Strategy for Preventing 'Crash Days'

Episode Transcript

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The Mom Training Podcast with Diana Ballard

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Diana:      Okay ladies, in the month of May, we are doing a health challenge in our Facebook group, Dancing Through Motherhood. Go join that group if you want to feel better, you want to have fun, engage with some ladies, get your body moving, feel good, and… cooking tips. It’s going to be so much fun. The month of May is ours, let’s enjoy it. Let’s enjoy Happy Mothers’ Day coming up, so go join the Dancing Through Motherhood group on Facebook, I’ll let you in. Let’s do this together. Feel really awesome and we’ll see you in there.

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     Well, I got to throw this in here real quick. For the month of May, you can join Mom Training for $1 for your first month. Check it out, see what it's like. Come, give it a try ladies. Come learn some things, that are going to make your home flow so much more successfully, and enjoy the life that you have right now. Come over to DianaBallard.com, sign up for Mom Training for $1... $1 for the first month. Come try it out. And we'll see in there.

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     Hey, ladies, it is Monday for me right now, the day before this podcast comes out. And I will tell you that I am running on adrenaline right now... I mean, I've gotten so much done today. It's unbelievable. And I've been up since 4:15 this morning, AM, Yep. Training a new employee for Mom Training, which I'm super excited about. She works in the Philippines, and so it's just a beautiful relationship that’s been built, and I’m so excited to introduce you to her sometime along the way. And it increases our possibilities and so many other things we can do with Mom Training, so I'm just super excited.

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     But I’m wired… And I'm going to say that adrenaline is like a gift like I have no idea how I've been able to get as much done today. And I feel great, and I'm still on fire and doing it. It's you know - we're on it. Let's get on it. Don't you love those days? Now, you have to be smart though, about what comes after this moment. And I know that because sometimes, I'll have like a fire day like this, where I’m just like tearing it up. I'm on top of everything. My house is clean. I’m like, “Now, what do I do?” Okay, hang out with my kids, let's do something fun with them, right?

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     So, say we have a day that we're on fire, whether it's adrenaline or not, maybe you’ve had like really good nutrition, you've got really good rest, and it's a day where you can push yourself where you're like, ” Hey, I'm feeling a little bit overstimulated, maybe a tiny bit stressed, but I'm going to choose to use that as fuel to help myself keep going.” And kind of process that as… Maybe turn on some chill music as I'm working, decide that you're going to calm those emotions down, right?... We'll talk about emotional mental coping, as time goes on, throughout this health challenge that we're having right now.

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     And this week, specifically, in our Dancing Through Motherhood group, we're focusing on the physical aspect, because it's about being holistic, taking care of each piece of us. So, for the physical aspect, say that we have that day where we're just like, “Man, I am on it. I'm feeling good, I feel so accomplished, and fulfilled.” And we like, power through all the way to the end of the day. And then we wake up the next morning. and feel like literally, we got ran over by a truck. And whether that's either physically, like your body's so exhausted, or like emotionally, mentally, you're like, “I'm just like, I need a break, man. I'm feeling stressed out, I pushed myself way too hard yesterday. And I just need a break.” Okay.

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     But usually, we have stuff planned that next day, that we need to get done. And so, it makes that day a lot harder. It makes that day feel bad. We just are like, “Man, I'm not on it.” I mean, not being as nice to my kids, as I want to. I'm not feeling as good. I'm not able to focus the way that I need to. 

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     So, this is our strategy for this, when we have those days where we're powering through, there is always more than we can do. There is always more on our list. There is always like, “Oh, you know what, I'm feeling great. I'm going to organize the pantry right now.”  “It's 8:30 pm, I'm going to pick up one project here. I'm just going to clean out the fridge, or I'm going to just fold the laundry, so I don't have to do it tomorrow.”

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     Now, in some cases, that might be okay. In some cases, we might have a little extra time, a little extra energy, and let's go, right? But if we can step back and kind of look at the current day that we've had, maybe yeah, you did get up a lot earlier than normal. You pushed yourself a lot more than you normally do. You can kind of recognize, “Hey, I'm pretty sure my body is running on adrenaline right now.” Which I feel awesome with. I feel motivated. I feel just so full of energy. But there is payment on the other end, the next day if I don't be smart about this moment.

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     So, let me tell you what I'm doing, and maybe you can take and transfer that to your own self. This is a strategy that I am using. And it's with knowing that I am on adrenaline right now… There's no way I'm not. There's no way that I can feel this good, and have gotten six hours of sleep last night, being in my third trimester of pregnancy, have three kids, taking care of a house, my husband's out of town. There's no way in heck, that this is not adrenaline that I'm running on. And so, I step back, I'd seen that. And there are a million things that I could finish tonight, as this adrenaline continues for a while…

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     Now, I have had excellent nutrition today - green smoothies, lots of life fruits, and vegetables, and proteins, and lots of water, also my vitamins. I mean, I'm doing everything I can to support my body as much as possible. Because like, really, I need to plow today. I need to do so many things and pull so many things off today because I do. You have days like that as well.

