Standard Operating Procedures for . . .

Emma Montgomery’s podcast yesterday was fascinating:

In it, she talked about 10 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that she applied to her own life with respect to health + fitness. I spent years working in labs where we had “SOPs” for everything from cell culture to lab notebook practices but hadn’t really heard this phrase applied to normal life.

First of all, I thought her content was gold (agreed with many if not all of her SOPs) and second, I think the concept is awesome and wanted to think about my own SOPs in different areas.

But first, some of my favorites from HER Rules/SOPs:

1- Eat the same core meals. Yep. I do vary dinner but my other meals are generally the same few things on repeat and I am totally happy with that. It just makes nutrition . . . easier and less work! And if the meals are things I like (which they are, duh, not going to eat things I don’t enjoy) then everyone is happy.

2- Follow the plan, not your mood. Of course there is a time and place for self-compassion and taking breaks, but in general it’s often better to start exercising and see you feel vs bail because you’re not 100% in the headspace for a hard workout. I do think that there is some nuance here – as you create the plan for the week, hopefully you keep the KIND of week it is in mind as you create the plan (as in: on call? don’t schedule 5 x 1 hr AM workouts), and on a given day if upon reviewing the plan you absolutely don’t see it working, you can adjust. But this is a conscious tweak vs “‘I’m just not feeling it, so I just won’t go” last minute.

3- Protein and fiber every meal. I don’t really pay that much attention to fiber to be honest because I do like fruits and vegetables and generally get a reasonable amount without paying that much attention. But I’ve really been on the protein train this year (esp the last few months) and I DO feel better when I make protein the focus of most meals and aim for ~100g/day (do not always hit this, to be clear — but many days I’m 90s or thereabouts).

4- Data over emotion. YES YES YES. I feel like taking a much more neutral data-minded approach to all of this stuff has been sooooo helpful. AND, taking emotion out of processing the data available and treating it as what it is — information you can learn from and make adjustments.

She has 6 others in her ep as well, but those were my favorites. I definitely feel like I’ve been in a good groove lately with workouts and nutrition and all that, and Emma gets at least some credit (her podcast, but also I do her workouts and this is the first time I’ve lifted as heavy as I am now).

Do you have your own SOPs, related to health and fitness or something else?

I’m going to write a top 10 Planning-Related SOPs (guess I know the topic of the next BLP I will record!) but curious how this applies in all sorts of realms, from parenting to finance and beyond.