Last week I opened up about how I felt like my writing was losing its value, and how I was feeling very lost and like I was drifting from myself and the goals I had set for myself. I decided it was time to focus on a journey back to myself. I need to work on my own mental and physical health, my priorities – Just me all over as a mother, a wife, a blogger and a person.
Normally I would go head fist all in. No prep just “I’m changing everything now” however, I don’t see that being sustainable for me. Yes some big changes need to happen but just tossing myself into everything all at once is what left me in this position, to begin with.
I wonder why some people are so drawn to the “all or nothing, go big or go home” approach in life. I am one of these people so it always leaves me wondering, and then wondering why some people aren’t like that. It’s just a loop on repeat in my brain.
Small steps are what we are aiming for, yes it will probably take me much longer to get to where I ultimately want to be but sustainability and avoiding burnout is the goal here.
This week I decided to focus on making some changes to my physical activity and a small shift in my eating. I have talked at length before about how planning meals and prepping things ahead of time can be extremely beneficial. But, as of lately I have been terrible at taking my own advice
Eating habits.
The first step was to plan out a lunch I could make in bulk, prepare and have ready for the week ahead. – I decided to go with burrito bowls, delicious and nutritious. Also (and most importantly) something I don’t find gets boring over the few days I’m eating them.
Now for those of you who may be wondering, why I feel the need to meal prep when I am a stay-at-home Mom. I tend to just not eat lunch and wait till dinner if don’t have anything ready to just grab and throw together easily. This leads to making poor choices in my eating habits at night, from not fueling my body properly during the day and that leads to negative emotions around food and that is a big no.
A snack at night shouldn’t be something I question or hold any negative feelings toward. So if I am fueling myself throughout the day, my bedtime snack is simply because my body is telling me I’m hungry. There doesn’t need to be any guilt about that.
Having this already made in the fridge and I just needed to portion out depending on how hungry I was feeling and add my toppings. Meant I didn’t skip lunch once this week. Which in turn meant no super hungry me right before bed; so no bad feelings around food and that is a big step in the right direction.
I’m also noting this week I’m feeling much less inclined to want to take out, I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence or if the effects of eating better help me make better overall choices for myself and my children around dinner time. Because yes, take-out once a week or once in a while is a great treat. We all need to have that balance but as I was feeling so overwhelmed and burnt out, that I was ordering take out far more often than I’d like to admit.
Physical activity.
As for working on my physical activity, a few years ago I fell in love with weightlifting but after having my fourth child I started to fall out of love with it. Yes, it still brings me joy, however, it doesn’t exactly give me that freeing feeling any longer. Yes, I still think it’s still great and a good way to move my body and help me stay healthy but my brain strongly ties it to change my body. And since I am working on fixing myself and my mental health, I needed to adjust this also.
Which honestly left me feeling a little lost. If I wasn’t focusing so heavily on physically changing my body, what was the point in working out? Logically I can sit here and tell you, that it’s good for both your mental and physical health but for such a long time I couldn’t justify that for myself. Until I recently when decided I needed a change in all aspects of my life. Because of feeling so disconnected from myself. So this also meant how I was treating physical activity.
My first thought was to continue on my same workout routine and just try to look at it different … this was no help. So I decided to try something different. I started running, and it was amazing. Now I am not saying it is easy, because if you passed me on the street while I was jogging you would think I’m in some serious distress. – This doesn’t seem to stop people from honking sadly, but that is a whole other topic for a different day.
The thing is though, as hard as it is, I fell in love. When I’m running my brain turns off, my music is in the world, my responsibilities, everything just melts and all I can think about is breathing, and my feet hitting the pavement. I still didn’t want to give up my weight training however so I cut it down to two days a week instead of five, and have started running two to three days a week to just feel free. My brain doesn’t seem to tie running to anything other than just moving to feel the joy of moving.
Running was different not something I thought I would enjoy, for years I dreaded cardio. But as I grow as a person so does what I need to help myself and you can find answers in surprising places.
Comfort zone.
The last thing I have been working on this week is breaking out of my comfort zone. Because I live basically the same day every day. (if you’ve read some of my past blogs you can probably see this already because I love to schedule out my days and keep the same routine.) I went big in change … well big for me.
I had gotten an invite a few weeks back from another mom at my children’s school asking if I wanted to come out to a workout group she runs three days a week. -To say I was hesitant at first is an understatement. I am not a group workout person… To be completely honest I much prefer to work out alone. BUT this turned out to be something I really enjoyed.
It is such a great group of women, so welcoming and wonderful. I even brought the kids and they got to play with other kids while my toddler and baby stayed close by me. I held the baby for a good portion of the workout and my toddler a bit too. (Because you know how toddlers can be if some one else is being picked up they must be as well) The girls loved doing the workouts with mom though. Gracie ( the toddler) was laughing and trying her hardest to do them. And Maddie (the baby) was loving all the movement of squatting and lunging with mom.
Like I said I never thought I would be someone to enjoy group work outs let alone an in person, outside one. But there’s just something about getting out with a bunch of other people and just enjoying something all together. That makes something that I doesn’t seem like my cup of tea in the beginning so much more enjoyable. If you’re new into working out, or just wanting to get to know other moms/women in your area I highly suggest looking into joying a workout/or mommy group. Even if it seems intimidating at first you might just enjoy it more than you thought!
If you are in the GTA and are looking for an amazing group of women to get moving with I highly suggest you check out Miranda’s Facebook group to find out some more information. Dream Team FIT CAMP she is also on her own health and fitness journey and you can check that out Here.
This week seemed like big changes.
In the grand scheme of things they’re only minor, and maybe I could have tackled more this week as well. But the goal is sustainability and that means slow process, taking things week, one day, and one step at a time. I’m looking forward to taking some time to sit down and plan for the week ahead, to help me keep moving towards the person I am and the person I want to be.
It’s like an entirely new adventure or relearning who I am, and as much as I do love myself now, I also love myself enough to know sometimes change is good. Just like we stride so hard to help our children grow, we need to put the same effort into ourselves.
If you enjoyed todays blog post I encourage you to check out Things need a shift.or Learning to love my “mom bod”Follow my social media for extras. Or sign up for the email list to receive an email monthly about what’s to come for that month on the blog.
Another cup of cold coffee 