I get a little frustrated sometimes when I hear about that show The Biggest Loser on TV. On one hand, sure, it’s awesome that these people are losing dozens of pounds at each weigh-in – I certainly can’t begrudge them of that. But the thing is, so could I if I dedicated several months of my life solely to weight loss and absolutely nothing else…
I’m sure that most people who had the opportunity (and drive) to dedicate their entire day to nothing but exercise and eating healthy could make a significant dent in their own obesity, but that doesn’t work for the rest of us who have jobs and families and can’t simply whisk themselves away to fat camp when they’re starting to feel a little pudgy! For the rest of us, it’s a balancing act between living our lives while also simultaneously implementing these significant life changes so that we get to live the rest of our lives, and at least for me, it feels like it’s a constant struggle against the clock.
For example, I know that I need to do the following on a weekly basis:
- eat wholesome, home-cooked meals
- exercise at least 30-45 minutes several days a week
- get a good night’s sleep of 6-8 hours each night
- spend as much time writing as possible, so as to build my career
- spend as much time with my wife as possible, so as to not warrant a divorce
- relax, so as to not stress out over how I don’t have enough time in each week!
Add in all of my other roles and responsibilities, and it’s easy to see how each of them randomly gets neglected over a lack of time … which sucks because so many of them are interconnected – the exercise and eating right is counterproductive if I don’t get a decent night’s sleep, as I’m finding right now, and spending more time focusing on these means less time for relaxation, fun time with the wife, and advancing my writing career.
So is the solution to buckle down to a super-strict schedule where everything is rigorously defined to ensure that everything actually gets done??? Well, I can say from experience that it doesn’t work for my creative stuff because sometimes the ideas just aren’t there or don’t want to flow as easily as I’d like. Lately I’ve been starting to focus more on priorities – while everything is important, first and foremost I need to focus on the health stuff, then comes writing, and last is everything else. I think finding middle ground within all of the points is big, too – maybe I can’t do a full workout every other day, but varying durations gives me more time to spend with my wife or allows me to get that column done that I need to write for this week.
Boy, wouldn’t it be easier if I could just slough everything off and go on TV to get skinny instead?!