Friday Challenge #2: Deconstructing Problems

This Friday’s challenge can be as simple or complex as you make it, but it’s still a good exercise.  What I want you to do is to identify a problem in your life.  It can be something big or small, but I want it to be big enough so that you feel stressed about having to fix it.

What we’re going to work on is deconstructing the problem into a set of smaller, easier to manage steps.  To keep up with the fitness angle, let’s say that you are freaking out about the upcoming holiday season, gaining weight through eating too much and not sticking to your exercise program.  That’s the problem.  How can we come up with the solution for you to have your pumpkin pie and eat it, too?

What are the roots of the problem?
 
1.  You’re presented with a whole bunch of poor food choices that you love but don’t see very often.

2.  The busy travel schedule with family and friends limits your gym time.

Ok, to solve the first issue we need to eliminate actual hunger from this.  If you’re truly hungry then you’ll be more likely to overeat.  An easy way around this is to either eat something healthy and filling BEFORE you leave your house into temptation, or if that’s not possible then fix a “healthy plate” when you get there.  Most holiday dinners have plenty of healthy options, we just skip over them in favor of our unhealthy favorites.  Have a plate with green salad, lean turkey, some sweet potato (with minimal brown sugar but go nuts with the cinnamon), and a few mixed nuts.  That should take the edge off of the hunger.  Next, arrange a sampler of the foods you really love.  Rather that take a huge piece of pumpkin pie and a huge chunk of homemade bread, take smaller pieces of each.  Add a little apple pie and some mashed potatoes (not necessarily on the same plate).  Focus on small portions of the things you like rather than just trying to load up your plate.

The scheduling problem can be a big one, but think of creative ways to train.  Change up the time you go to the gym.  Schedule it in your planner if you have to, but get your sessions in even if they’re a little early or later than you’re used to.  Help your grandmother with some yard work at her house.  An hour spent raking leaves and clearing old brush is a good hour of calorie burning.  Go outside and take a walk with your family.  Play more games of touch football outside rather than just camping on the couch with a plate in your lap.

This can apply to more than just the holidays; it’s a method for solving problems in your life.  Some problems can seem overwhelming, but most all of them can be broken down to small, manageable steps.  That doesn’t mean that all of those steps are easy.  Sometimes you just need to bite the bullet and do hard things, but if you can break it down into a chain of little one or two choice problems, the big problem becomes much simpler.