Energizing Your Business & Your Weight Loss Program At the Same time

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I had the chance to read an article on the DSW website entitled "Seven Ways to Energize Your Business" and it got me to thinking - I know a scary thought for a Monday morning, right?

Here are the ways that they suggested that I have tweaked to help me in my weight loss program as well:

• Establish priorities. As in business, we try to tackle everything at one time. List your priorities and focus on just one or two items at a time. The same thing in your weight loss journey - one step at a time. Eating more fruits & veggies. Exercise. Cutting out carbs.  Prioritizing a list takes the stress off and allows you to focus on one thing at a time with the comfort of knowing where you will go from here.
• Be as efficient as possible.  In my business, this is a little bit easier to do when I avoid Facebook, Piniterest and anything else that distracts me from my goals for the day.  I even put a picture of a "security camera" in front of me.  This is my gentle reminder that I have to practice what I preach when it comes to office hours.  In my weight loss journey, the same can be said - excuses or reasons why we don't have time to take a 10 minute walk, eat the right foods, go to a meeting or as Weight Watchers would say "get active".  Don't be a computer zombie or a couch potato, move even if it is up and down the stairs or around the block. Get up during commercials and move. 
• Combine your work with different areas of your life.  For me as a Thirty One Director, it is an easy to combine areas of my life.  I use and carry our bags every where I go.  When I travel to National Conference or for a training, hubby goes along so that when the work is done, we get to spend some time together.  The best is when I get to combine work with a trip to North Carolina to see my daughter, Belinda.  As far as my weight loss journey - it is not just a "diet"!  Yes, my goal is to reach my ideal weight but more than that I am learning how to care for myself by eating right and moving more.  Seems basic enough, right?
• Actively manage your time and stop wasting it.  Time management may be easy for some but for me it is a struggle so calendar blocking has become my friend.  My monthly calendar is color coded so that I can manage time with family, work, my Thirty One business and time for me (sometimes this gets cancelled).  Manage your time when it comes to activity or exercise.  Add it to your calendar so that it becomes a part of your every day life and you aren't wasting the small amounts of time doing nothing when you could be active.  I know, I need to practice this one myself!
• Commit to learning new things.  My professional development is important to me because it is an investment in my business that helps not only me personally but my team.  You can learn new things in a variety of ways like reading a blog, a video, a conference call, a networking meeting or a formal conference/ training.  The same is true about my weight loss journey.  I continue to learn new tips and ideas not only from the Weight Watcher meetings, the friends that I have met there but also by talking to others in the health field or other DS wellness companies about their products
• Don't sweat the small stuff.  There are going to be bumps in the road but you can learn from them and then let them go.  Sometimes this is easier to do in business then when we are losing weight.  If you lost weight but are suffering from a small set-back like some weight gain or a plateau - look back on what worked and what didn't.  Protect your loss.  Just because you gained a little doesn't negate all the positive work that you have done.
• Laugh more. I have learned to laugh at myself.  I LOVE what I do - who wouldn't love to party every time they go to work, right?  The same has been true in my weight loss journey .  I have found that finding humor in everyday life makes me a happier person.

This is a lot to take in on a Monday morning but the lesson is simple - we tend to look at our lives as separate compartments - business, family, work, spiritual, etc. - that very seldom merge together.  When they do, it is often in a negative way - why not take the positive lessons that we have learned each part of our life and apply them to every part of our life as we take this journey through life.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!