I had that week last week. It sucks. My house was a disaster, I felt like I had no energy, I was stressing cause school's starting for my son next week, I've got a laundry pile that's rivaling Mt. Rushmore in size... But Saturday I decided to step back. I looked at what was stressing me out and bumming me out about being OP.
1- my house...major stressor. I felt like it wasn't organized, cleaned and I'd be rushing around my son's first day of school getting everything together for him.
2- my workout just didn't seem to keep me pumped lately. Yeah, I loved the calories it burned and how I felt like I acccomplised something when I was done, but it was hum-drum getting through it.
3- I am SOOOOO sick of calorie recording. It was taking up too much time. I use sparkpeople.com and was tracking after every meal.
4- why am I bothering to do this?
So here's what I did, I took each of these issues in turn and got pro-active.
I took Sunday as a "free day." Free from needing to follow any plan at all. No exercise, no measuring or recording. I promised myself I'd make healthy food choices but that I didn't have to record or measure. I instead took this day to clean my house. Top to bottom. I've got it pretty well caught up now and today I'm going to start tackling my laundry. Plus, the cleaning I'm sure made up for the workout.
I also reworked my workout. I do the biggest loser cardio dvd but last week I drug my feet the whole time. I tried to remember what kept me pumped up during my self guided gym routines...my music, duh!! So I muted the DVD, put on my music and worked it out!! I was actually suprised the difference it made!
I made a menu for 2 weeks. From now on I will log in daily to sparkpeople.com, input my menu for the whole day in one go and record my exercise all in one swoop. If I get really on top of it, I can even input my menu for the next couple weeks!! Issue 3 solved!
I have my goals/rewards posted on my fridge. It'd been an awesome motivation for the last month and a half but now, not so much. So, I had to sit down and figure out something else. One of my further along goals is to go shopping at V.S's...so I visited the website and picked out a dress and swimsuit and such and copied the pics of the items I'd love to be able to wear. I came up with a new list of NSV's to add to my exsisting ones, things to keep me motivated, like being at my pre-baby weight at my daughter's 2nd birthday next Feb.
I also started doing "quiet" time before bed. Once the kids are in bed the TV is off and I read, journal, knit, whatever I feel like that relaxes me. Its a nice prelude to bedtime. I'm trying to establish a more firm routine becuase I hadn't been sleeping well either.
Sometimes we just need to revamp and reorganize. Take the time to get yourself de-stressed. Focus on what it is that's stressing you out and deal with it the best you can. Than try something new or different to spice up your plan, both for exercise and diet. Take a day, just for you to unwind and breath easy. Sometimes we just need that time.
We're here for you!!