Listening to Your Body

These past few months I have not been feeling like myself. I have been stressed, constantly tired, and feeling like I have no energy. It was spilling in to all aspects of my life.

A few days ago I woke up with a new found desire to make the changes I needed to feel better about myself. I realized I wasn’t listening to my body. There were all these signs that I wasn’t taking care of myself, yet I kept making excuses and ignoring them.

It took me realizing that I was responsible for getting that energy back.   I needed to make changes in my life that would positively affect me and rid the negativity I was surrounded by.

I tried making these changes time and time again, but it just never stuck.  I would do great most of the day and find myself turning to comfort food in the evenings.  I would start out strong with my exercising but wasn’t making it a priority,  so it quickly became non-existent.  It was a viscous cycle of trying to get back in to a good routine, only to fall off again.

So what changed?  What is different today, that didn’t work last week, or the week before that?

Determination

I am sick of feeling this way and I am determined to make changes to my lifestyle.  I also want to be a positive role model for my son.  I want him to lead a healthy, and active lifestyle, so I want to lead by example.

So what are my plans?

Healthy eating.  My family and I eat fairly well.  I want to cut out some of the sugar and carbs that I seem to load up on as comfort food.  I am not going crazy and will have snacks once in awhile, but want to cut back a bit. I am not dieting, but eating better overall.

Start exercising regularly.  I recently found a program that works for me, 20mins cardio, 30 mins weights.  It fits in to my schedule perfectly, which makes it easier to do every few days.  Before I found I didn’t have the time.  Now I know what days I work out on, and its a priority and part of my schedule now.

Sleep.  I am making sure I am going to bed when I am tired. Having a toddler, I never know when I will be awake in the morning, so I go to bed when my body is ready for it, some days as early as 830.  It feels great getting 10 hrs of sleep some nights.

I can already see a change in my energy level, proof that these positive changes are helping me.  Stay tuned for an update in a few weeks to see if I stuck with it, and any ups and downs I may be having.

Do you listen to your body?  Why do we ignore what its telling us?