I apologize that it's been ages since I've had time to update this but with my schedule being a little more manageable these days I'm going to do so on a regular basis. Promise.
This post is more of a confession than anything about my last few months of relative unhealthyness (wait for it)...along with the subsequent eye opening realization that being invincible was getting even farther from reality than before (because I'm well aware of my mortality but always fancy being as invincible as possible)!
So here it begins and I will try to keep it as short and sweet as possible.
Generally speaking, we're a society of excess. If we have something, we usually want more of it; and I do mean that in the broadest sense possible. Along with the heaps of things we want, there is much that we DO to excess as a byproduct of habit, our environment, etc. Here is my confession: I tend to work too much. Not big news to people who know me; my record was five jobs at once and my record of hours/week at my current (and only) job is shamefully high.
It may not seem like a big deal because we all know a lot of workaholics so it's certainly not unusual, but I don't feel that it makes it right. Thankfully, I'm one of the ones that also happens to LIKE their job and as a result it takes a while to register that I'm potentially overworking. Having said that, whether you like your job or not, everyone needs a balance. Our body is always working hard to maintain an equilibrium of hormones, hydration, heat, minerals, and so on and as such it makes sense that we should find that in life too. Easier said than done.
To make a long story short, I haven't taken a proper holiday in exactly a year. A flashback to May had me laughing about how I never get sick and setting PR's in workouts...fast forward a month, two months, three months, and I'm catching nearly every bug out there to varying degrees. I started to notice that I didn't have the usual energy in my workouts anymore, had a harder time waking up at 5am, and more alarmingly was that I had new and re-occuring injuries (which used to happen even less than the rate at which I would get sick). There's something ironic about a sick and injured personal trainer.
Stubborness can sometimes make us blind and I blame my viking and british background for that (does "buck up" ring a bell?). Once I got over that blind stubborn phase I started noticing and taking stock of the sickness and injury rate. It was a little alarming. I looked at five main factors of life because I knew it wasn't just about work, that was simply the first domino in the stack:
1. Work: hours and stress (not stress due to hours)
2. Nutrition: intake and quality
3. Sleep: hours vs sleep debt
4. Social life: was it existent?
5. Down time: solo non-work/non-social/conscious hours
Well, I knew my hours were too high (consistently over 50 every week is not good in my books). I knew I wouldn't pass that part but the stress at work wasn't too bad.
The nutrition component was interesting. I kept a four day food diary and although I was eating healthy (read:paleo) foods, the timing and frequency was off as a result of #1 taking priority.
Sleep...well that was laughable. Sleep is as important as nutrition!! Everyone has slightly different sleep requirements. I happen to function very well on 7. If you don't get your required sleep, you accumulate sleep debt that you need to make up. For example: If you get four hours of sleep monday night and you personally require 8 then you have started your week off with four hours of sleep debt that you need to get back throughout the rest of the week. About a third of my needed sleep hours were in debt every week...that makes for a lot of sleep debt over the course of a few months. I'm thinking a short coma is in order to make up for it all.
The reason I list social life as a major factor is because it is important and something a lot of workaholics sacrifice a bit. We're social creatures and need human interaction- humans whose company we enjoy of course :)
#5 is important too. Everyone needs some time to themselves that has nothing to do with work, friends, or family. It's time to be selfish. Given that I was putting in too much #1, failing a bit at #2, sacrificing #3, and trying to squeeze in #4, there was no such thing as down time.
All in all I'd not done a fantastic job at keeping all the major factors of healthy living in balance. What does it all mean now? Well I believe in living and learning, as I'm sure most of us do, so I'm now making a conscious effort to find that balance again and notice a bit sooner next time if it gets out of line :)
I hope this finds everyone taking care of themselves!!
Cheers,
F
No comments:
Post a Comment