The Sick Day Plan. Expect The Unexpected - Your Emergency Plan For When Things Go Wrong (Part 2)

This week we are talking about what to do when things go wrong.

When life throws a curveball, and we are sick, injured, upset, or pressed for time, the natural tendency is to take the easy way out and fall back on old, familiar, comfortable habits. 

But what if doing so actually makes things worse? What if eating crap or skipping getting even a little movement in makes us feel even worse, physically and emotionally?

That brings us to today's topic:  the sick day, or more precisely, the sick day PLAN.

What do you do when you wake up with a migraine, or you didn't sleep well last night and you're exhausted? Or your kid is sick? Your dog or cat is sick? 

Or, for some of you, you have your period and you always get cravings for some food then.

Or maybe you were feeling okay but you got stuck late at work, or your car broke down, or you had to run a bunch of errands and by the time you got home you felt too tired to cook.

It's so tempting to just grab takeout and zone out on the couch.  Or scrounge in the fridge or cabinets for whatever SAD food some family member left there.

I ask: What if you had a "sick day plan?" 

A contingency plan.  Something easy you could do for a day when you needed to.

You (probably) have some bandages in your house for when you get a cut. Maybe even an ice pack or two in the freezer.  You don't wait till you cut yourself to go buy the bandages. And you certainly don't drive to the drugstore to buy an ice pack after you sprain your ankle.

Hell, you probably even have medical insurance.  And car insurance. You hope you never need them, but you have them, just in case.

Schools have substitutes on call for when teachers get sick.  They don't wait to hire the subs until the day the teacher calls out. 

Could you have some easy substitute meals?  Some "meal insurance?"

Could you have some servings of frozen soup or main dishes already in your freezer to pull out in a pinch?

Could you have a few simple staples around the house that you could throw together in a hurry if you had to?

If your salads were already made for several days, you're all set for lunch.

But if the day you were supposed to make more salads was the day when things blew up,  could you just microwave some frozen veggies and a sweet potato  (that you already have in the house because you are the type of badass person who always has a few sweet potatoes in your house for just this type of situation)?  Add some tofu or canned black beans, and pour a little Balsamic vinegar over them, and have a few walnuts? 

Is it just a bunch of ingredients cobbled together? Sure, and maybe it's not interesting enough to you to eat every day, but it gets healthy food into you with the minimum of effort every now and then when you need something and you weren't prepared for whatever the day brought your way.  And it didn't come from a fast food restaurant.

The period plan:  If you know you always get cravings for ice cream when you have your period, plan for it. That way you not only won't be surprised when the craving hits, but you'll have an alternative planned. Not ice cream per se, but  something close enough to take care of the perceived need.  Plan to make some Nice cream instead.  Or some fruit-only sorbet.  If you tend to want chips when you have your period, make a piece of avocado toast instead to have with dinner.  Think about the craving food and if you feel you need something, identify the next best choice you could make. But have it planned in advance so you don't have to think of a new plan at the last minute when you are in the middle of it.

Schools don't start hiring substitute teachers after their teachers call in sick, and neither should you.

I know we all think of these things as "unexpected."  But are they, really?

You KNOW that someday you're going to have a day when you just don't feel well, or there is some yucky surprise that will happen. You might not know the details of exactly what will go wrong, or when, but you know it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. 

So why not have a sick day plan to fall back on when you need it?

Coming up tomorrow: When the whole week goes wrong.