Let Your Soul Sparkle

Sparkle Every Day: Creating An "If -Then" Plan

• Jaclyn Sanguinetti

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 9:21

Healthy Goal Setting With if-Then Plan

Speaker 1

What's up ? Sparkle Squad Welcome to Sparkle . Every Day it's Friday over here . I don't know what day you guys are gonna listen to this on , but it's Friday over here and I am off from the salon . I have a ton of stuff to get done and I'm doing a little bit of light makeup before I head out the door . It always cracks me up when I do makeup and then go the chiropractor , because then I leave with like one eyebrow on in my mascara all over my face because she just like puts me face down and tears me apart . But you know , we start off looking kind of nice , in fact , usually if I have to run errands . Now I've learned to at least not put mascara on and bring it in the car and then just add a light layer of mascara before I like to run around town . So , anyways , I wanted to talk to you guys today about something that is really , really important when you are going through a healthy journey . It's something that I always try to recommend we have in place for my clients , and it's something that came up this week during a health coaching session which , by the way yes , you heard correctly , a health coaching session .

Speaker 1

I do have one health coaching client already . She was somebody that I did a health history on as one of my projects and she was like okay , cool , like I want to hire you . How do we go about doing this ? I was like , well , I'm not like done with school yet , like I haven't graduated . And she's like , um , you know what you're doing , I'm fully confident in , like your abilities and I want to work with you already . So I was like you know what , let's just do it Like .

Speaker 1

I was kind of nervous at first , just like time commitment wise , because obviously with school and work , life is a lot right now . But I figured , you know what ? This is a great experience and I'm just going to go for it . So I did and I'm so happy I did , and we were having our session last week and one of the things that she would like to work on is waking up early , you know , and we set a realistic goal for her and stuff like that . But she would just like to get up earlier . So we decided to set some goals for her and work on everything . But she also travels a lot for work , and when I say travels a lot , you guys like a lot , a lot . She travels a lot . She has a very busy schedule , a very full life , and so we were like , okay , there's going to be times when this particular time and this particular goal probably are not going to work out right . And so , even though we're going to have the best of intentions with scheduling things and , you know , doing her best , there's going to be times where there , it just might not be possible to get up early for this early morning workout .

Speaker 1

So we created an if and then plan . So it's like , if you know you're up really late because you're in a different country or you have a late night meeting with a different country or whatever it is , and you are unable to wake up really early the next day , then what ? So it's not saying , oh , I didn't wake up early , so no workouts going to happen . It's saying , if I didn't wake up early , then what's going to happen ? And so we just talked about that . How can you work that into your day ? And what that does , you guys , is it makes it so you do not feel like a failure if , for some reason , you have to adjust your life . You also don't let those goals go by the wayside , so you do not wake up , not meet your goal and then the next day be like , well , today kind of doesn't work either , and then the next day doesn't work either , because you're still present and you're staying in the game . And so it's a really , really wonderful tactic to help you meet your goals . And so I want to tell you a little bit what that looks like , because I actually had to do that yesterday . It's have an if and then plan and I was actually talking to you guys on a podcast about it and explaining it all , and then that podcast audio just was really really bad . I did it while I was on a walk and you know , sometimes walk audio is good and other times it's not , and this one was like one . You guys , I wouldn't even want to listen to this . I can't put the sparkle squad through this .

Speaker 1

So , basically , what happened was yesterday morning I just was really tired , I had not slept the greatest night before and my intention was to go to the gym and just do actually a walk . I was just going to get some steps in . Probably would have used some incline if I was at the gym , and every time I'm at the gym Now I've been doing I think I mentioned this before , but I've been doing a little bit of time on the stair climber , and when I say a little bit of time , I mean you guys . I'm definitely starting small with this because it kicks my ass , but I am trying to use it to train a little bit more for some hikes that I have coming up later in this year . That involves stairs . So my workout definitely would have been different at the gym , but the intention would have been to make sure that I got my you know , 10,000 plus steps . You know , definitely trying to aim more for 12 to 15 now that my foot is doing better , and that was my goal , right .

