It's Not Easy

I found myself folding laundry at 3am the other morning.  Why?  Well, because I couldn't think of how I was going to get it all done.  By all, I don't mean the laundry, although it had piled up, what I mean is ALL...work, house chores, shuttling kids, train for a marathon, yada yada yada.  I just felt overwhelmed.  I was trying to think about how I could manage and juggle all that I had to do and I realized, that while laying there feeling overwhelmed and trying to pep myself up...I could probably have already started a load by now.  So, up up up I was and I was soon sipping coffee in a silent family room while folding laundry.  

My life has had some changes in the last several weeks.  One being that I haven't worked on site for my preschools in several years, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I'm back to working full time on site at one of my centers.  It has been somewhat of a blessing, for many reasons, but professionally I feel more connected than I've felt in a long time.  I'm working with many personalities and balancing many many responsibilites.  It's been more positive than I had anticipated and for that I am truly grateful.  The downside to working on site is that I have less time with my family and I'm not as flexible with my schedule.  This makes working out well...difficult.  

Over the years, I've heard excuse after excuse as to why people couldn't stick to their healthy habits.  The biggest excuse is TIME.  I can certainly appreciate the struggle, especially given my current situation.  I'm basically working 2 full time jobs (on site at a preschool and still doing my other full time job as admin for both sites), another part time job (teaching for the community college), raising young children and in my spare time I'm training for this little race in November (NYC Marathon).  However, even with my full plate, I'm making my health and fitness a priority.  It's not easy.  No one said it would be and for anyone that thinks that only people who have nothing else to do are the ones who can focus on their health...well, that's a big fat lie.  In fact, I think that most people that can balance a lot of different things are better disciplined and focused and can prioritize their time well enough to get those workouts in and plan and prep to prepare for their busy schedules.  

I'm not tooting my own horn.  This isn't a "whoa, look how much shit I can get done!" post.  What I'm saying is that sometimes difficult things have to be done to achieve the results we want.  I'm overwhelmed, there aren't enough waking hours to get done everything that needs to be done.  Forget about the things that I want to get done.  However, focusing on your health is not a luxery, it should be a priority.  Some things are going to fall through the cracks, some things will have to wait; you may have to move your schedule around, and you may be up at 3am to fold laundry.  Life is all about choices.  It may look easy to others because your will is stronger than your excuses.  People might think that your life is easier than theirs and therefore you have the "luxery" of working out and eating well.  What people don't realize is that when you want something bad enough, you make time for it.  If this were easy, everyone would do it.