If you don’t make time for your wellness you will be forced to make time for your illness.
I was recently laid off during these mass tech industry layoffs. It’s been a wild, chaotic time. It hasn’t been easy, but I do believe this time is an opportunity. One of the ways I’ve been trying to make the most of this time is to really dial in my wellness while reducing my spending. I figured I’d share how I’m prioritizing my wellness on a budget.
My Dialed In Wellness Game Plan on a Budget
My life is in complete limbo right now. It’s absolutely all over the place. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s completely changing day to day. On top of it, inflation is sky high and the world seems to be teetering on another meltdown. No matter how crazy things get, though, the one thing you can control is your actions and how you’re taking care of you. Especially when everything feels out of control.
During this time of chaos, the one thing I will not compromise on is my wellness. In fact, a lot of people I know become their healthiest selves when they’re laid off because they now have the time to prioritize their wellness.
Time is one of our most valuable resources, along with our health. While money is limited right now, my goal is to really optimize my time and spend as little as possible to keep my wellness as consistent and as optimal as possible with the following.
Movement
Most people’s wellness gets better when they’re laid off because they have more time to move their body! I’m making sure to continue my early morning workout regimen of weights three times a week and Pilates twice a week. However, I’m also finally adding more outdoor walks to my day to day which is something I’ve been wanting to add into my regimen more often!
I’ve picked up some part time work that requires working late nights. Navigating how to be flexible with my sleep and workout schedule has been a challenging, but valuable, lesson to learn for me. Which leads me to my next area of wellness.
Sleep and Rest
This is an area I’ve known I really need to improve in even before I got laid off. I’m not big on New Year's resolutions, but if I did have a New Year's resolution, getting proper sleep would’ve been it.
For the most part I’ve been getting up at the same time as I was before I was laid off. I’ll admit, I may have been sleeping in a little. For clarification, my normal wake up time is 5 am and I consider sleeping in to be until 6. I try not to sleep past 7 on weekdays. When I do sleep in it is mostly due to unfortunately staying up way too late. Sometimes I’ve been staying up too late because of the part time work I’ve picked up. Other times it’s been for no good reason. Either way, this has got to be something I really prioritize while my schedule is so inconsistent.
Thankfully at the beginning of the year, because I chronically haven’t been getting enough sleep, I was introduced to Non Sleep Deep Rest and have been doing a few sessions a week. I absolutely swear by these as a bath for your brain and helps me immensely to rest and reset amongst the chaos.
Last week I was reminded that I really need to prioritize sleep. I got the flu and my body very much quit on me for not getting enough sleep. As a result, all I was able to do last week was sleep while my body was fighting off the flu. All this to say, sleep and rest are still areas I must improve in, especially during this time of uncertainty.
Nutrition
Since I’ve been balling on a budget and picked up a part time job with odd hours, I’ve had to rethink my grocery situation lately. I’m an avid Home Chef/Hello Fresh aficionado, but unfortunately my current circumstances don’t fit a Home Chef schedule as well as they used to. As a result, I’ve upped my Trader Joe’s game even more.
I’m focusing mostly on probiotic yogurt, fresh vegetables I can use as a vehicle for their delicious dips, frozen fruit for smoothies, mixed nuts, and organic popcorn for snacks.
Even before I was laid off, I needed to up my protein and fiber intake as well for general health reasons. This will not only help satiate me and keep me fuller longer, but in turn will help lower the grocery bill by being fuller off of less food. I’ve been focusing on protein powder, canned tuna and salmon, and spreading out my meat consumption more and having less meat at most meals.
I’m currently on my 40 Day Countdown Challenge as well where I’m doing healthy alternatives for dessert to cut down on my sugar consumption so that has slightly helped my grocery bill. I’ll admit, I want nothing more than some cookies and cake to comfort me during this time, but at least my budget is thanking me for the break.
I’ve been avoiding alcohol because I’ve noticed if I overindulge my anxiety skyrockets. So I’ve been avoiding alcohol to prevent increasing my already high anxiety levels during this time of uncertainty. On top of that, alcohol isn’t in the monetary or caloric budget anyways. On that note, I’ve also cut back on eating out which should also help my nutrition in addition to my budget.
Mental and Emotional Wellbeing
I’ve been an avid Morning Pages journaler since 2020 and have kept up with the habit since. This has helped a lot to get my swirling and spiraling thoughts out of my head and down on paper and attempt to make sense of these confusing times. I also check in with intense emotions and reflect in the How We Feel app when I need a pause. I’ve also found being open and confiding with close friends and family has been helpful.
Things are changing every day here and sometimes my support system isn’t always available, so I often tap into my toolbox of some emotional regulation tools I’ve learned and try to coach myself as much as possible during low times. I’ve learned that sometimes you just have to allow the emotions and just be. What you resist, persists.
However, through all of this, I really work hard to find ways that these setbacks and obstacles I’m facing right now are opportunities and blessings in disguise. I’ve been surprisingly very high vibe, grateful and happy lately. This has been very fascinating to me and not something I expected during my time of crisis. I keep coming back to trying my best to appreciate this wild time in my life. A phrase that really helps me is “this is all temporary” which reminds me that this won’t last forever, but to make the most of this opportunity.
Recovery
I wanted to touch on the topic separately from sleep and rest.
When times are good, often we recover only after we’re injured. However, if we can be more intentional and proactive with our recovery, then we can be more resilient and less prone to illness or injury in the first place. We’ll have more in our reserves and a greater bandwidth for increased stress. Especially when times are tough.
Illness and injury are the last things any of us need. Even more so if you’re in a crisis. Ideally you need to be at the top of your game to survive in a crisis. However, it’s common that when we’re under an exorbitant amount of stress and our bodies are trying to keep us going that we’re depleting more resources than we are replenishing. As a result, our body taps out as a final communication to us that it’s overworked and depleted.
Being laid off is a huge life stressor. As such, for me personally, the overwhelm and chaos keeps hitting me in the face sometimes. I’ve been powering through at what feels like 600 miles per hour for over a month and last week I got very sick and my body forced me to slow down and only allowed me to focus on resting and recovering.
Essentially I’m reiterating that I really need to focus on sleep, rest, and active recovery moving forward. I always foam roll before every workout, but I have been doing less restorative yoga and Pilates during this time than I’d like. I always am amazed at how big of a difference it makes when I do take the time to do these restorative practices. I need to be a little more intentional with mindfulness and restorative practices that refill and replenish my reserves. They aren’t just nice to have. They’re crucial for improving our resilience and refilling our reserves.
Friendly Reminder: You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup
I hope this is helpful to you if you’re in a similar boat in which your life feels very out of control. It’s helping me stay accountable and remind myself of my priorities. It’ll be interesting to look back in a few months or years to see what’s changed or how I’ve stuck to this.
Even though the name of the game right now is looking to take care of myself for FREE-ninety-nine, never forget that our health is our greatest wealth. You have to take care of yourself. Especially in times of chaos and turmoil. Remember, when everything seems out of your control, your actions are always within your control. You can’t pour from an empty cup and if you don’t take care of your wellness, eventually your body will stop for you and force you to pay with an illness.