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| Me and my 3 girls |
Who hasn't looked around the room and seen "that" girl. You know the one I'm talking about. She comes across cute, bubbly, nice looking, fit, great career, attractive spouse, she's had 3 kids, and to you looks like she couldn't possibly have eaten anything in her life but carrots and celery, yet comes to the soccer potluck with a delicious, homemade, cheesecake and eats 2 pieces. On facebook and instagram she posts pictures of what looks like a perfect life, with the odd funny mishap that happens along the way, just to show that perhaps she is a little fallible. You look around at the mess in your house, the inablilty to find time to get to the gym, the marker all over your kids face before they have to run out the door to catch the bus for school and wonder why you can't be like "that girl"! You hate her and want to be her all at the same time.
Let me reassure you, you don't really want to be her; "that" girl's life is not as rosy as you may think. Just like you, she has struggled with her post baby weight, fights with herself to not eat the extra cookies when packing the kids' lunches, and sacrifices certain pleasures so that she can be in the shape she wants to be in. She throws laundry in at 4:30am before workout and switches it over at 6:30am when she gets back so the kids have something to wear to school. She works hard to be as fit as she is; gets up early and goes to bed late. She fights through injury and exhaustion; if she can get a minimum of 5-6 hours sleep per night that's enough to make her happy. Every few weeks or so she crashes and then she cries when the number of tasks she has on her plate become too overwhelming and she feels that she is failing everyone around her when she can't fit it all in. "That" girl, wants to help everyone and when she can't solve the problems of others, she blames herself. She struggles with balancing her own goals with the needs of her children, husband, and those she has around her. She takes on the extra projects at work, and has a hard time saying NO, when sometimes she really would just like to have a bottle of wine, half a chocolate cake and watch 3 movies on the couch in her pjamas.
Although she is grateful for all of what she has, and accomplishes, it is stressful. She wakes before 4am most days to get started so she can fit in work, life, kids, etc. She forgoes the wine and almost never watches TV. But that doesn't mean her life is terrible, she has much to be grateful for. She also possesses many good time management strategies that she puts in place. The pressure, she puts that onto herself. Take the good qualities and attributes you like of "that" girl and see how you can start to integrate some of those positive
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| My Kitchen Counter at times....like every day! |
attributes into your daily routine.
When you are looking at her and saying "look at "that" girl," what I've recently discovered is someone else is saying that about YOU! So what can we do to bring our life into balance? Where are you willing to make some additional sacrifices and be a bit uncomfortable to make time for what you truly want?
Here's a few ideas to get you started:
1. You can start by looking at your calendar and saying "where will I schedule in 30 min of exercise 3-5 days per week"? It may mean you wake up at 5:30 am to do it. You will feel better about your day if you start it with something positive, like exercise.
2. Everyone has a different body, a different internal drive, and a different goal. Maybe you don't want to win a race or win the Miss Fitness crown, perhaps your goal is to accomplish finishing a 5k, fitting into your favourite dress from 2 years ago, or having more energy throughout the day. Your fitness regimen will be different from hers, allow for a more balanced life approach that still allows you to reach your goal and rock that sexy dress.
3. Learn to be okay with who you are. It's okay for your kid to have marker on their face and cake in their hair, for the room to be a bit dusty and dishes to be on the countertop. Sometimes this has to happen for you to have time to fit in something you want.
4. Everyone has to work at change; make time for yourself to get fit, race a swim meet, or take a cooking class, whatever it is that is your personal goal.
Remember, you are "that" girl to someone else. Be a role model, do what you can, and remember, just as you do, "that" girl struggles with the everyday too.
