Last week, my partner Katy and my son JBird left Austin for Kentucky to spend some time with Katy’s mom. Katy will stay in Kentucky for a week and a half, and leaves to spend the summer semester in Turkey (You can follow Katy’s adventures in Turkey on her blog.). JBird will remain in Kentucky with his granny for eight weeks.
This gives me an amazing 8 Weeks of Bachelorhood. As sad as I am to see my family gone for so long, and I know I will miss them both, I am excited to have this time to myself. I have blogs and manuals to write and business projects to make happen. Most importantly, I have a significant amount of time to make my personal and spiritual health and fitness a priority.
I have a few personal goals: lose the ten pounds I have added since Thanksgiving; build my barefoot running mileage; improve my strength and conditioning; create a healthier nutrition plan; go deeper into surrender through meditation and journaling; and just look and feel better in my body overall.
This past semester was busy for us
Katy took 15 hours of school, worked a part time job, and, to top it off, she was sick for an entire week. I was working more than before, and spending more time taking care of the kid. At the end of a long day of work, I didn’t have much energy to go home, make dinner, and clean dishes. Eating out was much easier, thus the ten pound weight gain. I also had less time and energy to workout, and my body has been feeling it.
This first week has been eye opening
This past week has been a little frustrating as well as illuminating. I wanted to work on a blog project and some very exciting business ventures, but I found myself incredibly busy doing other stuff. I’ve had to re-organize my space, time, and life around being alone in my house. This meant cleaning, organizing my work space, re-organizing my schedule for workouts and meditation, and cooking. I had to create a schedule of ME. Something I have never really done before.
It is amazing to me all the ways that I have not prioritized time for taking care of myself. Something that is obviously very easy to do with a busy schedule and a kid. Once the frustration passed, I could truly see how important it is to schedule my self first.
This is a huge topic I discuss with clients on a regular basis. “YOU must prioritize yourself FIRST.” But how do we do it when life is chaotic and busy? I am fortunate and blessed to have such an extended amount of time to really focus on myself, but most don’t. I often hear, “Once things settle down a little, I will work on myself.” Funny thing is that life generally doesn’t settle down. We go from putting out one fire to another, and our body, mind, spirit, and health suffer. My response to this is usually “The best time to start is right now. Anyone can change when life is easy. But once adversity returns, are more likely to fall back into old habits. Creating change while life is challenging is where it will stick and you prove to yourself that anything is possible.” I believe this wholeheartedly. Thankfully for me, life has actually settled down and provided me with a gift. One I will make the most of.
What I am doing for myself:
Working with a great nutritionist, Carly Pollack of Nutritional Wisdom.
Hired a friend as a personal chef to cook up some yummy food… this is Awesome.
Dedicating an hour a day for meditation and journaling… Work in progress.
Writing a kick ass 12 week fitness program for myself.
Doing said kick ass fitness program… So far so good.
Cooking more and more of my own food.
Eating out much less.
Giving myself the space to be alone, enjoy this precious gift of time that I have, and learn so I may continue to grow from it once my family returns. YES!