When You're Worn Slick

So maybe you’ve noticed I’ve been a bit quiet on the Blogging front. 

It’s not you. It’s me. 

Have you ever had those seasons in life that are just plain hard? 

It’s hard to get up in the morning. 

It’s hard to get anything done. 

It’s hard to plan anything worthwhile. 

It’s just hard. 

This is one of those seasons for me. 

I feel like I’m swimming in a lake of molasses. 

My weight loss efforts have felt impossible. I can’t concentrate. I’m just tired. I haven’t exercised in weeks. 

There are a few possibilities. 

I am possibly anemic. Or my thyroid isn’t behaving itself. I’ve allowed myself too many “sugary” cheats and am paying for it. 

It is most likely a combination of things. 

I know I’ve been here before. So how does a girl get herself back on track? How does she make herself a priority and take positive steps in the right direction? 

You see. It can be anything with us women. We’ve let our house go. We are lost in a sea of deadlines and commitments and can’t seem to use the word “No.” We let busyness provide that false sense of accomplishment. We let our cravings control us. After all, we can be good tomorrow. 

We have a collection of self-help books. We’ve pinned and bookmarked advice from those who seem to have gotten their act together. They’ve lost the weight. They organized the house. They’ve learned to say “no.” We make a plan (cause we are good at that). When the time is right we are going to really hit it hard forgetting that we have neither energy nor the resources to hit anything that hard. 

As I’ve said. I’ve been here before. 

When I first started my successful weight loss journey (I say successful, because I tried for years without any success), I had visions of me in a year. I was going to be fit. I was going to be sassy (I was already sassy, but at least I was going to be skinny and sassy). 

The year passed and I had lost 80 pounds. What a triumph! Still. I had 40 or 50 more to go. The weight loss started to get harder. It stopped altogether. Then I would lose a little. Gain a little. 

Another year has passed. I am still not where I want to be. I think I have gained and lost the same 50 or 60 pounds.

And I’m so stinkin’ tired. 

So I’m about to hand out some good advice. It’s so good I’ll think I’ll take it. It’s worked before. Before I hand out this wisdom, I need to make sure that what you don't need is just a good nap. Maybe you need to go to sleep earlier tonight. Sometimes we just don't pay attention to what our body is trying to tell us, mainly "I NEED sleep." If your situation can't be helped with some extra sleep...read on. 

1.      Pray. I know. Seems so easy. But do you know that God cares about you? Sometimes I forget that. I am so defeated that I forget that the creator of the universe knows my name. I have a prayer journal that I have been woefully neglecting. This is my prayer this morning.

Father, Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for the gift of my salvation and the gift of your Son. Forgive me of my unbelief and my desires to do things my way. Please help me. Lead me to Your truths. Show me Your wisdom for this situation and help me not lose sight of the important things. Work it all out for Your glory. In Your name I pray. Amen

2.      Baby Steps. What is one thing you can do today that will help? For those of you like me it is easy to immerse ourselves in the big projects. For example, many years ago I was cleaning my house. I was teaching school and going to college at the same time. You can guess that I was worn out and my house was suffering for it. This particular day it was my plan to clean my laundry room. A few hours later, I tearfully called my husband. “Can you come home and help me?” You see I had decided that not only would I clean my laundry room, but I would paint it as well. I dragged everything out (which was difficult considering the metal in my lower half prevents me from dragging much), grabbed some paint out of the garage and started. Girlfriend couldn’t finish. In my already worn-out condition I was pretty much worthless. Baby Steps. 

What are my Baby Steps today? I know I need to be faithful with some of my supplements. I have been neglectful of my iron and Vitamin D. I am getting ready to go for a short walk…though I am tempted to go to the Y and workout for 45 minutes. I also know that today I am going to make sure I eat. I didn’t eat a good supper last night and wound up with low blood sugar which in turn led me to eat toast and honey at 11:00pm. 

3.     Just do it! Stop waiting for the perfect opportunity. There will never be a perfect opportunity until right now. So many times we say, "When the kids are older, when we have more money, when I have more time." I, myself, don't want to wait until Josiah is 21 to feel better. Money isn't going to cure everything and I have to make the time. Just start something already!

Go forth my friends! My prayer for you is that your day is productive and you take care of you!