A busy day of a real estate agent: Wake up and brew a cup of coffee and off to the computer you go. Work a few hours, shower, eat then head to the office. The day starts to blend with phone calls, emails, tasks, paperwork and socializing. Nothing seems to slow down and the clock passes five until you leave at seven o-clock. Say hello to the kids or dog, fix something to eat and back to the computer to try and finish the day out. You find yourself always playing catch-up and think that the weekend is coming to help get back to ground zero. In the back of the mind is your personal laundry list of errands from oil changes, dry cleaning, shopping and that hair appointment that hasn't been set. All this time and not a moment to spare to even think about using that gym membership that is taking $50 from your wallet every month. What will make you say stop and re-balance your life? Hopefully it won't be a life changing event like a heart attack, divorce or a near death experience. It is time to hit the reset button.
I spent most of my life as an avid athlete competing in four ironmans, many ultra-marathons, endurance mountain bike races, countless triathlons, duathlons, adventure races and still able to keep a normal job. Things changed a few years ago in March 2010 and I found myself in the same rut mentioned in the first paragraph. Working 24/7, blowing off exercise and trying to play catch-up I experienced a near death experience. The choice is yours, either treat your body right or face the consequences from neglect. So I want to get to the point and point out what it takes to hit your reset button. I did it and it took that life changing experience for me to go in search of what really is required to reverse a downward spiral.
There are three segments of our lives that everything depends on them being balanced. They are physical exercise, nutrition and rest. These may sound like something we all have heard but believe me this is different. Take an endurance athlete, like myself, and imaging the training it takes to run a full marathon or more. It isn't just the ability to overcome the pain to endure the sport, it has to do with discipline. Every morsel that enters your mouth, every mile you run, the rate at which the heart beats, the shoes you wear and more. Now imagine after hours of training each week for months on end and suddenly take that all away in a moments notice. I actually experienced this in an ironman in Austria after training for nearly ten months straight. A non-competitor decided to cross a closed bike course at the wrong time and BANG! Off the bike I flew fifty feet. All I could think was ten months of training down the drain but I was so well conditioned that my injuries were only minor. How does this relate to a real estate agent? Being a hard working real estate agent is like an endurance athlete with no relief valve. The training is in the long days but without balance it can all come to a crashing result. So let's take a look at what I did to reset my system:
1. Make a contract with yourself and write down a schedule and place it on your Google calendar to exercise every morning for seven days. Do not skip out on any of these days. Even if you wake up late. Make sure your workout includes 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of light free weights.
2. Set a time that you will go to bed every single night during these seven days. Nothing later than nine o-clock. Then sleep for eight hours. If you have insomnia then buy an ipod with soothing sounds or download a free application called RelaxSleepWell and follow it as soon as you lay down.
3. Change your diet for seven days: Go out and buy a magic bullet and a vegetable juicer. Eliminate all sugars, coffee and bread from your diet for these seven days. Each morning in your magic bullet add 1/2 cup of frozen blue berries, 1/3 banana, scoop of whey protein, 1/2 cup of almond butter milk and if you want more, one tablespoon of all natural peanut butter (no jiffy). For lunch eat a salad with only oil and vinegar and no protein or a complete juiced meal as I am about to explain. For dinner replace the whole meal with the following juiced vegetables: (2) carrots, (1) cucumber, bushel of kale, (1) lemon, (1) granny apple and a small amount of ginger root (careful with that). The fresher these are the better it will work.
If you can make a commitment with yourself and follow this regiment, I promise you will have found a reset button that you may have never known to exist.
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