Day 1: Balance or the lack thereof…

Good Evening beautiful friends!

As my alarm frightened me into an upright position this morning, I felt myself instinctively think the words “Mom, just 5 more minutes”. As I opened my tightly closed eyes, I noticed the light peeping around my curtains. It’s morning! This is no ordinary morning however, and just as the first day of school always left me feeling excited, nervous, and hopeful, so did this particular Monday. For you see, today I begin my 60 day journey to personal, emotional, and spiritual awakening! Speaking of awake, I’m not quite sure I was at this point, but I dragged myself out of bed anyway.

I checked into myfitnesspal while brushing my teeth and doing my make up to ensure my macros were prepped for the day, then packed my lunch, which to the untrained eye, seems like WAY too much food for my little 5 foot frame, but as my mom always said growing up “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. This girl plans to make some serious gains over the next 2 months, and food is fuel!I will get more into this in another post, but essentially, I have decided to adopt an “If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM)” approach to eating over the next 60 days to compliment my training, and also because I want to try something new.

Luckily for me, today was a rest day, so I was able to slowly get ready. I showered at a moderate pace, ate food without choking, and applied mascara without poking my eye out. If this was a workout day, I would have been stumbling about blindly with only 1 eye partially open, drinking the iced coffee i’d made the day prior, absent-mindedly chewing on some cold oatmeal while making sure my bag was packed and that I had not forgotten to pack a towel, or more essential still, a bra. I am a morning person, but in the 20 minutes I leave myself to get ready for the gym in the morning I do not have time to really allow my brain to wake up properly. As I was saying, today was restful, I made coffee and ACTUALLY sipped it like a normal person, rather than throwing in 3 ice cubes just so I can chug it like water. I put on some music, Norah Jones to be exact, and began my trek to work!

Today was an insanely busy day, but I survived WITH a smile on my face, and even managed to go for a 30 minute walk with a friend at lunch. I have come to the realization in recent weeks that I often take on more than I can handle. I push myself to my limits both in and out of the gym, I often do not get enough sleep, and lately my nutrition has been all over the place. I need focus, I need a plan, and I need a change. The constant act of burning the candle from both ends approach to life is leaving me drained and I know I can’t do this forever.

My post today was going to be all about balance; I had it all planned out actually, but let’s just say it was forced to take another direction. I was getting so much done tonight when 7:30pm rolled around, I noticed my stomach growling like crazy. I was STARVING and realized that I had been so focused on getting the 15 things on my ‘to do’ list crossed off, that I had forgotten to make and have dinner. So much for balance…

I was faced with 2 choices, keep working and ignore the hunger or stop and make dinner.

So what did I do?

Please, this is food we’re talking about. Of course I stopped and made dinner. Before that however, I took a moment, sat down in the quiet for about 5 minutes, and just centered myself.  For dinner I made mung bean pasta (high in protein) and a simple sauce of garlic, onion, zucchini, and mushroom with a Neil brother’s organic roasted garlic pasta sauce–which happens to be my FAVOURITE combination ever. I had a simple pea shoot salad on the side, and left over tomato, corn, coconut soup. DE-Lish!

I may  not have gotten everything done today, but I recognized the behaviour–that obsessive need to get everything done at once– and took a step back. I’d say that’s a big win in the balance department.

It’s 9:44 and i’m calling it a night. My goal was for 9, but i’m close. Gym bag is packed, food is ready to go, alarm is set, so it’s just my 10 minute bedtime yoga and meditation routine to complete and then sleep! I hope everyone had a wonderful day. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be GREAT!

Namaste.