Balance, Priorities and The Gambler

Last week was a super tough week for our family. Our little guy was having some pretty serious sleep regresions, and needed a lot of nighttime support. This lead to several nights of five hours of sleep or less. My body was exhausted from the sleep deprivation, and my mind was exhausted from the stress. This, coupled with an extra busy "stuff" week (meetings, appointments, rehearsals, etc.) led me to feeling completely overwhelmed. I knew that I couldn't do it all...so I decided not to try. 

A year ago, I decided to make my self-care a priority in my life. And I think that I have been largely successful at this. But self-care is so much more than just eating right and working out. Self-care is also about feeding the mind and soul, and ensuring that all our body needs are met, physiologically and psychologically. 

For me, that meant that I needed to back off of something this week- and that something was my exercise routine. 

I tend to work out between 60 and 90 minutes a day, with at least two days a week exceeding the two hour mark. That's a really intense schedule to maintain and an awful lot of calories burned off in a day (an average of 3500 calories a day).

I do this because this amount of exercise seems to be what my body needs to function at an optimal level. Doing less doesn't give me the same hormonal boost, and doing more is too much for me to maintain. But around 12-14 hours a week of intense exercise seems to be my happy number, and I have adjusted a lot in my life to get there. 

However, there are some weeks where this simply isn't realistic. And on those weeks, I get discouraged. I am very much an 'all or nothing' person- if I can't do it ALL, then I don't do it AT ALL. 

So my goal this week was to aim for moderation. I wanted to make sure that I did at least thirty minutes of exercise a day, and make sure that I hit at least 12.5K steps a day. But otherwise, I was giving myself permission to not work as hard. My body couldn't handle it, my mind couldn't handle it and frankly, there just weren't enough hours in the day. 

It was a tough week- again, my 60-90 minute goal really is about finding the right amount of time to feel my very best. 30 minute sessions just didn't cut it the same way. BUT I also knew that it was the best that I could do, and that it was only a matter of time before things balanced out again. 

The truth is that life often throws you curve balls, and that it is very difficult to do everything you want to do all the time. You have to prioritize, and find the rhythm that works best for you and your needs. But the thing about priorities is that they can't be set in stone. They change, just as events in your life change, and we need to be flexible to adapt to these changes on a daily basis. 

I do not feel like I let myself down this week, even though I didn't hit my fitness goals, and even ate a lot more liberally than I usually like to. Instead, I am really trying to focus on the fact that sometimes we need to know when our body and worlds are simply too overwhelmed to take any more on. Sometimes, we need to look in the mirror and say "Today, we are 'pausing'. We will hit play again tomorrow, and that is ok."

I am learning to understand that that is the key to long term sustainable health and wellness. 

As 'The Gambler' tells us, you gotten know 'to walk away, know when to run."

Once you figure out that relationship, you find the balance that works for you.