Control your life - control your fitness

Life Management

Good organisation and planning will boost your health, being careless or disorganised can damage it.

One of the most common causes of illness or injury is change. The reason for this is that they can mean our lives go from being in balance (we are only spending energy we have) to going out of balance (we no longer have the energy to deal with the demands we are placing on our body). Some changes in our life we can plan, others are out of our hands. For example you will not choose to get made redundant, have an increased workload or for a close relative to be ill, but these can happen. Some changes, such as these, mean that we are placing more demands on our bodies. For example through increased stress levels and time spent dealing with the problem. But they also have secondary effects. For example being busier may affect what you eat and how much rest you get. They may mean that spending time with certain people goes from being relaxing to being more stressful as you have to update them on unpleasant situations or because they raise subjects you don’t want to talk about. Of course some changes, moving house, changing job or a new partner may be your decision and a positive change. But they still have knock-on effects on other areas of our lives, such as creating the need to make an effort to catch up with old neighbours/colleagues.

Whenever a change comes along you need to evaluate the impact it has on your life, directly and indirectly. Have you got raised stress levels, less time for leisure or rest, a less healthy diet? Be honest and do not deny what is happening. Trying not to be stressed by a situation is not the same as not being worried. Work out which areas of your life have been affected. It may be worth keeping a diary of what you do just to see a few of the knock on effects in terms of quickly snatched meals, disrupted sleep and additional travelling time. You may be surprised.

Then you need to do something about what you find. Bill Adcocks was one of Britain’s best ever international marathon runners. His brutal training regime saw him training up to three times a day while working as a gas fitter! He would get up early each morning to do his first run of the day before work and scored one of his most memorable wins with a record breaking run on the notoriously tough Athens Marathon course. But even Bill knew there were days when the best thing for him to do was not to go out for a run but stay in bed for another hour instead. This hardened athlete’s success was due in part to knowing when rest was more important than action. That is the type of decision you may have to make. Trying to ‘tough it out’ is not a good idea.

An earlier start on a new job may mean shifting your bedtime forwards. You may find other decisions can make life easier. A change in work habits may mean it now makes sense to shop at a different supermarket – stop at one that is now near your office on the way home rather than making a separate trip. Small changes can be easily absorbed or you may just need to make the odd tweak to handle them. Big changes can mean a full re-evaluation of how you spend you time and energy becomes necessary. Otherwise you can end up wiped-out.

Manage your time wisely to get the most out of it.