Day 3 – I can really feel the momentum of this becoming a way of life. Eventually I know that I will stop dreaming about food and start enjoying the process of making this lifestyle change fit into all areas of my life.
Today started the day really well, as I hopped on the scales for a sneaky peak at what I weighed. Whoa!! I was not prepared for what I saw. I have lost 4lbs in 3 days!! How is that even possible? Eating more food and exercising more – huh? All these years I have been missing the one special ingredient in my lifestyle that would ultimately make all the difference. Exercise!
I don’t know why I was so surprised, but then I do understand why this has been missing in my life. Firstly, I would like to make an observation, which is not an excuse, but to really incorporate change a few things need to be moved around a bit and a few feathers might get ruffled a bit – mine included.
For example, today I left the office at 7.30pm, it took me an hour to get home and by the time I reached in my kitchen I was already totally wiped out. I felt too tired to even prepare dinner for us to eat. Luckily my son was not too hungry as he had been snacking all evening as dinner was not prepared at a reasonable time, and of course he did not look in the fridge to see what he could use to make something quick for himself, so he waited for his dear mother to come home with some goodies and a quick simple solution, which I did.
There was some fish from last nights dinner that he ate and fresh broccoli I bought today, so essentially he ate what I prepared for my lunch today. He was happy and I was ‘dog tired’. What does that phrase even mean? Every dog I kn
ow has so much energy. You just have to whisper the word “walkies” or in my dog’s case mention the word “dog” and he is up on his paws ready to go, with so much bouncy energy and enthusiasm even if you are not taking him out for a walk. But anyway to say I was exhausted was an understatement.
Whilst travelling home from work I started pondering on the thought of what it really means to have a work life balance that incorporates a healthy lifestyle.
I work part-time, which was a choice I made when I experienced burn out, from the pressures and strains of working full-time and struggling to keep all of the other plates (daily life responsibilities) spinning in the air. I was quite agile back then, but it was only a matter of time before something came crashing to the floor and unfortunately that was me.
I remember being at a women’s leadership and empowerment course earlier this year and one of the speakers made a very profound statement, during her 20 minute talk.
She said “the worst thing a woman can do is opt to work part-time” I was shocked. Why would she say that? When all we want is flexible working hours and a balanced lifestyle.
She went on talking about the realities of the “struggle to juggle” lifestyle that women find themselves faced with, especially mothers. Her positive advice for those that want to create real work life balance is to seek a role that is suited to part-time hours not full-time role into 21 or 28 hours a week, for you will surely burnout. That advice is now seeming quite sensible to me now.
A few months on, I am starting to realise exactly what she meant. If you are already in a full-time job and you switch to part-time hours, you will naturally aim to complete your previous workload by the time you finish your working week, which could be after 3 or 4 days. Which means you are working a 5 day week into 3 or 4 days, which does not equate to work life balance. That my loves, is the beginnings of burnout!
I get it now. That statement rang true in my ears this evening as I left the office. I was aiming to have a clear desk (or inbox) by the time I signed off this evening, so I will have less of a heavy workload upon my return on Monday.
However, what I did not foresee is that it would result in staying in the office on my own till 7.30pm tonight, and getting home late to my family, then eating late which means that exercise would be virtually impossible, and what about that early night I promised myself.
Anyway, my thoughts and blog rant has caused me to ask myself a simple question – is this way of working and living supporting my lifestyle goals? Now, if I am being totally honest with myself, I have to admit – currently, it is not.
However, there are the benefits that having a permanent role gives me, especially as it sits alongside my passion projects and side-hustle which enables me to have my creativity and stability all at the same time. I might have to write a blog post about that another time. Right now, this realisation is something that I am slightly bothered by, but have not noticed it before. I will sit with how I truly feel about this new revelation and see if there are any tweaks to make. I am sure this enquiry will be revisited at another time on my lifestyle journey. But for now I will continue with the rest of my daily check in.
