05/20/2024
Last week I took the whole week off of exercise. I didn’t get up early; I didn’t run the dog; I didn’t lift a weight. It felt glorious.
I had an epiphany the Saturday prior (as I was slogging through yet another not-so-great run) that no matter how many hours I was sleeping, or how good I was eating, I still wasn’t recovering. My body was tired.
I am always telling my clients to take inventory of the stressors in their life as it can be a major impediment to healing. Stress isn’t just your job, or your family, or money. It can be the products you’re putting on your skin, the food you’re eating, lack of sleep, negative self-talk, or even over-exercising. For me, there is this very loud voice in my head that tells me if I don’t exercise, I will get fat. If I don’t exercise, I will lose all of my muscle. The irony is that by pushing myself too much, my body started to hold onto excess fluff; I have been in a perpetual catabolic state instead of allowing muscle to rebuild.
I took an intentional 8 days off. I slept in; I snuggled with my boys; I went on very short walks in the morning to get the sunlight in my eyes (this is great for regulating wake/sleep hormones - cortisol and melatonin); and guess what? I felt GREAT.
I felt more calm, less anxious, at peace. I had no desire to push; I leaned into rest.
So here I am, starting a new week, back to my workout schedule. I’m not going to say that one week off fixed all of my obsessive behavior around exercise, but I will say that I’m sincerely rethinking my entire routine, and my goal is to make a conscious effort to listen to my body and incorporate more rest.
I encourage all of you to take a good, hard look at your stress load, where it may be stemming from, and what you can do to offset it…even just a little bit. We are all just works in progress.
Maybe just start with a short morning walk and let the sun hit your face. It’s a great way to start the day 😊.
