3 Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Balance
Earlier this year, I wrote a post about burning out. And while it I wrote it from the perspective of blogging, I think it actually applies to a lot of things. 
And yet here I am, 6 months later, not listening to myself. Life is temporarily a little crazy. We haven’t had a bathroom at our house for the past week and a half which means we’ve been living out of a suitcase at my parent’s house. Their house is lovely but it’s not my house with my stuff and my bed. I haven’t gone grocery shopping for over a week because I haven’t had time to cook anything. We’ve been living off takeout and frozen pizzas.
Then on Tuesday evening I thought to myself, oh no, I haven’t written my blog post for tomorrow!
It’s the same feeling I get when I’m planning to go to the gym and life derails my workout.
It’s the same feeling I get when I’m planning to make a healthy dinner and then things come up and I’m digging through the freezer for another frozen pizza.
It’s the same feeling I get when I’m planning to finish painting the bathroom but then I realize it’s going to need two coats…
The point is, life happens. My goal for this little ol’ blog is to inspire people to live a healthier, happier life. Sometimes that means eating some kale and sometimes it just means cutting yourself some slack and not stressing out about the small things. I think stressing about missing a workout is more unhealthy than just happily skipping it because life gets in the way and sometimes a day off is exactly what I need. When I read this post from Georgie, it really hit home. Once I stopped drooling over those almond butter sandwich cookies, I took her message to heart.
“At the end of the day it’s ok to take breaks. Hustling your face off only works for so long. Some seasons you need to, but breaks, ones you take guilt free, are good. In fact, the more you take mini breaks the better you get at getting back to the groove, and the less taking time off throws you off.”- Georgie, of In it for the Long Run
She’s so right.
With that, I’ll give you my three tips for maintaining a healthy balance.
- Don’t give yourself false deadlines. In my head I think, I have to have that blog post done tonight. I have to go to that workout class in the morning. I have to finish that recipe tomorrow. But guess what? I generally don’t. These aren’t life altering circumstances and it’s not that big of a deal.
- Put things in perspective. What’s really going to happen if you miss that workout tomorrow? Your muscles won’t turn to jello in 24 hours. A slice of frozen pizza instead of a salad isn’t going to kill you (but you could also enjoy pizza salad!).
- Cut yourself some slack. As Georgie put it, hustling your face off only works for so long. Sometimes you need to give yourself a little wiggle room in order to be your best self.
So all of this rambling is to say that my goal is to take a step back and evaluate. While the Monday/Wednesday/Friday posting schedule has worked well for the past six years, I think I’m ready to give myself a little more flexibility and that might mean a few breaks. Isn’t that what living a healthy life is about?
Love of all of this Liz. Stepping back and keeping perspective is such an amazing gift; I’m grateful that you shared this from Georgie.
This so very true.
What it – as many things in life – comes down to is tuning into our intuition – and following it. If we we’re being honest we don’t listen to it as well as we should, I think [at least it’s true for me]. Intuitively, we actually know pretty well what we need and when we can give ourselves some slack. Yet we’re so “good” at putting pressure on ourselves that we sometimes get out of balance. Take all the time off or spontaneous breaks you need. I hope you won’t stop blogging altogether, though.
Such good advice. I’m always doing that thing with the imaginary deadlines! It takes such a load off your shoulders when you realize you don’t HAVE to do anything.
These are all great points here you are mentioning Liz. Cutting yourself some slack I think is so important for most women – we constantly think we need to be over achievers!
#3 is soo important. sometimes i feel like i want it all but it is not realistic, which i need to remind myself very often.
Completely agree! Give yourself some grace. Life throws a lot of unexpected curve balls and you just need to roll with them. This doesn’t mean you’ve quit. It means you’re living.
This is such good advice and hitting me at the right time. I took last week off because my husband took it off, and it was such a nice time just to let go of those imaginary deadlines and just breathe!!
Oh girl, you’ve no idea how much I needed to read this. Hubby lost his job a couple weeks ago and I’ve been blog-working non stop. I really have to cut myself some slack.
Love this Liz. I’ve done all of these with intention this year. Hard habits to break at first but then breaks come naturally.
This is SO true and something I’m experiencing with my blog too. I don’t want to put posts up just because I feel like I have to. Gotta find the balance!