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     So, it comes down to prioritizing what exactly needs to be done. Now, there could be commitments that we've made, like for me, I told my new assistant that in the next 24 hours, I would have a certain thing to her. But that doesn't mean it has to be in the next 12. Okay, that literally can be, I’ll work on it tomorrow and send it off to her. Right? And being on top of what needs to happen today, what really is a priority today, is what's going to bring me the most peace and not push me too far. So, that was the first step, was prioritizing what actually needed to be done today; kind of making a list, and moving forward with that.

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     Number two, I plan on having the complete evening off. Not one ounce of productivity in the sense of work. That could be organizing something, working on work stuff, cleaning the house, doing any type of prep for tomorrow. Like I'm plowing and doing as much as I can before I put the children to bed because I'm going to take a freaking bath tonight. I'm going to take a bath, I'm going to listen to some chill music, maybe write in my journal, talk to my husband on the phone. I mean, it's just going to be very, very relaxing. I’m going to bed early because I got to be up again, at 4:30, in the morning, tomorrow to talk to another new assistant in the Philippines that I just hired, so I hired two of them. 

 

     So, I got to be up again at 4:30 in the morning, to talk to them at 5:30, and make sure I have everything planned out, and I'm completely on board because I'm training her for the first time tomorrow. It's a lot, right? And if I want to be able to have a day tomorrow that I can function that I can think well, I've got to take care of myself tonight. I've got to take the time off. I've got to disconnect. I've got to take any stress, any anxiousness, anything out of that moment, to completely relax, be in silence and stillness, and meditate in a hot bath.

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     We just finished our bathroom recently. And it’s this beautiful black and white clawfoot tub in my room, and I'd have taken so many baths in that bathtub. Oh my gosh, it's my favorite thing. It really is. I'm so glad that we decided to put that in. Instead of a regular bathtub. It does have a shower above it. But it is the best bathtub in the world, and it’s beautiful.

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    But to be wise, to be smart, to be strategic, about how my body is going to feel tomorrow, I have to focus on relaxing tonight. Complete like meditating, being still, not having a single thing on my list. I can sit in that bathtub for like an hour if I want to, and be able to crawl right in bed. Have my face washed already, my teeth brush, I got water next to me. I throw on my pajamas. I jump in bed and go right to sleep after the bath.

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     This is my strategy because I have crap to do tomorrow, there is no way that I can have a crash day tomorrow. Now, if I have a crash day, am I going to have to adjust? Yeah, and if you have a crash day, even if you've tried, then you're still going to have to roll with it. You're going to have to roll, slow down, take a nap if you need to, take a break step back a second. But even in those moments, we can kind of push ourselves a little bit.

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     I've been learning with time, right now, that it's actually possible to push myself a little bit more even when I feel stressed than I ever thought it was. I’m not saying that I'm trying to burn myself out. There's balance in it of, “Hey, I need to take better care.“ We need to make sure we're not having any simple carbs or sugar today and we're going to pound vegetables, right? There's different things I can do, or we might just be a time where just go to bed girl. Go take a nap. Okay.

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     So, the strategy is prioritizing what the heck really matters for that day. Taking care of your body, doing what you can at the moment. And then also realizing that it might be, you might need to take a break. You might need to take the evening off. You might need to slow down a minute, whether that be on that high adrenaline or that high motivation or productivity day, there might need to come a little bit of like reining it in, and being productive in a different way of relaxing. And to see relaxation as being productive. Now, I'm not going to say I'm adding that to my to-do list because that’s like, no… Just take the evening off and do whatever you want. Relax. Let it go.

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     And then the last tip in strategy, if you do have a crash day, like if you haven't been able to prevent the crash, then it is time to adjust again, what exactly needs to happen today. Take care of your body, and relax. Do what you need to. Take that nap, slow down a minute, cancel something.

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     So, let's have those powerful days. Let's have those days that we just get so much done, and we feel so on top of things, but be wise about that energy. Whether it be from adrenaline, or that you've taken really good care of yourself, but realizing that your self-care is one of the most important things for you to focus on.

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     Head over to the Dancing Through Motherhood group. There's going to be another video there, posted today about similar things like this, so we can learn a little bit more. But come and be supported, come and join our health challenge. It's no commitment, just come and learn. Let's take care of ourselves better this month, the month of May, which is our Mothers’ Day, month. And we'll see you next Tuesday of the Mom Training Podcast.