Trying to juggle work, family time, fitness objectives, healthy food, personal care and social events can be overwhelming. So how Carmel Rodriguez – Simply bring your body coach, your fitness influencer, your model, your entrepreneur and your mother of two children – manage to find the perfect balance?
She doesn’t! And here is why: constantly hunt an unrealistic ideal of “perfect balance” simply adds unnecessary stress to your life.
And everything that increases your stress level – including the pressure to be perfect – is “not really the investment you want to make,” says Carmel. Instead, she embraces “unbalanced and perfectly imperfect”.
So what does it mean for her? “‘Purf perfectly imperfect” means that certain days, you will have it below, “explains Carmel.” You will get your training session, you dine on the table, you will enter your children a thousand times, the house will be clean and you can relax for a second. “
“And the next day, everything will get out of the window,” she adds. “And that’s something he’s happy – because it may not be perfect, but that’s what it is.”
Here are his tips to find your own ideal “perfectly imperfect” point.
1. Let go of perfection
“I tried to be perfect in all aspects – and I failed each time, because there is no such,” says Carmel.
His advice: abandon the self-imposed pressure to do all things. “You want to continue and go, and it does not matter – you must have this reader,” she says. “But at the same time, you must understand that we are human beings and that we cannot continue like this.”
“We are fighters by nature, but we must simply sit down and accept – this pile of laundry is not going for the next day or two, and we are going to take this evening,” adds Carmel. “The mythical balance is that sometimes you have to abandon the things we think we have to keep so closely.”
2. Kiss where you’re right now
When life is hectic, it is normal to want to find a feeling of calm as soon as possible – or at least to maintain the appearance that you manage everything easily.
“As parents, we want to seem to have everything together when we head in front of this door,” explains Carmel. But you can feel less stressed if you stop trying to fight the restless pace of your life and you simply accept that your current reality is not entirely together.
“When I’m outdated, everything is above me, my stress levels are high, I’m on the verge of panic attack, and I can’t face – I’m going to sit down, and I’m going to breathe , and I will accept my situation, ”explains Carmel.
“If we find acceptance, a lot of weight will be removed from our shoulders,” she adds.
3. Wake up a few minutes earlier
If you have trouble cutting out of time, try to adjust your alarm earlier.
“My best and most proven time management strategy is to wake up early,” says Carmel. “Get up as soon as possible, and spend a little time in the morning for yourself.”
You can use this time to do a breathing exercise, make up for your delay in household chores or make your training and sprinkling before the rest of the house wakes up. “When this is done, it’s over, and the rest of my day can continue,” explains Carmel.
4. Search for one minute tasks
It can be difficult to motivate yourself to combat long tasks when you know that you will not have time to accomplish them. And this means that these tasks continue to accumulate.
So, instead of adopting an all or nothing approach, Carmel tackles his list of tasks one minute at a time – literally. “If you see something around you that you could do in less than a minute, do it,” she said.
“Do it right away. Take them out of your hair. Even if there is a counter full of dishes and you can make four or five, make four or five, then you can move away. And you have small achievements throughout the day.
5. Stay active together
There may be days when you really can’t cut yourself for 30 minutes for full training. But you can always make movement in your day by making your time with active family.
When Carmel’s children were younger, she said, she was building obstacle courses in the courtyard using their toys. Or she pushed the two children in the stroller, using the hill near her son’s nursery school for an additional challenge.
Now that their children are older and both involved in competition sports, Carmel and her husband transform training and games with active family.
“My husband and I are trying to attend every game with the children,” she said. Between the games, they find ways to train together – such as the management of football exercises with their daughter. “My husband would take us, and we would do the exercises together and we associate ourselves,” she said.
6. Nix the “guilt of parents”
It is normal to feel that you should devote every minute free to family affair time. But take time of your day to make a training or prepare a healthy meal benefits the whole family.
“If I do not work very well – my anxiety is high, I am overwhelmed, I am overworked, dissatisfied, unhappy, angry – all my family will feel it,” says Carmel.
Training gives him a chance to recharge and relieve stress. “This is my investment in my family – take care of me for them,” she says. “And not only that … I paint a painting for my children. They will see that they have to take time for themselves. »»
7. Minimize obstacles
“In terms of logistics, you must have your belongings cut,” explains Carmel. “You have to eliminate these apology because you are going to have a lot. And you are often tired and outdated and overwhelmed.
One of his favorite hacks: Place your clothes and training sneakers next to your bed to make the morning training sessions.
“I would take that, and my bottle of water, and I would leave the house,” explains Carmel. “It would already be planned before having the opportunity to turn left or right to do something else. It was so systematic, because I knew there was so many that I could be distracted. »»
8. Find a large -scale motivation
After the birth of her second child, Carmel had a recurring nightmare that her children were in danger and she could not save both. This inspired her to become strong enough to go into superhero mode if necessary.
And more recently, Carmel is motivated to remain strong so that she could take care of her mother, who has dealt with health problems. “These are things that I train for the moment – to be so strong that I have no problem being able to lift it and carry it and hold it if I need it.”
Of course, if you are motivated by wanting to change your appearance, it is not a bad thing. “I love to look good in a pair of jeans, I like to have chiseled arms and absets, and I’m absolutely for that, believe me,” says Carmel. “Some days is my motivation.”
“But if it’s your only thing, I guarantee that it will not last,” she adds. So make sure you have a more significant “why” that can transport you through your low motivation days.
“If you have a real intention and a global image … It will always be there,” she said. “And that will make you go through these moments when you say to yourself:” I don’t care what I look like today – but I want to be there for my mother tomorrow. “And this will be the real reader.
9. Master the mini-work
If you only have a few minutes to train, Carmel suggests choosing three or four exercises you know and already likes it, and putting them in rehearsal until you don’t run out of time.
“Keep them as full as possible and run them consecutive,” she says. “No matter who you are, you will get incredible training.”
One of his favorite movements: the mini-wheels you will see just bring your body.
“It’s fun, it’s fun, and you make a movement that is difficult, but it is doable once you have lowered the movements,” she said. “You build the upper body strength, you get cardio, and when you start nail it, you look hard to cook – which is great.”
10. Adopt a holistic approach
The overtraining or obsession of each calorie can cause serious stress. So when it comes to helping his children build healthy habits, Carmel adopts a more holistic approach.
For example, instead of creating strict rules on what they should or should not eat, it focuses on the creation of conscious eating habits.
“We eat with casualness, we sit down, we take the time to eat and we do not eat too much,” she says. “We appreciate it, and we now have the energy – with the food we have eaten – to do what we want to do throughout the day.”
11. Cut yourself a little bit
“Movement planning [at least] Three days a week. It is as important as your morning coffee or smoothie, ”explains Carmel. “But give him time to make it a lifestyle and a routine. Trying to achieve your fitness goals overnight, while trying to juggle with dependents and life, will only overwhelm you and cause unnecessary stress – and the failure of the execution. »»
“Be committed, but do it with love and intention as an investment in you and in you,” she adds. “This is the state of mind that someone needed to make it stick.”
