Intro:

Welcome to The Healthy Catholic moms podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic wife, mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting. I’m going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good and your skin full of energy, and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life, like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals, and how to get them on the table make food that kids will actually want to eat. Mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies. Well in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in

Main Episode:

Hello, my dear friends, how are you? I’m so happy here today. Thank you so much for being here. And welcome to the podcast special welcome. If it’s your very first episode and decision fatigue just called out to you like yes, that is me. That sounds like something I need to listen to. Yeah, you’re not alone. As always, these podcast episodes come from not only listener ideas, questions, comments about topics you’d like to hear, but also from my own life and experience and decision fatigue is very real. So we’re gonna happen to that in just a moment, I just want to let you know, for the entire month of August, I’m running a podcast review giveaway. So as listener of the podcast, you’re eligible, because you’re already listening, hopefully loving the podcast, very simple to enter, all you have to do is give a review wherever you listen to the podcast, if it’s on Google podcasts, or Spotify or Apple, some platforms give the option to leave both a star review and a written review others or just a star review. So whatever you can do, if you have the option to do a written review, that would be awesome. So just please leave a review and screenshot it. then email it to me Brittany at healthy Catholic moms.com In you are entered. So I am going to run it all of August and all the entries that come to me via email, I will just take all those names, put them in a random online generator, and then I’ll announce the winner on it ends up being like the second podcast of September because I looked at the calendar and I was like I’m not going to make that by September 1. I want to give till August 31 to let all the entries come in. And then I’ve got to you know, record the winner and announce that on the podcast. So give it till that first, you know, the next week of September, but I’ll announce it on the podcast I will let the winner know via email. And most excitingly here, what you win is a $25 amazon gift card, which most of us can put to very good use. So don’t delay pause me right now just takes about 30 seconds, maybe 60 seconds to do that. Thank you so much in advance and good luck. All right.

So decision fatigue, my goodness of decision fatigue, honestly, a lot. And I have implemented a lot of these strategies to try to cut down on it some I need to get better about it kind of jogged my memory as I was making this list. But it’s just you know, I think it is an unavoidable thing to some degree. Many of us have read the stat I don’t have in front of me about how many decisions moms make in a day. I know that that stat is is pretty high for teachers as well. And I would guess pretty much anybody who’s responsible for like a roomful of kids or some some scenario where you are the adult making a lot of decisions for a lot of people who are asking you questions. So decision fatigue is very real. And my husband always feels it when like it’s a date night or something. And I’m obviously excited. I’m so excited to have like one on one adult time with him and get out of the house. And then he’ll be like, where do you want to go? And I’m like, Oh my gosh, I just don’t want to pick so just pick. Like, even me at the restaurant sometimes like what do you want to order like, just order for me? Not often. I usually have strong feelings about what I want to order. But a lot of times they just don’t want to even decide where we’re going what we’re doing. So Oh, it’s just a lot of deciding. And I’m sure that’s amplified by how many kids and multiplied by how many kids you have and how many other things you have going on. There’s just a lot of decisions.

So with many things like this, I’m a fan of automating and making things easier on yourself for the decisions that aren’t that groundbreaking, right, that are not going to make or break, the way the day goes, or anything like that, you know, some decisions, absolutely, we cannot automate and are huge, and we need to take to prayer we need to discern and all that, but we don’t need to discern, you know, highly our outfit for the next day and those kinds of things. So there’s ways we can take the pressure off, and hopefully leave ourselves some mental energy for more important things. One thing I will say doesn’t really have to do with decision fatigue. But I’ve shared this in a couple episodes, I just like to do a bagel, kind of vulgar term brain dump, like get it out of your brain, all the stuff that’s going on, I have to do this probably at least once a week. And it’s not at all organized. I don’t like always do it at the start of the week or anything like that. I will at the start of the week, I look at like what’s to come. And I do put into kind of a calendar. A lot of you see me do this, if you follow me on Instagram, I will take a picture almost every Sunday, if I remember to have my meal planning dry erase board calendar, I say meal planning because that’s primarily what I got it for. But it’s just a dry erase Monday through Friday calendar. And then at the bottom, it just has a spot for the weekend. And I fill in the meals and I take a picture of it and I share it on my stories. And then I go in and I fill in the rest of our week down to like, pick up gift for so and so grocery shop Tuesday, whatever. So that were my husband, I are both kind of on the same page. And my kids can one of them can read now. So you can just read the dinner and not have to ask me what’s for dinner, that whole thing. So I do that. But other times whenever I’m just feeling like the stress when you feel the shoulders up to the ears, like when that same thing is popped into your head 900 times like, oh, I have to get batteries or whatever. I just take kind of masterlist and I get it all out because that is also helpful, just in the mental energy category.

