Friday, March 22, 2013

WEEK TEN...Jodi and Nikki dig deeper into the vital balance of taking care of self and prioritizing life..


Week Ten
Nikki and I discussed her “lifestyle” last week as being an important factor in her weight loss journey.  She is currently running about 16-18 hours per day taking care of everyone in her life while trying to squeeze in a few moments for herself which often feels like another obligation.  I think most of us can identify with her (including myself) as we are all trying to complete our daily to do lists falling into bed exhausted, not really savoring the precious moments which we should appreciate every day.  Not only is this robbing us of joy but we are also affecting our weight management, stress levels and ultimately our health.  A question to ask, “am I running my life or is my life running me?”  If you are feeling like a passenger in your own life - stop and reassess your priorities and identify what you can change to create more happiness and balance in your life.

Nutritional Homework
Nikki and I had a “come to Jesus” moment with her lifestyle and commitments.  We identified and made a list of necessities and optional activities.  I asked her the hard questions:
1.    What do I do out of obligation and not really enjoy?

2.    What do I want to stop doing?

3.    What can I change?
These were some questions to ponder and discuss with her husband to pursue better control of her life.  I have also asked her to prioritize her weekly tasks so that she can assess what are most important to her and her family. 

Exercise Homework
This week Nikki continued working through a variety of stations I have setup for her work-out, we added a chest pass throw with a 12lb weighted ball into her program for a little fun and incorporated a crouching (away from bench) 1 arm row which requires her core to stabilize her during the movement.  She is continuing to pursue her cardio options five days per week!



Nikki’s Comments
Jodi has a good sense of my weekly schedule and jokes that even she is stressed out by it! Finding a healthy balance seems to be a central theme for my lifestyle change, and she’s not letting me drop this topic without some real soul-searching. We’ve discussed the tasks I do regularly – both mandatory and optional activities. I put them in order of priority and answered some tough questions about what I CAN change. The optional activities are fun, but only when the mandatory items are flowing smoothly and I’m guarding my downtime at home. If not, I end up doing too many “fun” events out of obligation and constantly playing catch up with household tasks. And if my highest priority is nurturing my family relationships, why am I not being more intentional to carve out quality family time each day/week? Oh sure we get snippets together, but my dearest loved ones deserve more than snippets of my time and energy! I am working to cut out some of the extras to keep my family schedule in line with our priorities. It will not only benefit my physical health but also my mental health.

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