I think one of the only ways I made it through the past nine months is by finally accepting the fact that no matter how well thought out or planned my routine is, some sort of disruption will happen.
Before, I used to want to control my day so rigorously that I would have major anxiety attacks or get incredibly frustrated, irritated, and angry that things weren't going my way. That feeling of no control was terrible. However, I found myself in that situation often. It's during those times that I found my fitness and nutrition took a back seat.
As I went through my final year of my PhD, I realized that I had to give up that control. Just because I made my PhD a priority didn't mean that I was giving up or ignoring my fitness and nutrition goals. They could go hand in hand - my routine may not go exactly as planned, but there were still ways that I could get around it.
I think that was one of the biggest breakthroughs I had in terms of working taking care of my health as part of my lifestyle and not just something that happened 'when the time was right.'
There was never a perfect time. Errands always had to get done; the house always needed to be take care of; friends and family always need to be given some time ... that's life. In the middle of it all, there's the constant care that needs to be taken towards my health.
Indeed it is constant. I believe I make better choices now, but they do not come naturally (yet). I have to pay attention to what I eat, and I know that just watching my food alone won't work for me - I have to exercise if I want to see a difference.
Since the beginning of this month I've been trying to come up with a schedule that will reasonably accommodate all the things that I want/have to do. This past week was a bit of a trial run - getting timings right, figuring out more efficient ways of doing things, trying not to procrastinate so much ... There's still a lot of tweaking to do, but there's no more time to try - I've got to get on with it.
I started my new morning routine today.
I slept a bit better last night but still not nearly enough. I was up before my alarm went off at 4:30.
I weighed in the same as last week (frustrating!), but my body fat percentage was already down 1% from last Saturday. While I'm definitely happy with that, I really need to work on seeing both numbers go down. I don't want to stay at the same weight even if my body fat % is going down and muscle mass going up. I have to make some big changes to lose this extra weight!
The main change that I'm implementing in my morning routine is doing 20 minutes of yoga followed a core workout. It felt amazing to do yoga after such a long time. The ab routine was tough, but it just reminded me of how much more practice I need to do in order to build strength.
Mishaps of the day:
- D's car is in the garage so I had to take him to work and pick him up
- We had some new furniture delivered today which involved me moving out our old furniture, disconnecting all our media stuff, waiting for the delivery people, and then reorganizing everything ... it took 3 hours. I was exhausted. By the time I got everything in the house done it was time for me to get D from work ...
I was hoping to have made it to the gym but it didn't happen. That's just the way things go but I gotta make the best of each situation -- mishaps are definitely part of my routine.
Before, I used to want to control my day so rigorously that I would have major anxiety attacks or get incredibly frustrated, irritated, and angry that things weren't going my way. That feeling of no control was terrible. However, I found myself in that situation often. It's during those times that I found my fitness and nutrition took a back seat.
As I went through my final year of my PhD, I realized that I had to give up that control. Just because I made my PhD a priority didn't mean that I was giving up or ignoring my fitness and nutrition goals. They could go hand in hand - my routine may not go exactly as planned, but there were still ways that I could get around it.
I think that was one of the biggest breakthroughs I had in terms of working taking care of my health as part of my lifestyle and not just something that happened 'when the time was right.'
There was never a perfect time. Errands always had to get done; the house always needed to be take care of; friends and family always need to be given some time ... that's life. In the middle of it all, there's the constant care that needs to be taken towards my health.
Indeed it is constant. I believe I make better choices now, but they do not come naturally (yet). I have to pay attention to what I eat, and I know that just watching my food alone won't work for me - I have to exercise if I want to see a difference.
Since the beginning of this month I've been trying to come up with a schedule that will reasonably accommodate all the things that I want/have to do. This past week was a bit of a trial run - getting timings right, figuring out more efficient ways of doing things, trying not to procrastinate so much ... There's still a lot of tweaking to do, but there's no more time to try - I've got to get on with it.
I started my new morning routine today.
I slept a bit better last night but still not nearly enough. I was up before my alarm went off at 4:30.
I weighed in the same as last week (frustrating!), but my body fat percentage was already down 1% from last Saturday. While I'm definitely happy with that, I really need to work on seeing both numbers go down. I don't want to stay at the same weight even if my body fat % is going down and muscle mass going up. I have to make some big changes to lose this extra weight!
The main change that I'm implementing in my morning routine is doing 20 minutes of yoga followed a core workout. It felt amazing to do yoga after such a long time. The ab routine was tough, but it just reminded me of how much more practice I need to do in order to build strength.
Mishaps of the day:
- D's car is in the garage so I had to take him to work and pick him up
- We had some new furniture delivered today which involved me moving out our old furniture, disconnecting all our media stuff, waiting for the delivery people, and then reorganizing everything ... it took 3 hours. I was exhausted. By the time I got everything in the house done it was time for me to get D from work ...
I was hoping to have made it to the gym but it didn't happen. That's just the way things go but I gotta make the best of each situation -- mishaps are definitely part of my routine.
You are so right and each of us have to learn to handle the mishaps. I read so many blogs and see people starting out each day doing well and when something goes wrong they decide they have no choice but to order pizza and make do.
ReplyDeleteI know that it takes me no longer to make a healthy meal than it does to order pizza and I cannot use that as an excuse to eat something that is not good fuel for me. I also know that I have to make time for exercise because nobody else cares if I do it or not. :)
You're absolutely right! Even when things get really busy I know that there is no excuse to eat poorly. In the end all that really does is require more time in the gym to burn those calories off!
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