It started 2 weeks ago when I decided it’s the right time for my family to move. I added house hunting to my list of other summer goals and became very restricted for time. I cracked last week when I had some very long and stressful work days with no extra time to get to my other things. This includes exercise and nutrition. (Not to mention studying for my GMAT! Why should I have to take the GMAT with my experience!!! Grr!!)
At the same time, my husband returned to work from quarantine. Now I am totally responsible for the well being of a 7 year old every day while I work, work out, house hunt and study. Needless to say, I’m not doing a very good job at any of these things!
For me, this happens as a 2 parts process. First, something changes, I get excited about something new or I have a few very stressful work days and I tend to drop things that were once very important to me. For example, working out was very important to me for the past 9 weeks, so I lifted weights or ran almost every day (seriously, I haven’t been that consistent for years!), until I decided to buy a new house! I have not felt like running or doing any physical activity until that decision! The second part is where I start to crumble.. My mind thinks, since I didn’t exercise today, I’ll just take a cheat day and eat all the goodies I want. And the next day, since I feel a little less energetic, I won’t work out again and maybe I’ll let myself sleep in and miss my opportunity for quiet work. And since I missed that opportunity, I’m annoyed at my son all day because he wants my attention but I have too much work. And since I’m so annoyed by the end of the day, I’ll just have a few glasses of wine. And, And, And…
For me, it’s hard to overcome once I get to the ‘And, And, And’ part. I reflected on why this happens to me over and over again. I get excited, get working, get a wrench thrown at me from somewhere and completely crumble in all areas. I chalk it up to being stressed and start bad habits that I formerly stopped. Eventually, I come again to a place I don’t want to be, and I start over.
I don’t want to this to happen this time. So I have to figure out how to “do it all”. I don’t have the right answers. But I can offer some of my reflections:
- Find an accountability partner. Someone who you gives you a kind nudge when they notice you’re not yourself. Perhaps it would be helpful to have someone for each area of your life that you’d like to keep on track. For me, I’d like to have one for my health (luckily I do!) and maybe one for my GMAT and one that tells me I’m spending too much time searching for houses (my son would great at this one!).
- Introduce your activities back in slowly. Ok, so I’ve been MIA for my blog, my runs, my nutrition, my studying…it feels overwhelming to introduce it all back into my day. So at first, I am focusing on each area for at least 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I can move on to something else. Today was my first day and I can report, although I said I’m only doing these things for 5 minutes, I have completed the whole task (exercise, make a salad, blog) in as much time as I needed. Once I got started, I felt that the finish was more attainable.
- Listen to someone or something motivating. This was a huge trick of mine during marathon training. My mind is tired sometimes, and even going through the motions seems hard. My personal favorite for a kick in the ass is David Goggins. He never gives up. Here’s his website below.
4. Have patience. Everything big we do, is a marathon and not a sprint. So I crumbled a little bit the past few weeks-it doesn’t mean I should continue to crumble for the next few weeks. This is a marathon and I’m only in the beginning stages of all of it. I will pace myself and try to remember to put one foot in front of the other even though I can’t see the finish line.
Documenting the journey to 26.2 