It's All About The Balance.......

When it comes to balance (as in balancing all aspects of life)....I have two left feet.

A year ago I started working on the way I ate - eliminating as much extra sugar as possible, doubling up on veggies at each meal, cutting back on excess carbs, and making sure the ones I ate were only whole grain. It was a big change for me and it worked. I lost some weight, went down a couple of pants sizes, and generally felt better. What I didn't work on at the time was exercising. Oh, I did the treadmill or walks in the neighborhood, every couple of days like I'd always done, but nothing more. Actually in absolute disclosure....I slacked a lot in that area. I could only focus on getting the diet under control. It's all or nothing.This is how it goes with me....

Flash back to about 2 years ago, when I threw myself into the P90X program with full gusto.....okay so maybe not full gusto. For anyone not familiar with the plan, P90X is a program that you literally do every day for 90 days and after that you work to maintain what you achieved. Most of the workouts are at least an hour or more and some days there is an additional ab workout that's about another 1/2 hour. No offense Tony Horton, because honestly you do amaze me.....but unless you are Tony Horton you're going to have trouble sticking to the everyday for 90 days. I think I made it to about 50 and that was probably stretched out over...well more than 50 days. But I was doing it none the less. I know there are a lot of people who have completed success with the program (just watch the infomercial - it's so inspiring.), but I was not one of them. The program also comes with a food plan as well, but let me tell you - by the time I was done with all the working out, the last thing I wanted to do was follow recipe plans and try to remember how many servings of food groups I should have. I kind of felt that as long as I kept my eating fairly healthy, I should do ok. Well, I did tone up, I slept better, and my clothes did fit better, but overall I think I only lost about 2lbs. Then one day I injured my arm overdoing it (10 hours of yard work after a P90 workout is not smart.) Since a lot of the workouts include weights and push ups, I was out of commission for a time. It was coming up on summer at the time so I figured I would rather be outside anyway. I'd do P90 on the rainy days.....I'm sure you see where this is going. 

So, last summer when I wasn't happy with how I looked/felt, I switched things up. I decided to focus on the eating, get that under control and throw exercise back in after. And it worked because I did lose weight, felt better and I kept the weight loss off....for the most part. There's just this thing called life (maybe you've heard of it?), that sometimes gets in the way of things. I had also jumped back into writing this year, whether adding extra time on the weekends or one or two weeknights as well, which means more sitting and less moving. Then there were parties, ice cream stands, weddings, and unplanned surgeries. The first ones are inevitable and not really excuses. The last one was more believable as I ate horrible that week and didn't do much moving around. I did not (thankfully) gain all the weight back or even come close to it, but I can see that without getting things under control, one pound can turn into many. I can't rely completely on sticking 100% to my eating plan, because lets face it - I'm human and damn, the cupcakes at that wedding were amazing! I also can't depend solely on just exercising away anything that I eat. There has to be a balance between the two.....so this week I said no to one of the birthday cakes we had at work, and this morning I laced up my new sneakers (aren't they fun? Hoping they will motivate me).  

I went for a walk and even ran for about 2 blocks (I was caught in a torrential downpour, so had no choice....but the point is that I ran!) Then I came home and lifted some weights and did some other exercises. I'm hoping to fit in another walk this evening with hubby since the rain has cleared. You have to start somewhere right? I'm thinking in a few weeks I may work up the nerve to start seeing Tony Horton again. :)

But in the end it really is all about balance. Finding the time to plan healthy meals, fit in writing, friends and family, exercise and sleep. I know it's never going to be an even split between all of them, but there has to be a better balance than what I have now (picture a teeter totter with one end always on the ground.)

How do you find balance? How do you keep focused when making or breaking a habit? 

Share the motivation! 

~ Adrienne