My Food Intake Today
The day started well with an early morning productive meeting. I drank a glass of water and a cup of black coffee in the morning followed by 3 cups of green tea and about 1 litre of water throughout the day. I discovered today that I must learn to sip my green tea to really get the benefits into my body. My lunch was yesterdays left-over dinner, basa fish on top of steamed broccoli sprinkled with quinoa and chilli flakes for interest and heat! (I’m sure those 2 ingredients add way more value to the diet plan than that) I also tried out a protein bar by Graze instead of the crispy bar that was in my “acceptable food” list as I don’t eat dairy and the other bar contained milk, so I had to seek out an alternative that i would be able to digest.
My Exercise Today
I had to get a bit creative with exercise today. I knew that by the time I got home I would be knackered. So I stood all the way home on the bus instead of sitting down the whole 45 minute journey. If you have ever tried to keep your balance on a London bus as it weaves in and out of the traffic in narrow streets for that long, then you will realise that you are using so many of your muscles in order to keep standing on your feet, keep your balance, whilst trying desperately hard not invade any one else’s personal space on a busy jerky bus ride. I figured that would suffice for today, along with some squats whilst brushing my teeth and doing my night time facial routine.
My Overall Feelings Today
My body is aching from my exercise yesterday with the weights and my long walk home. That activity really made me feel good and gave me a little boost. I have not felt my muscles ache in years. In fact I thought they had totally gone AWOL, but alas they are back I can feel them. Really happy that I lost 4lbs in 3 days. In my excitement I messaged Jessica to let her know – I got a big pat on the back as well as a gentle telling off, as it was not weigh in day and we have specific days for checking our progress. Anyway, she was very encouraging and supportive by acknowledging my achievement and reminding me of exercises to do which are already in my fitness plan document.
My thoughts are still in a bit of a contemplative space from my realisation about fitting my lifestyle into my work life routine. I am going to ponder on that thought, for a bit and will come back to it another time. After all I have 10 weeks to figure this out!
Until next time…
How was your day? How are you incorporating your lifestyle into working life? Would love to hear 🙂
This is just a little different for me since I am a stay at home mom but when you have a little one it’s hard to get things done or rather try to put in some exercise. I have been just doing exercise as part of playtime with my daughter and it seems to be going well. But I admire how hard working you are.
Author
Thanks Angel, I am really trying to be committed to my new lifestyle plan. It does help that I have a friend that has been through the same programme and is always there for support and accountability. It sounds like you have been really creative with your daughter’s playtimes, by using it as your form of exercise – great idea! As a busy mum myself, I know how hard it is to find the time to exercise, so well done. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you continue to follow my journey.
I think many of us would love to cut our hours down- but need the money. And, some of us get paid to work 40 hours- but put in 60- for the same reasons you worked until 730….
I have decided to alter my hours. I wake up and pray, and then swim. Only after swimming does my workday begin. And, that may be somewhere between 5 and 10 hours. And, when I am home, I do a different set of exercises.
The trick for dinner- if it is a 5 hour day- I cook when I get home. If it is 10 h, I use a crock pot or cook the night before. (When I had kids in the house, the last sentence was the rule each night- so they could eat when they were hungry…)
Good luck.
Author
Oh wow Roy, you are a super organised person. I admire how much discipline you have to fit in time for yourself to go for a swim before you start work. I love the idea of using the crock pot for dinners so the kids can eat without having to wait for parents to come home from work. Thanks for your tips. I am hoping that over the 10 weeks I will have a better routine to fit everything into my day during sensible hours and find some more ‘me time’ to do the activities I love.
I’m enjoying following your new diet plan! I have similar breakfasts but today I had oatmeal with organic cinnamon. Have you tried KIND protein bars? I love the dark chocolate, cranberries and almonds and the almond coconut! Keep up the good work and congrats on your weight loss!
Author
Oh yes, I have seen the KIND brand. I will check the ingredients, as alot of these bars tend to have soy protein and I seem to have a reaction to that ingredient. The Graze bars I have been eating I thought were ok, but the last time I ate it I experienced tingling on my tongue after eating it. I will look out for the KIND brand and let you know. Thank you for your recommendation Martha!