Okay, but specifically for decisions number tip number one is to have a rough plan of your meals for the week, grocery shop accordingly and put a visual somewhere. So you might be a meal planner, and you might not it takes a lot of mental effort to all day think what am I going to make for dinner? What am I going to eat tomorrow for dinner? Oh, I don’t have any me to defrost. And then it can also lead to a bunch of other last minute moves or decisions or things we have to do like going to the store to get food because we don’t have what we need for the dinner that we’re preparing and things like that. So get it out of your mind and just jot it down for the week does not have to be fancy could be generic to like you might just put breakfast dinner for Thursday night. And you know that you’re gonna figure it out when you get to Thursday, like, Okay, well if we have bacon, I’ll make that but if not, I’m gonna make it for Tata, I’m gonna whatever. So big fan of this, I know, there’s still some pushback. And some people I follow and enjoy their content as well just don’t like to meal plan because they like to kind of shoot from the hip more. And I get that and I get that spontaneity there are times when I don’t put out exactly what I’m doing. And I just have a rough idea. Like I always kind of have a an inventory of what’s in my freezer and things like that. So I’ll know heading into the week, like I’ll probably make some kind of sausage and risotto dish at some point. We always almost always do tacos on Tuesday, so I know that one, like I can do that. I just personally think it cuts down on the decisions. If I at least know what I hit the staples that I have. And then I still have some spontaneity that a lot of times I don’t actually play on Saturday Sunday, especially if we are going to be home and around like if it’s party I’ll just put on the calendar like we’re gonna so and so’s party we’re hosting this Saturday actually we’re having pizza party coming up so like that kind of stuff I know is already done. But Saturday and Sunday are the days I tend to like to make a little more like intricate meals things that maybe I need to make right away and serve hot rather than have ready to go for after t ball or whatever. So I sometimes on Saturday Sunday just kind of have again that knowledge of like okay, there’s chicken and free I’ll just pull out chicken I’ll figure out what to do with it by Saturday night kind of a thing like maybe I’m gonna go with sundried tomato goat cheese route maybe I’m gonna go lemon and caper route you know, those kinds of things. So you can still have freedom in this do and how it’s going to fit your life and serve you but don’t spend that time all day long thinking what am I going to make for dinner? What am I gonna Oh, are we just gonna and then a lot of times too, we end up just picking up takeout or ask your husband pick up takeout or something and it’s more expensive is less healthy. So get the meal plan out of your head and on paper or somewhere visual.

Okay, number two, to cut down on decision fatigue is to lay out your Your clothes the night before, and or declutter your clothing. Okay, I’m pretty good about this. And I’m getting up to workout. And I like, usually my husband and I are getting up at the same time, but sometimes I’m getting up before him. So I will lay out the workout clothes, or just whatever I’m going to be changing into, if I know that I’m definitely getting up before him so that it’s not loud.
I’m not worried about it every single day. And this will be more helpful when we get into a full routine, and we’re leaving the house more, it’s not just me throwing on a tank top and shorts, get asked about and most days the summer, then figuring it out later. So especially for those of you who work outside the home day in and day out and need to have some more professional attire or whatever, I think it’s really helpful. I know, I have friends who do this too, who just pick out their whole week, on Saturday or Sunday and just line it up in the closet so that they know what they’re wearing all week. And I do think paring down your wardrobe. In general, I’m not a minimalist. In the clothing department, I don’t own 11 pieces of clothing or whatever, you know, the different combinations are but I think it definitely helps when you don’t have a million things, calling to you and looking at you when you open your drawer or open the closet to just have like streamlined pieces you really like, it’s a lot easier to just get dressed. I wouldn’t even you could even go a step further of this is why a lot of people just have quote unquote uniforms like self imposed uniforms. I think Steve Jobs, I think was one of those people who was like white t shirt and jeans or black T shirt and jeans or something might be getting that wrong, but pretty sure it’s accurate. There have been other people too, who just have a go to like same button down, like or just a button down and slacks or that would never be me. Or usually in my case, it’s some kind of shirt and like, if I’m around the house a lot, but you know, whatever it is, that’s also helpful to just minimize the decisions.

