Are You Reaching For Exercise When You Should Be Reaching For Rest?
Which of these describes you better?
- You are tired, lack energy, know you probably need to workout and you’re beating yourself up about it but just feel too fatigued to do it.
- You’re hard-driving, ignoring signals a little more rest is what you need since you know energy creates energy and you always feel better. You set a bigger goal and register for an event that will give you a purpose to train, even when you don’t feel like it.
If you feel sluggish when you wake up, you need that coffee to get rolling in the morning and just maybe again in the afternoon. Or instead you may reach for the candy bar in vendo-land. You don’t have much appetite in the morning despite all you’ve read about breakfast being important, you just can’t make that happen. Adrenal fatigue can be a part of what you’re experiencing.
If so, the opposite of what you think you should do may be the solution. First things first: stop beating yourself up either with the guilt-ridden ought to and shoulds that run through your mind. Then, if instead you’re the one to ignore reality signals and just do it anyway, you need to let go. Professional athletes even take days off. Sometimes they take full weeks off. They’re told to go hike, go to the movies, and take naps.
Slow Down to Accelerate Your Results
If you’re in agreement that what you’re doing isn’t working here’s something you can focus on doing so you can “do” something while you’re getting a little more rest.
Start looking at everything not just resting from exercise. We have the greatest thyroid, adrenal, and hormonal imbalance in history right now. True, there’s probably a greater degree of awareness and women aren’t being quiet thinking symptoms are normal. There’s also the fact that you’re exposed to so many more toxins in your daily living than ever before in history.
Here’s how to begin removing them. The more load you take off of your body the easier job it has. The result? More efficient function and more optimal health and energy for you. If you simply add exercise to an already burdened system you risk pushing yourself further and further from health. Clean up your act here, literally, first and then begin to look at exercise so it can be a positive rather than an energy robber.
Remove the Make Up
Your skin is your largest organ in your body. Everything you put on it permeates it and gets in quickly. Examine your shampoo, make up, lotions, perfumes and bath products. Everything you are exposed to increases your toxic load or doesn’t. By now you’re aware of the need to look for paraben-free items (many cosmetic companies are still using them), but there’s also phthalates. There is a litany of reading to do to school yourself on the chemicals lurking in your cosmetics. Safer make up companies have agreed to eliminate toxins found linked to cancers. Antibacterial soaps contain toxins infact. Wash your hands, yes, but let your immune system take care of the rest.
Get The Junk Out of The Trunk
If you’re entering the danger zone in the middle of the grocery store think twice. There are few items in the middle that don’t put you in the middle of a chemical storm. Just because it reads “gluten-free” doesn’t give it a green light to health. The “stuff” added to make it instead is a lot less healthy than you might think. Know what you’re looking for and why. Fill your cart with outside isle items like produce, lean protein (not packaged, seasoned, with preservatives or additives and starchy fillers).
The mistake a lot of many new clients make is deciding to visit the health food store. Unarmed, without a list of what you need, this is as dangerous as any other grocery place. Being in a health food store does not make something healthy. Determine recipes that are simple and fast (most healthy food requires few ingredients and no more time than it takes to bake that frozen meal in the microwave).
When you increase salads, do you increase your processed salad dressings? Read your labels. If it’s got words you can’t pronounce, sugars, transfats, or canola oil (vegetable oils that increase Omega 6 and don’t contain enough Omega 3 increase chance of inflammation) it shouldn’t go on your cart. Consider starting to make your own. Use ingredients that are fresh and on your list. Olive oil, tahini, herbs, spices, lemon juice, beans, all can be a part of your quickly blended dressing.
Make a Clean Start
If you like to scour your kitchen counters and floor, and scrub the tub and shower til their sparkling, make sure you’re doing it with non-toxic cleaners. The fumes, the contact with your skin and the contact with food or your body while you shower or bathe contribute to yout total toxic load.
Find non-toxic safe cleaners now on your shelves at the store or make your own with essential oils. Oils I’ve bought have lasted years. True, that could be testimony to my infrequent cleaning regime but truly a few drops diluted with water make even those small bottles last a long time. A favorite cleaning solution of mine is below. It smells wonderful and several of these oils are antibacterial without the toxicity of chemical cleaners. So you can work away in the bathroom and in the kitchen safely.
ESSENTIAL OIL CLEANING BLEND
Drops of each the following essential oils then fill a 12 oz sprayer with water:
5 drops Bergamot, Cinnamon
10 drops Lavender, Lemon, Citronelle
This is especially nice for the bathroom. I mix it in a glass container (plastic is permeable and well, read the article above again). If I’m cleaning the whole house and going to town(this is rare), I might use the entire bottle. Otherwise for spot cleaning bathrooms and kitchen counters this bottle will last a while.
If you’re only thinking about all you need to add to your life: exercise, foods, and that everlasting to-do list you’ll come up short somewhere. Start removing things first and you’ll make room for the good to happen by doing less in the long run.
~Debra
