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At 5.39am a couple of mornings a week you’ll likely find me on a mad little cleaning frenzy that’d make my mum proud!

Yes, it’s somewhat early however I simply cannot start the day in a messy gym. Kettle-bells, steps, loaded barbells and water bottles randomly abandoned and littering the floor are a hazard to someone naturally susceptible to UN-coordination! It also really brings out the UN-calm in me. In today’s show I’m weighing in on how:

Outer Order Reflects Inner Calm. 

Like last weeks #332 show on The Balance Myth I’m going to split today into the format of 3 of my Go2 areas of focus when it comes to everything Body Gain. That is FUEL or everything Food, MOVE or everything Exercise and LIFE or everything Time. Let’s get rolling…

One: FUEL.

When I think of one of the more UN-calm periods of my life it must have been my first flatting experience. At 18 I moved out of home and into a 6 bedroom inner city flat with 3 of my closest girlfriends and at any given time 2-3 other flatmates of varying degrees of closeness and varying degrees of grossness…

Point in case: Our party flat soon became known a little less affectionately as the cest-pit. From pet rats living in a chest of drawers, to the yellow pages and phonebook as loo paper, to a overflowing sink of disgustingly dirty dishes and a frighteningly filthy fridge that even those rats likely wouldn’t scavenge from if given the chance…

To make this specific to your body gain goal: The chaotic scenario I paint is the exact opposite of how to start your ideal day.

You’ve heard me say it before however I believe a vital component of winning your morning and powering into a focused, effective and calm day is to plan, prepare and consume an ideal breakfast. I cover some options in show #097 on lean clean breakfasts.

To take your best breakie back even a step further, I hugely recommend preparing it as much as possible the night before.

So perhaps that’s your omelet ingredients mixed in a bowl in the fridge or maybe it’s your smoothie ingredients ready for blitzing. The thing is you wake up with your breakie strategy sorted… and less washing up… and I don’t know about you however a rare beast you never want to encounter is the supremely UN-calm Kate that is so rushed she doesn’t get the chance to eat a proper breakfast.

I believe my body deserves the best possible fuel to start it’s day and I believe YOUR body does too.

=> Bonus tip: Clean out all the out-of-date AND also any out-of-alignment with your health goal food from your fridge, freezer and pantry. A massive food eviction is incredibly cleansing and calming.

The old, half-used stuff you’re not going to eat and the rubbish you might eat and then feel guilty about is cluttering up your kitchen and also your mind.

Two: MOVE.

UN-calm period of my life #2 (which wins the Gold medal without a doubt so far as crazy-UNfun-stressful-UNcalm!) was the last 12 months in my previous business. Yes, that old Business-from-Hell you may have heard me mention before in which even the business broker who helped me eventually sell the thing exclaimed: “This business is like a soap opera – what else could possibly go wrong? Kate, when you finally get out you need to write a book!”

I regularly coasted from one near disaster to the next… subsequently did not always prioritize my exercise and certainly didn’t stick to a set training plan.

To make this specific to your body gain goal: You need a plan to stick to with your exercise. Set days, set times, set muscle groups with your weights. Expect UNcalm to happen. It will. However you are 100 times more likely to get your exercise done if you don’t need to think about what you’re due to do. Especially if that workout happens first thing in the morning… straight after that ideal breakfast.

I cover how to make it work in show #059 on: Your I.D.E.A.L. Training Plan:

=> Bonus tip: Get your workout gear out the night before. And, make your bed! Ok, the bed point doesn’t really have anything to do with exercise however importantly it is a small reference point for success and for order in your day.

You’re starting the day with a win.

Three: LIFE.

This aspect of Outer Order Reflects Inner Calm is the one that’s still constantly evolving for me.

So by LIFE I’m talking TIME because Time = Life and Life = Time.

Like everything it’ll come down to what works best for you however here are a couple of key components I’ve learnt so far as organizing my day and as such my life AND importantly feeling more calm rather than more stressed as a result of my self imposed tasks, goals and systems.

Like your breakfast and exercise…

A). Plan your working day to come the night before. Also order tasks by priority. 

If you’re anything like me…

B). Now take that plan – ALL those tasks – and half it… perhaps quarter it! At least until you get a whole lot better at knowing what is actually doable in a day.

In case you too (!) are prone to obsessive-OVER-organization…

C). Get rid of any set times to start anything but the first task. Instead replace the times to start with the amount of time to spend on each task.

You’ll drive yourself into a frenzy if you insist on a set time to start a set task. No one can predict that effectively. Even if you’re the one person that can you’ll still regularly find yourself at the mercy of EVERY OTHER PERSON who can’t and who is infuriatingly messing up your perfect schedule!

=> Bonus tip: Embrace a weekly digital detox. I’ve been noticing that constant online stimulation, constantly playing the comparison game via social media and feeling constantly available to be contacted is bringing out my inner-UNcalm.

Trial however long works for you. I alternate between 24 hours and a morning. If the idea of 24hours sounds absolutely awesome, I’ll do it. If 24 hours sounds somewhat stressful, I’ll acknowledge that before I start and commit to just the morning.

To get actionable today I’ve haven’t talked food evictions for a while so I’m going to roll with the bonus tip from step one: Clean out all the out-of-date AND also any out-of-alignment with your health goal food from your fridge, freezer and pantry.

Talking of Inner Calm, it’s meditation time for me.

I hope you can join me for the Friday FAQ show where I cover step by step: Healthy Vegetarian Eating. 

If you liked this you’ll also like: Help with fat loss when it’s not so much fun anymore!

If you’re yet to share the Healthification love – just click here to zip over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review. It’d help me out big time. With gratitude, Kate.