Speaker 1

But in the morning I was just so tired and I'm like , oh my gosh , and I knew I had allowed some extra time when I set my alarm for Just getting some stuff done in the morning , like nothing , nothing big . So I was like you know , I'm gonna like go back to bed for a little bit , but I'm gonna still wake up . It is freezing in San Jose right now and I'm just gonna have to bundle up and go on a walk , because going on a walk I'll still get the same amount of steps in . I just won't have to drive over to the gym and drive home , and I know that sounds like pretty dramatic , but my gym is not literally right next to me . It can add on like a good you know half an hour sometimes , because it's like 10 to 15 minutes there Depending on the time , and then it could be god only knows what time coming back if I don't go early because of traffic and stuff . Usually , ideally , you know between 10 and 15 minutes , but there's been times once that , like school and morning traffic hit , that it has taken me like 25 or 30 minutes to get home , and it should not and it's real frustrating . So I'm gonna shave that amount of time off and just go on a walk . And that's exactly what I did .

Speaker 1

It was my if and then plan . It was like , look , you're tired , I'm gonna give you some grace , but I'm not gonna let you completely get out of this situation because your goal is to hit those steps and you guys , it feels so good To know that I'm hitting those steps every day and that I'm not just like weaseling on out of that goal . And so you know , I want to encourage you . Like what are you , you know , struggling with right now ? Like what would be the important goal that would help move the needle in the direction that you would like it to be , is it , you know , Having a lunch that's prepared every day for you , that you bring to work , so that you stop going out to lunch ? Okay , that's great .

Speaker 1

So if that doesn't work one day , what's your plan ? Where could you go grab a lunch that's healthy and is something that is going to fuel you and help you feel really amazing ? Is there like a grocery store close , beauty , you can just go pick up a couple of things ? Is there a place that you can grab a really good salad ? Could you keep like a really healthy salad dressing at work so that , if you have to grab a salad , you still have like really yummy Dressing that's healthy , always on hand , instead of having like the you know , crappy Ones that are filled with a bunch of garbage

Staying on Track and Rebounding Quickly

Speaker 1

?

Speaker 1

What is the plan that you could do , that you could keep in place so that , if your plan , you know hit the road , that your goal doesn't hit the road with the plan , so I want you to think about that . It's something that's really simple to implement but really will make a really big difference , and it's by no means giving you grace or permission To weasel out of your goals . It is set in stone in case the goal , the plan for the goal , just doesn't isn't planning that morning or that day . It's just a way to , you know , stay on track . The other thing we talked about is if you use the if and then plan . The other thing that I recommend and I don't think this is like official , with an if and then plan , like in coaching and stuff like that , but it's something that I've always implemented myself and I feel like it's very , very helpful let's just say you don't wake up one morning and go to the gym for one reason or another .

Speaker 1

I Always say , within the next one to two days , depending on where you're at like , if you're traveling , if that's why you know it depends on your situation . Right , you know your situation . I can't , you know , write this for you , but let's say you're in town . Let's say you are in town , you are totally capable of Doing the thing , like , let's say , me , who wasn't able to get up for the gym and went on a walk . Within the next two days , I need to go to the gym .

Speaker 1

Maybe the next day was supposed to be a rest day or something , so I'm not gonna be like you have to go the next day , no matter what , but you have to get back on the track that you were on . So , let's say you're bringing your lunch to work . You have a day that's just wild and crazy . Maybe your next day is that way too . So you eat half your salad and you save your salad in the fridge for the next day . Whatever it is , you're going to make sure to get back on whatever you were supposed to be doing Within like the next 48 hours , so that you are not just letting that go to the point where it's like two weeks later and you're like , yeah , I was bringing my lunch to work and then like I just stopped and I don't know what happened , right , so you're allowing yourself that grace , but you're also making sure that you , like pick back up where you started . So , anyways , I hope this is helpful and I will talk to you soon . Bye .