you’re not actually “living”.
