Change of plans–Now what?

There’s no doubt things have changed.  See below for some insight in how to make best manage when your plans change.

• Don’t Panic.  Look, things happen; we call it life.  While sticking to your routine is important, be open to adjusting your plan.  Can’t go to the gym, then go for a walk.  Sometimes a “change of pace” is just what your routine needs.
• Stick to your routine.  If you exercise in the morning, then this doesn’t change even though what you’re doing might.
• Increase your activity frequency.  Most likely your gym is closed.  This will cause you to change how you exercise.  One things to focus on during this time period is intermittent activity.  Set a goal, maybe every 30-minutes or hour you stand/walk for 10 minutes, or try my favorite: after every meal walk for 10-minutes.
• Set a daily goal.  We often set aside blocks of time to exercise.  With gyms closed, kids home, and multi-tasking a must, you need to ditch the idea that you have 30-60 minutes you can set aside to exercise.  Instead, set some daily goals such as walking for 2 hours or doing 100 push-ups/squats per day.  You can piece together a few minutes here and there, so by the end of the day you hit your goal.
• Do something different.  Be open to change.  Realize you’re not alone.  Everyone around us is adjusting.  The idea here is to challenge yourself to do something you’re not used to doing.  If you’re used to doing really hard intensities, now is a good time to try something different, maybe like a slow/low intensity yoga class.  Or maybe you’re used to lower intensity exercise.  This could be a good time to give some higher intensity exercises a try.  Obviously, you’ll want to be mindful about doing anything you’re not used to doing.

This is only temporary.  It’s most challenging when the timeline is constantly changing or unknown, but at some point this crazy time period will end.  Focus on putting your next foot forward.  Don’t worry about that finish line.