When life gets in the way of your plans

Athletes who want to work on their health make plans. Training at the gym so many times a week. Running outdoors so many times. Eating this. Structurally eating less of something else. And then life gets in the way. Someone close to you falls seriously ill. You lose your job, or you have to work extra shifts. You really need to spend more time on school. You could postpone your fine plans, but nutritionist Samefko Ludidi has another option: an emergency protocol.

Even when life gets in the way, I advise athletes not to postpone, but to stay on course. Just less intensively. I encourage athletes to draw up an emergency protocol for such situations. That is a plan you can fall back on when everything is against you.

A good emergency protocol can be based on five guidelines. I will give you three of them right away:

1 Rhythm and rest. Go to bed at a fixed time, get up at a fixed time, sleep at least seven hours.
2 Make sure you have three tasty and nutritious meals a day.
3 Take at least 6,000 steps a day.

Rhythm, rest, food and movement are the pillars of a healthy life. That is why you always have to keep taking care of these, however much you are distracted by disruptive events or situations.

In addition to these three fixed guidelines, I urge athletes to come up with two of their own. Two daily behaviours with which you can safeguard your health. That could be meditating for five minutes. Reading five pages of a book attentively. A short breathing exercise. Forty skips with a jump rope. Keep it small. It is not about volume, but about getting used to it. It helps to build self-discipline. You train yourself in maintaining habits. That is enormously valuable for an athlete.

Take the three guidelines I give you and add two of your own as a daily agreement with yourself. Make a checklist in the calendar on your phone and work through it every day. Every time you tick something off, tell yourself: this is a small victory. Reward yourself with a good feeling, that helps you keep it up longer.

If life is not on your side, but you manage to stick to the emergency protocol, this can also become the basis for periods in which you have more time and space again. As soon as life gets in the way less, you can build up your schedule again. And if you then do manage to carry out all your original plans, you will suddenly make great strides.