Finding Balance

Helllooooooo everyone!

It feels like forever since I've posted, but I guess it's only a few days. 

Today's post is coming to you live from lunchtime!  My evenings have felt so short lately that I don't feel like I have time to do much.  After I get home from work, there's dinner to prepare, cleanup, family time, put the kid to bed, go to bed myself.  I don't think this going to bed by 9:00 business is for me. 

As I've mentioned before, in my early twenties I used to get up and hit the gym before work.  I got up at 4:45 easily to to make this happen.  I believe I went to bed early as well, but couldn't tell you what time.  A couple things have changed since then to make this type of schedule far more difficult to adjust to now.  The first is age.  Now, I realize at 36 I am far from old, but I am much older than I was at 21-22.  While I feel younger today than I have in years, I do not feel like I did back in my early twenties.  My body just requires more sleep than it did before.  Aside from age, though, is the biggest change and that is that I am a mom now and all time is not my own.  I cannot just veg out in front of the TV when I get home from work like I could back then and I can't just do whatever I want all weekend.  This makes for far less "me" time.  (I'm sure I don't need to go on and on about how I love my child and wouldn't trade being a mom for all the "me" time in the world.)  For my husband and me, the evening after my son goes to bed is the time to relax and unwind.  Cutting this time short, while for a good cause, makes me a tad cranky.  By the end of last week I felt like I had done nothing, accomplished nothing.  Yes, I completed my workouts, but paying bills, straightening, organized, relaxing, watching a little TV, not so much.

I'm not ready to say the early morning workouts and early bedtimes are a bust.  Because I still enjoy getting my sweat on early in the morning and being done with it for the day.  Right now, I'm just saying I'm not sure this is the schedule for me.

But, as a mom, evening workouts are hard to fit in sometimes too.  Take last night.  Backup to Sunday night when I didn't go to bed until after 11:00 which meant I didn't get up to workout yesterday morning because I was too sleepy.  I decided I would just get it done in the evening.  Well, I got home from work at 5:00, fixed dinner for the family, and then we headed out at 6:15 for my son's soccer game at 7:00.  All the while I was planning to come home and run.  But by the time I got home at 8:30, I was tired, and well, that just didn't happen because I wanted to get to bed early enough to get up this morning and workout.  After all, I could combine the run and DVD workout this morning.  But did I do it?  No!  I slept in this morning until 7:30 even though I was in bed by 9:30.  Whoops!  Now I'm either looking at a workout sometime this evening or a missed workout for the week.  The former option seems like the only acceptable one.

Finding balance is the hardest thing I face as a mother.  (Well, aside from the constant worry and anxiety over the health and well being of my child, of course!)  Enough family time, enough husband time, enough time for work, enough time for chores, enough time for pets, enough time for me.  I know I am not alone in feeling this way and that millions of moms feel just like me.  But it's overwhelming at times and gets me down a bit.  Being a healthy mom is important, I realize this.  Taking time to get and stay fit, even if it takes away from family time a little, is definitely better for the family in the long run.  I have to find a way to hold this thought in the forefront of my mind and keep doing my best.  Maybe it's not possible to ever feel like I'm doing all I can and being the best mom I can be, or perhaps that's what makes a good mom...

Well, enough of that.  On to my weigh in!  I posted a loss for the week!  I'm still not officially down to what I was two weeks ago, but I blame the yakisoba noodles I started Sunday night and finished last night because I weighed a couple pounds less on Friday.  My rings feel tight today so I know there's extra water here.  I'm okay with it, though.  I'm back to weighing in almost daily and it helps with perspective.

Onward and downward.

What's your schedule like?  How do you find balance?