Life just threw you a curveball. What’s Your Plan B?

It’s February, and that means it’s been about a month since many of you set a New Year’s Resolution to ‘Get Healthy’ (or some variation of that – such as skip sugar, drop weight, exercise more, etc). At the outset, you knew it would take work, lots of discipline, and you probably anticipated some challenges around staying motivated or keeping up with your ambitious goals… And then, life threw a whole lot of NEW, additional, or unexpected challenges your way!

Life just threw you a curveball. Now what?

I just finished a Winter detox with 50 participants and so far at least 10 of them have reported that they encountered some extreme challenges: family and pet emergencies, illness, heavy workloads and unexpected travel. Some of them fell off detox and picked back up the next day, others had to stop the detox due to their circumstances.

I get it. Life happens.

This is the one piece that I think most of us fail to build into our plan.

Life will always throw you unexpected challenges. How you choose to respond and handle them is just as important as creating the “perfect environment” that sets you up to succeed. Sometimes you have to throw out Plan A and go with Plan B. Continue Reading…

We all need a Plan B. Does that sound self-defeating? Does it sound like chickening out, backing off, weakening your commitment? It’s not.

When people go rock climbing, they use a climbing rope. Not because they expect to fall, or even think they will – they’d just never climb without it. It’s their Plan B.

If you don’t have a plan B, then you’re working with an All or Nothing mentality. Once something happens that derails you it’s too easy to conclude ‘Well I’ve blown it, I’ll finish the whole bag of cookies, and start over another time.’ Life is always going to get in the way, so All or Nothing will always work against you. Your Plan A will always fail because life is really more of what happens between the routine weeks. There is always that extra work that lands on your desk, someone gets sick, a child needs extra attention, travel has to happen, or there’s a holiday or special occasion.

At the beginning of every detox I ask participants to choose three non-negotiable actions that will be their Plan B. These are three choices they can commit too, even if everything else goes off the rails; three simple healthy choices they know they’ll be able to make, even if they get sick, have to hit the road, or end up working late a few nights. For me, it’s daily leafy greens of some sort, a protein with every meal, and exercise (walking counts!) at least three times a week. These are non-negotiable – no matter what happens in my life, I can commit to doing these three things. And I know, whatever else happens, that my commitment to my health is still strong, still intact. When life throws me a curveball and I step off my latest, ambitious health plan, I don’t give up, waste time worrying, finish the bag of cookies, or beat myself up. Like climbers do, I lean into my climbing rope, find my footing again, and keep on going.

So I ask you, what are three non-negotiables you could choose to fall back on when you need to? What might your Plan B look like when life throws you a curveball?
I saw a story yesterday about a 78-year-old man who ran every day for 52 years and 39 days (even on days he was sick, had surgery, or traveled) – this may not be your non-negotiable (nor would I recommend you run every single day in your life) – but it shows the power of small commitments, and it is pretty inspiring!

Here’s to your continued good health!