Okay, number three, this one’s really really big automate your cleaning slash house maintenance systems. We’re going to talk a little more about systems later on this one too. But I put aka have one. So this was really big. And this hit me when I was a newer mom, and even a newer like homemaker wife in general. Of like, what are when do I clean what? And because I didn’t really have a system was like, oh, yeah, just clean. I was cleaning all the time. Like it was like if I had a spare minute, I feel like this, especially when I had just one kid. And then maybe when I had just had my second, I was just cleaning a lot. I’ve shared that before too, that I would spend a lot of the time and waste a lot of my time cleaning as they were playing with things like just cleaning. They were already playing with a now I’ve always simplify that down to like, nope, very designated cleaning times in our day have we all pick up the playroom or we all clean up before you know, and more basic things in place. But talking about like bathrooms, kitchen floor, whatever, all that stuff. If you have no idea when you’re cleaning something next. It’s so it’s the worst feeling in the world when you have a free minute or a free hour or something like sometimes this little luxury pops up where my husband’s like, Oh, I’m gonna take the kids to the park or something like enjoy an hour. Or he’s even this happened a couple weeks ago where he’s like, take the day he had been gone on a golf trip and take the day. And you know, go do whatever and I instantly was hit with like, do I go to Barnes and Nobles and read a bunch of books? Do I go for a walk? Do I go to adoration? How do I do all of the things I want to do in one. And actually I did a lot of combining that day like read a book in peace while I ate lunch at a restaurant with my book. And I did go for a walk and I did go to adoration so I did get a lot of those things in in like just three hours or so. But anyways, you have to it’s gives you a lot more peace to be like okay, I know this is starting to look a little crazy, but I’m gonna get to it in two days or something like that. Like I get itchy. And with that with a kitchen I deep clean my kitchen once a week. I was like cleaning all the time. Every day I’m doing the dishes we sweep the floor multiple times a day, that kind of stuff. But I started to like, wipe down all the cabinets like vacuum out the drawers that kind of thing. Like no Bernie wait till Thursday and it can be Thursday or Friday usually for me, but like no pulled off, nope, pulled off. And you know, otherwise, you’re just going to be cleaning all the time for things that you could literally spend your entire life cleaning. If you have kids and I’m sure you’ve already seen this. So get a schedule down whatever works for you. If it’s one room a day, if it’s one day of deep cleaning. If it’s like one task a day like you do all the windows or you vacuum all the rugs or whatever find what works for you and your family. farm it out if you’ve got older kids, or you know I know any age kids can technically clean I have my two year old wipe down his own crib, that kind of thing, but just get a system for it.

Okay, number four, set your workouts before you do them. Oh my word. This is really big, I think a big barrier to entry. And James clear talks about this a lot in the book atomic habits, he talks about removing the obstacles as being like half the battle to actually accomplishing what you want to accomplish. And it definitely makes sense. Because we couldn’t find any little thing like, Well, I was gonna run, but I couldn’t find my sneakers. So then I didn’t run in Dakota, or I was going to work out, but I couldn’t figure out what workout I was going to do. By the time I did, I only had 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes. So you know, the list goes on and on. So yes, I have multiple programs that might be a good fit for you pregnancy, postpartum affects your season. The eight week program is going to be kicking off in about a month, which is more of a teaching program, we have our monthly workout group to the chasing greatness group, which is primarily focused on workouts because I assume that most people coming into the group have done the eight week challenge with me already and learned all the basics to nutrition and in strength training in general. But that chasing greatness group has that workout. So there’s a PDF, there workout videos, you just follow along. So you don’t have to preset any of the work. It’s just, okay, I need 25 to 35 minutes to workout. And I’m going to press play and go. If you’re doing your own thing, which many of you like to do, plan it out before you do it. Okay, this is gonna be upper body day even to go to like, when I do this for myself. You know, primarily now I do just do the chasing greatness workouts, because it’s already playing out I already know it’s, it’s effective. And I’m typically filming the next month and that kind of thing. But back when I was going to the gym or something, I would just keep a notes on my phone or workout journal, if you think that’s fun, and that would maybe motivate and inspire you to I would just jot down what I was planning to do that day. So not just upper body but seated row, dumbbell floor press, dumbbell bicep curl, banded tricep kickback, shoulder press, whatever, and put what I was shooting to do, you’re going to be much more apt to just happen and do it if it’s already planned out. A lot of you also like to utilize different videos, you know, like many of you have peloton or have the peloton app or use different Beachbody videos or there’s another lady that somebody just told me about the other day and are on YouTube and I liked it because it was heavily strength based so it was like a hey, what do you think about that and I absolutely get it. So I tell you about my own programs and things like that. And if they’re a good fit, absolutely, I can obviously speak to the effectiveness of them. But I get the wanting to switch things up have somebody else coaching you that kind of thing. So that’s all great and and for mixing modalities and things like that, that like I just feel like doing more of a stretch workout today or something, but pick it before you do it and I’m talking like down to a peloton ride. So that and I’ve been here just the other day, I have a spin bike in my basement. And I just usually do my own spin ride. But I was like, you know, I feel like being motivated by somebody else distracted by somebody else today. So I did like the free trial, whatever however long it was on the peloton app, and I wasted like the first seven minutes just picking a ride. And I was sitting there and I counted it as my warmup I did start like the timer on my bike and whatnot. But I was like, okay, like you just wasted seven minutes. So down to the video, before the week starts, just pick what you’re doing for the week. So when it comes to it, you can just hop right in. Alright, it’s always that front loaded work, saves you time in the end. Lastly, utilize the powerless. So this is something Andy for Sela talks about the powerless being, I believe it’s just three items for the day, but like taking your absolute necessity must do items. And that’s what goes on the list. So we all usually do have some big running to do list. That’s like all the minut details to like take this to the post office do that Amazon return like this, that whatever. But there’s some things that are, you know, bigger deals and others and absolutely must get done. So put that on your list at the very top of the list. Again, this kind of goes get with the visual cues, get it out of your brain, put it put it on your phone, if you want to do that or put it on paper. But then you can list all the other things you hope to do after but like top three must dues are the world’s going to stop spinning kind of a thing goes at the top of your list. So once again, heading back to the idea that it’s about automating the not so important thing so that you do have time for the important thing. So it’s not I don’t I am not one who wants to make my life just effortless. And once you know remote control everything so that I wave my foot under my car door and it opens with groceries and then I have a keyless entry to my house and then I talk and the radio comes out like and I use AI to
make recipes or something like I don’t do any of those things I just mentioned. Okay, so I I do not think I think hard work and effort all that is great. I also think it’s good to be good stewards of our mental energy, and to be mindful that we do have human limits. And that, you know, we can get some of these things on autopilot so that we have more bandwidth for the really important things that we want to give more of our time, attention and energy to. I mean, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Like spending, sort of wasting 20 minutes trying to pick out an outfit, you already know what you’re wearing, so then you have that extra 20 minutes to go play catch with your kid in the yard or to read a book you like or something like it’s just freeing up more margin for us typically. Alright, I hope that is helpful. And maybe you can take a couple of these things and apply it. Don’t forget about the podcast review giveaway. So if you didn’t do that yet, do it now. And I am excited. Next episode we are chatting about how you Oh, exactly. Next episode I knew is coming up soon, but we’re gonna talk about systems. Okay. So join me for that. And until then, I hope you have a great rest of your day. I’ll talk to you next time.

