Prepare for the Storm

Prior planning prevents poor performance or as my good friend Paul says, “spontaneity sucks”.

Five Ps. Old military saying. And it applies to your health more than you might think.

Here's the thing. Most people start eating better with loads of motivation. They clear out the cupboards. They download the Clubwell app. They're ready.

But they never plan for the storm.

The storm is Tuesday evening when you're shattered after work and a Domino's advert pops up on your phone. The storm is your colleague with the birthday cake in the office. The storm is a bad night's sleep followed by your body screaming for sugar at 11am.

These aren't surprises. They're completely predictable. You know they're coming because they've happened a hundred times before.

So why do we act shocked when they hit?

Because we never sat down and made a plan for them.

Think about it like this. A sailor doesn't wait for the storm to hit and then figure out how sails work. You prepare before you leave the harbour. You check the weather. You know what you'll do if the wind changes.

I sailed across the Atlantic with two of my kids. Trust me, we didn't wing it. Every possible scenario had a plan. That's not being pessimistic. That's being smart.

Your old habits have triggers. The food adverts. The Friday night takeaway ritual. The biscuit tin at your mum's house. None of these are random. They're patterns. And patterns can be predicted.

So, predict them. Write them down. Then decide in advance what you'll do instead.

When the Domino's ad appears, you already know you've got yesterday's leftover chilli in the fridge. When the 11am sugar craving hits, you've already had fibre with your breakfast and your blood sugar is steady.

The storm still comes. But you're not standing there in your pants wondering what happened.

You're ready.

Your action today: Write down your three most predictable triggers, the situations where you always slip. Next to each one, write what you'll do instead. Decide now, not when the storm hits.