The battle is won in the prep phase. That’s one of the most valuable lessons I learned while training for a body building show years ago. I still get asked how do you stick to a diet. The answer is easy. You must meal prep. You must take one or two days out of the week and spend a few hours in the kitchen preparing your meals for the next 3-5 days (depends on your schedule). Amy and I would do all of our shopping on a Friday evening. We would then marinate the chicken we were going to eat overnight. On Saturday, we would grill. Our meals would be prepped and ready to go for the week. All we had to do was grab it out of the fridge on the way out of the door. If you do not meal prep, you will fail. Most of us spend a majority of our time during the day outside of our homes. If you do not bring your lunch to work, you are more than likely to eat something from a fast food restaurant that may not be the healthiest choice for you. Meal prepping eliminates a lot of variables and saves you a lot of time. Making the proper preparations beforehand not only leads to success when it comes to your nutrition, but in other areas of your life as well.
I wish I could stress to you the importance of preventive care. Everyone wants to fix the problem once they get sick. But what if you took measures to prevent yourself from getting sick in the first place? The problem with a lot of people is that we have a, “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it” mentality. Well, when you get to that bridge it may be too late. When everything is going well, you should ask yourself what can you do to make sure that you stay in this condition. What things are you doing to make sure that you have a healthy immune system and that you are getting the nutrition that you need? I make health a priority for me and my family. I do my best to make sure that we have certain vitamins on hand for us to take daily so that we don’t get sick while everyone else is. I very rarely get sick and that’s because I do the things while I’m healthy to make sure I stay that way.
What are you doing to help put yourself in a better position ten years in the future? Let’s use your health for example. If you know that diabetes run in your family, what healthy habits are you developing now to greatly reduce your chances of getting it later? Are you just going to let life happen and deal with it when it comes or make the necessary changes now to eliminate from your future? To be successful at anything, you have to plan things out. Do you want to be in a much better financial situation in ten years? Then what are you doing now to make that happen? I see way too many people just living life on a whim. You will continue to fall into the same patterns because you have not made prepared for better things to occur.
The things you do during the prep phases of life matter the most. There is a reason that soldiers spend so much time training. There is a reason that athletes seem to work the hardest during the off season. That’s where progress is made. That’s when you learn and grow the most. Life gives you a lot of down time. That’s part of your prep phase. Use that time wisely. Use it to map out a path so that you can become healthier. Use that time to develop a plan on how you’re going to become a better spouse. Use it to see what you need to do to put your family in a better financial position in the future. Whatever areas in your life you want to improve, use that time to do it. Don’t just sit back and let life happen. Prepare for it. It does not matter if it’s something big or small. Here’s the crazy part about life. If you make the necessary preparations for the things that you know are coming, you will even be prepared for the things that you had no idea would come your way. Things that completely stop most people in their tracks will be something that you will overcome because you were indirectly prepared for it. Use your prep time wisely. What you do during training will be revealed on the day of the battle.
Shawn's Blog 