Hello and welcome to the own your health podcast.
I'm Cyndi Lynne and I can't wait to help you to step into your health power.
I'm excited about today's topic because it's so timely and I think a lot of you are going to relate to, or at least have heard bits and pieces of what I've been hearing.
Here in the States we had a long holiday weekend for the 4 July.
I was with various groups of people and having a lot of fun, out on the lake and mixing with folks.
And it's funny how one common set of words or phrases kind of stuck out.
So of course that's what I want to share with you!
So the theme or the messages that I was hearing was
this, trying to find some kind of balance in health in the days of big meals, late nights and skipped habits.
This is what I heard:
Oh, if I'm gonna eat all that great food at the cookout tonight, I better just skip lunch.
Or if I don't have time to get a workout in today I'll just run longer tomorrow.
I have houseguests, so it might seem rude if I it and journal, so I'll just remember how I was feeling and journal it tomorrow.
And then a real favorite of mine...I will stay up late and just sleep in tomorrow?
And all of these phrases seem to be based on the idea that health is some kind of an average
or that balance is some kind of an average of each of the individual practices that we do.
But if you've ever found yourself saying these things you've probably figured out that that's not really the way it works.
It's not really the way it works, because even if you're eating less food in a particular day, the food that you're eating at a cookout probably isn't what you normally eat.
It's probably fun food, it's yummy food, it's nostalgic food, but it's probably not what you typically choose to eat.
By the same token, if you stay up late and don't get much sleep, at some point you can't play catch up.
It's not really an average.
And if you journal as a health practice you know that its a way to capture and process what you're feeling in the moment.
By the time tomorrow comes your thoughts and feelings can only be viewed retrospectively.
So, if you can't average each of these things, what do you do?
You average all of them!
What does that look like in each of our examples?
Let's consider the cookout: If I know that I'm not going to be eating the high quality food I usually choose, I would make sure to get a high protein breakfast or lunch to make sure I get what I need nutritionally rather than simply trying to balance out calorie consumption.
If I know I won't get a workout in, I will make sure I at least get a longer dog walk and include my house guests in the activity. And knowing that there are already stressors and changes to my routine, I won't punish myself with an extra hard workout the next day. In fact, if I know that my diet is not optimal and that my sleep might be short, I may opt to take it easy on my body.
If I choose not to journal its my coffee in the morning because I have guest, rather than trying to capture those thoughts the next morning, I may spend 5 minutes in the evening capturing the difference missing my practice made in my day. Did it feel like something was missing? Or did journaling come easier at night?
Sleep is the worst for me. If I choose to stay up late, I alway tell myself that I will sleep-in in the morning, but I know that I really can't. I always wake up at the same time.
Sometimes finding balance in our health means going beyond any of our individual practices and looking all of our self care as a whole.
It can help to remember that we engage in our health practice to feel good!
So, as summer plans roll in worry less about finding the average of your practices--making it all come out and more on your health as a whole. And especially when it comes to food and exercise, seek to nourish not to punish.
What will create more calm?
What will make me feel good?
What does my body want?
Then enjoy those things. And if all else fails...get some sleep!
So I encourage you to look at balance in owning your health across all of your practices, across everything you do for self care every day. Think of them all levers that you can manipulate to much more balanced.
Owning your health is owning these practices but not following them blindly.
If you have any questions or comments, as always, I'd love to hear them.
If you've heard these kinds of phrases and comments, I encourage you to share this podcast.
Pass it along to someone you think might need to hear the message.
Someone who maybe is beating themselves up a little bit over a heavy food or a lack of
exercise, or lack of sleep weekend.
And if you like this, absolutely subscribe so that you don't miss any episodes.
And as always, if you would like to work with me onto finding that balance in your own health, click the link below and set up a time for us to talk.
Until next week.
Let's go out and own it.