Time stamps:

    • Welcome to the healthy catholic moms podcast. Brittany pearson, a catholic wife, mom and personal trainer, is here to help you build healthy habits.

    • What to expect on this podcast.

  • Podcast Review Giveaway. 1:56

    • Podcast review giveaway for the entire month of August. Enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card. Leave a review wherever you listen to the podcast.

    • Podcast episodes come from listener ideas, questions and comments, and from Brittany’s own life and experience of decision fatigue.

  • Decision Fatigue strategies. 3:50

    • How many decisions moms make in a day, and how many decisions a day is for teachers as well.

    • Decision fatigue is an unavoidable thing for moms.

    • How to take the pressure off and leave yourself some mental energy for more important things like prayer and discernment.

    • Meal planning on Instagram, meal planning dry erase board calendar.

  • Have a rough plan of meals for the week. 6:49

    • Tip one, have a rough plan of meals for the week, grocery shop accordingly, and put a visual somewhere. Put it out of your mind and just jot it down.

    • Saturday and Sunday are the days that she tends to make a little more intense meals, things that she needs to make right away and serve hot rather than have ready-to-go for after T-ball or whatever.

  • Lay out your clothes the night before and declutter. 9:50

    • Get the meal plan out of your head and on paper or somewhere visual to cut down on decision fatigue.

    • Lay out your clothes the night before and declutter your clothing to minimize decisions and make it easier to get dressed every day.

  • Get a system for cleaning. 12:16

    • The importance of having a system for cleaning, and why having a designated cleaning time is a big barrier to entry.

    • A couple weeks ago, her husband took the day to go to Barnes and nobles, and she had to figure out how to do all the things she wanted to do in one day.

    • Get a system that works for you and your family, and figure out what works best for you.

  • Plan your workouts before you go out. 15:12

    • The eight week program is going to be kicking off in about a month, which is more of a teaching program, and the chasing greatness group is primarily focused on workouts.

    • If you are doing your own thing, plan it out before you go to the gym.

    • Some of us like to utilize different videos, like peloton, beachbody, etc. Others like to switch things up and have someone else coaching you.

    • Pick what you’re doing for the week.

  • Utilize the powerless. 18:24

    • Using front-loaded work saves time in the end, and how to utilize the powerless being, three items for the day.

    • Being good stewards of mental energy and being mindful that we do have human limits, and that some of these things can be on autopilot.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *