Survival mode

You know that place. We all do. When life is so busy, exhausting, insanity-inducing, and stressful that we slip from being functional human beings into a shell of our former selves. We are transformed by circumstance into walking zombies, slaves to the schedule. It may look like we're getting it all done on the outside. Sometimes we may seem like things are fine and just a little busy and other times you'll catch us totally frazzled and running around like a chicken with our heads cut off.

Our kids' understanding of survival mode... not so far from reality.

That's been the reality for both Andrew and I the past few weeks and spring only promises to get even more nutty with kids sports, end of the year work events/nights out, birthday parties, holidays, reunions and more. 

So what does survival mode look like for us? 

• Less sleep than we should be getting. And this momma needs her sleep! I used to think I could function indefinitely on 5 hours of sleep nightly... I'm realizing that's not exactly true. Easier to manage when life isn't busy. When it is I'm more frazzled, less able to keep it all together and when I'm not getting enough sleep, more balls get dropped. (Speaking of sleep challenges, I'm looking for an accountability buddy to text me to remind me to get to bed early. I do it for workouts so I figure why not for sleep? If you're interested in being my partner in crime, let me know! The position is open.) 

• Un-vacuumed floors (think lots of blond dog tumbleweeds in the corners), piles of laundry waiting to get washed, a junk pile that's growing by the day, and the occasional missed rsvp (and only occasional because Andrew's been a rock star about helping me try to stay on top of our Google calendar.)

Anyone particularly like doing laundry? 

• More dinners on the fly since we have less time to shop, prep and cook. Even though I have been planning out our week, due to exhaustion and the crazy of shuttling everyone all over town to practices, we're eating many meals off plan than I'd like (think pizza in the car during baseball practice!) And this is even though I KNOW that I feel ten times better when I stay on plan, eat healthy and take care of my body. When you're tired it's hard to always put into practice what you know to be true which in and of itself is just another cause of stress since I'm aware of what I'm doing to contribute to the problem. 

What would have most definitely been on the above list in the past would have been exercise. Before I joined my first challenge group a little over a year ago, I was totally that person who thought that I was too busy to exercise. I believed that I needed to sleep more than I needed to workout. I said that I didn't have the time or the energy to fit it in. I also justified the pizza nights and endless takeout by saying it was necessary to get through the busy patch. I'd eat better and start working out again when life calmed down... 

The thing is, it didn't. Not until summer when I was home for vacation. THEN I had the time to take care of myself. The kids had less going on. I had no work so things felt more manageable. The weather was nicer and I was wearing less clothes so I was motivated to be more mindful of how I treated my body.

What's been crazy is that while we're most definitely in survival mode over here, the working out is the one thing that hasn't gone. Andrew's been going to the gym every morning and I'm still getting up and pushing play on Insanity Max 30 - every day. So that's a win for us.

The rest? Well, it's been a bit of a hot mess. 

But that happens. Life gets busy. Work gets stressful. Kids keep us running around. 

What doesn't have to happen is that we lose ourselves completely in that chaos. 

Weekly meal prep

I'm an optimist so I'm trying to focus on the fact that we're still here and fighting.

• At our busiest time of year, both Andrew and I are still taking care of our bodies and I know that crazy as I feel most days, that would be ten times worse if I wasn't releasing some of that stress through exercise.
• I'm still drinking my Shakeology every morning and I know that it helps me start my day off with a super charged meal that helps to keep my sugar cravings in check.



Easiest oatmeal EVER!!!

• I'm still meal planning each week, stocking the house with healthy food and doing my food prep for the week. I'm definitely thinking easy and cooking in bulk. That's what works both in terms of time, efficiency and helps to keep me on track for at least part of the day.

For the most part, crazy as we've been, I'm being mindful of what I eat and what I do to stay true to my goals. This is in large part thanks to my challengers and my job as a coach. What kind of coach would I be if I completely fell apart at the seams when life got busy? Yes, I'm at times not the model of balance but hey, that's what makes us all human, right?

If you want to talk through the crazy and try to figure out a way to stay on track through the madness of it all, let me know. I'd love to chat.

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