Q&A: What are non-negotiable parts of your daily routine?

Q&A: What are the non-negotiable parts of your daily routine?

I'm your host, Tiffany Sauder, and this is Scared Confident.

I am very flexible as a person and so when we talk about non-negotiables, there's not a lot of them for me. But I will kind of walk you through some things that I would say on my best days, and as I get back into my life post-baby and post COVID, that these are really part of making me feel centered. I do like to get up early.

My house is usually in full swing by 7:30. I usually like to get up between 5:30 and 6. It gives me time and space to just be me. When I wake up, when the kids wake up, it's sorta like the trains are going to run behind all day long, if that's the case. So a non-negotiable for me is definitely getting up an hour to an hour and a half before the kids do.

If I'm going to get a workout in, that's when it has to happen. Sometimes it's an hour and sometimes it's 20 minutes, but moving my body for some reason just reminds me that I'm a person too. So that is a really critical piece to just kind of having my head straight. And when I feel like I've done something for myself at the beginning of the day, it doesn't matter how crazy the temperature gets in the house or at work or around me, if I've done that just for 20 minutes, it helps me really just feel centered. I would say, I also like to sit and eat and that doesn't mean my lunch takes me like 25 minutes, but I have found I'm better at making food choices. When I sit and I taste my food and I'm not eating a bar and a rapper for every single meal.

That takes a little bit of prep sometimes the night before, or I'll just mentally think through what's in the fridge that I can eat tomorrow. But in the heat of the moment when I'm making the kids food on the weekend, or if I'm like running to meetings, if I haven't already thought through, and again, I'm not like a meal planner with a spreadsheet, it's just not my personality, but sorta know, Oh, here's some protein I can grab or some veggies in a Ziploc.

Again, it just makes me feel centered to do that, and like, I deserve good food too. When I get to the end of the day and all I've had is like bars and shakes, I just am grumpy. I just don't like the way that makes me feel. It makes me feel, I don't feel like the people and the things around me get my best time.

We aren't full-full throttle at night. One of the things I really love to do is to cook for the family, not an elaborate meal – oftentimes it's just ingredients like a chicken breast, roasted sweet potatoes, and some broccoli, like those six salt and pepper, you know, it's not like a big to do. But that helps the family come together at a minimum, standing around the Island just to like eat.

It makes me feel like I'm caring for them because they got something warm for me and I got to prepare it and that makes me feel like I'm serving them and I like that. So that is a key piece in the evenings. My husband and I are pretty disciplined about going to bed at the same time. That to me again, just makes me feel connected to him and we can debrief the day, no matter, you know. I don't know, one of us might have calls in the evening or running kids to practice or whatever that looks like, but just to have 15 to 20 minutes to talk through the day, what's going on, anything on your heart or mind, we kind of maybe talk to the next day a little bit logistically, and then I would say 90 out of a hundred nights, I end the night reading something that I enjoy. Sometimes that's my Bible. Sometimes it's a biography that I'm reading. It's often something that helps my mind grow. I guess starting the day with like physical activity for myself and ending the day with like mental rejuvenation is a big part of how I keep things together. About three years ago, I made the observation that most of the television that I was watching was watching other people do their dreams.

And it wasn't helping me move any closer towards mine. And so I just kind of stopped watching TV. So my girls liked to watch The Voice and Shark Tank. That doesn't mean I won't sit down with them for some time to like, as a way to connect or hang or like, you know, who's your favorite contestant. But on my own time, I don't sit down and turn on a show.

I've learned getting into a show is a mental distraction for me. So like, I know people are willing to Schitt's Creek and these, and I just don't start them because I know I don't have the physical, like the control to stop them is I just don't start them. So I don't really know that much about pop culture, but what I do is I get to bed pretty early.

Last nights, I'm in bed by 9:45 and sleeping by like 10:20, because I need to get up the next morning and give it my best. I run pretty hard during the day, but if I can get myself sleep, I can get myself a little workout in the morning and I can eat food that is not pre-packaged. I can stick the landing on a lot of stuff and that is really, really sustainable for me. So what else is on your mind? Text me (317) 350-8921. (317) 350-8921. And be sure to follow along on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening today.

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