I have a confession guys and I’m almost afraid to admit it.
Week two of the Blogilates challenge for me has been a bust. I only worked out once this week, and I did not participate in any clean eating at all.
Now I know last week I talked a big game about how I fell off the wagon and was going to get back on it, and I still am. It just so happens that it wasn’t supposed to happen this week. And yes, I’m bummed about my lack of motivation and energy to see that pep talk through, but hey I’m only human.
So don’t scrutinize me yet!
Though I completely fell off this week it wasn’t a total waste. I thought I knew a lot of my negative patterns and behaviors, but this week I really had an eye opener for how I fall into these patterns. I also discovered, though I know somewhere deep down inside I already knew, that the things that were influencing these patterns are key factors to being and feeling your best every day.
What were those key factors? I was not getting enough sleep at night. My water intake was poor. And I was not nourishing my body with anything throughout the day.
These three things are so vital in our daily routine, and this week I completely deprived myself of them. And it wasn’t by choice, I just for some reason didn’t even realize I was doing it. Which in my mind kind of makes sense because I’ve been on this rollercoaster before. In fact, if I’m honest, I would almost say it’s a regular part of my life, which I believe is due to three major things.
My anxiety, my high stress levels, and my occasional depression periods.
I truly believe that all three of these elements impact my life in bigger ways than I realize. I know that I have high anxiety and I suffer from it severely, so I know that when it hits me hard I do shut down for a while. And I’m also aware that when my anxiety spikes, my stress levels go up. But something I realized this week that I have never really noticed before is that when these two clash, my depression creeps up on me. This influences my energy in ways that I never noticed before because I’m too focused on bringing my stress levels down, or reeling in my anxiety, that I don’t even noticed how my mood changes.
And this past week they all hit me really hard, and my thoughts along with my emotions were completely out of sync. Which is why I didn’t do a good job with checking in with myself to make sure that I was staying hydrated, I was nourishing my body with something, and getting enough sleep at night. Which is why I also believe I couldn’t find the energy or motivation to be present, active, and more aware this past week.
Which obviously had a huge influence on me working towards my goal for the week.
So instead of trying to indulge in another pep talk, I thought I talk about what I learned this past week about staying hydrated, nourishing my body, and sleeping.
Stay Hydrated
This is so, so, so important. I stress the importance of this to my mom, my nephew, my brothers, and even my grandma all the time. I’m always taking a water bottle with me everywhere go. I sleep with multiple water bottles by my bed at night, which are always full. I drink water before bed, water when I wake up, and I drink water with every meal. I’m not claiming to be some water God or anything like that, occasionally I do drink juice, soda, or tea over water, but for the most part a healthy intake of water a day is not a problem for me.
But if I’m being honest this past week I probably only drank maybe two full bottles of water a day. When compared to my usual intake, which is anywhere from 6-8 and sometimes more bottles of day, man was I slacking. So my body was clearly dehydrated which led to a lot of painful, long lasting headaches, and contributed to me feeling so sleepy all the time. And yes, it influenced my level of energy as well.
Nourish That Body
This past week I was probably only eating two meals a day and snacking maybe twice a day. Usually I get in three meals a day and snack about 2-3 times a day, just depends on how hungry I am. But this week my eating habits was all out of whack. I think a big part of this was because I was not getting enough sleep at night, or putting enough water into my body to balance out my food nourishment.
And with my anxiety, stressing out, and feeling depressed I just didn’t give this a second a thought. I was eating and my body wasn’t telling me to put more food into it, but I knew that I was depriving myself. I was too caught up in my head about sorting things out, getting my stress and anxiety under control, trying to push the depression away, that I didn’t noticed how very little I was putting into my body.
The moral of the story here is to make sure that you are eating. It’s so unhealthy when we deprived ourselves of food, and though they are times when we don’t do it intentionally, we still have to make sure that we are feeding our bodies. It’s our greatest source of energy, and I know that had I been making sure I was nourishing my body the way I was supposed to, I probably would have had more energy to work out this week. That’s ok though, we live and we learn.
Sleep, Sleep, Sleep
Everyone does it because it’s an essentially part of life. We need to recharge our bodies only a daily basis and one way we do that is by getting a good night’s rest. Well, I did not sleep well as I would have liked to this past week.
Usually sleep for me is a challenge at night simply because I can’t get my brain to shut off. I’ve tried reading, listening to music, meditating, deep breathing, even stretching! But I still always find myself not falling asleep until about a good 2-3 hours after getting into bed. When that’s all said and done I’ve probably slept a good 3-4 hours a night, and find myself taking multiple power naps throughout the day.
This past week was no different, but I realized that I need to really commit to finding ways to ensure that I get a good 8 hours of sleep every night. I know it will have a huge difference on my mind and body throughout the day. I also know that it will ensure I am recharging my body for as long as is needed, and not just for a short period of time. I’ll have more energy, and it will also help with the terrible headaches.
So there you have it guys. I completely slacked off this week but I learned a lot about myself and my negative patterns and habits. In order for us to achieve our goals, and ensure that we are always putting out best foot forward, we have to first make sure that we are taking care of ourselves. And for me this was so much more than making sure I was working out for at least 15 minutes a day. It was making sure that I was getting 8 hours of sleep at night, that I was properly nourishing my body throughout the day, and that I was staying hydrated.
So my goal for this week is to get back into working towards one of my goals for this month. But more importantly to make sure that I am taking care of my mind and body in the necessary ways to be able to continue to safely work towards my goal.
Stay tuned, I’ll have an update next week.
-Xo
Kimora