Taking Care of Yourself so You Can Take Care of Everything

This year I went all in, in terms of my goals and I knew I would hit the wall at some point, however, I don’t want to stop. Saying that, I haven’t posted much the last few weeks after the end of January because I felt exhausted, mentally and physically. I’m having trouble sleeping due to pure excitement from wedding planning, blogging and YouTube (stupid I know). I may be spreading myself a bit thin at the moment but this is all an experiment for me, trying to get the balance right, but the thing way out of balance at the moment is my own self care. I don’t just mean that I haven’t been plucking my eyebrows or doing a weekly face mask (er which I haven’t actually) but I haven’t been ‘filling my cup’.

I’m drained of opinions because I haven’t been doing much except commuting to work, and eating rubbish (fondant fancies are a massive weakness for me!) not that I want to completely cut out eating rubbish, I mean treats, but lately Iv gone to far, and have been basically living on what the corner shop, petrol station and quick hungry trips to Tesco where providing with a few home cooked meals made by Adam (containing no vegetables, yes that’s a dig to make more vegetables Adam but you ARE an amazing cook!)That food mixed with little sleep has left me feeling quite lethargic as a result.

So last night I went to bed early, I got a camomile tea, took my makeup off, put on an audiobook and sat listening to that while massaging my feet over a tennis ball (omg soo good! Try it) it had been taking me a few hours to get to sleep the last few weeks but last night I was off as soon as the 30min timer on my audiobook had finished and I slept like a baby. I also prepared the both of us salads for lunch and eggs to take for breakfast.

I made a rule that my work comes before any house work, so that I can do blogging, editing, planning etc as soon as I get home, I can go straight to my desk with a nice cup of mint tea and get on with things which is good as I would usually not sit down till I had dinner. I would come home and start cleaning in a fury as soon as I got in and then sit exhausted in front of the computer, too tired to work so I’d watch YouTube and then be too tired to get ready for bed, so I’d get to bed much later. I give myself deadlines for blogging but there are no deadlines for a clean home, the dishes can wait (although I can’t stand it building up, luckily Adam and I are a team and he steps in when he sees I’m buried under my work) I try to be done with my work by dinner so I can spend a bit of time with Adam. Then I prepare our meals for the next day and do a quick clean of the flat and things like dishes and washing clothes, and I will rush the cleaning to get to bed asap, (this is another good tactic for me as I could clean for days!) I try to be done with all the cleaning on weekdays so that my weekends are free to film as this is when I have the most light during winter, I’m quite slow with the whole process at the moment so I usually need a whole day to make a short video. I also do wedding planning, sometimes food shopping and Adam and I spend at least one long evening together and usually have plans with friends or family at least one day at the weekend. I’m finding sharing my time quite easy as I have another rule that family and friends come before work, and this just motivates me not to leave things to the last minute as plans could crop up and then I’ll have nothing to post (which has happened a few times) I don’t get upset, I accept it as a learning curve and just try to be better next time, I also use the extra time to relax and plan what else I could blog about.

For now though I’m concentrating on getting good sleep and better food as I will begin working out more seriously in March to get ready for my wedding as I want to feel my best. I also know from my past experience that I function at my best when these three things are in place so it’s a win win. It always comes down to this in the end though, and sometimes it is a struggle to be motivated enough to do the best for yourself. Being self disciplined is the key and slowly turning a good thing into a habit. I try to reward myself after Iv done something I don’t want to do or feel lazy about, even simple things like not having the juice I’ve made until I rinse the juicer or not putting my jacket down, I try to do a one touch rule and put it straight away. With bigger things, I just try to get the worst things out of the way first as I have the most energy for them, I try not to think about how much I don’t want to do it and just get on with it, it’s when I start thinking about how much I don’t want to do something that I then begin to talk myself out of doing it or just keep putting it off. I feel so good ticking big or horrible things off my list and then I can get on with the fun stuff!