Overdoing It?

While things are getting a bit loco around here with the flurry of work, holidays and my own personal expectations for this time of year, I'm having to remember to take a step back and relax a bit.

My daily expectation is to do a specific workout on a specific day. While Wednesday is usually Lifeforce Fitness night, I told myself this morning "Relax, Lauren. You aren't tied to your self-imposed schedule."

And yesterday on my way into work, I said "I really need to get to the gym today." But then I took a step back and said, "No, you will workout if Michelle wants to do something active. But you won't just workout because you 'have to.'" Michelle and I did hang out and opted to do a low key run followed by hot cider, which was JUST what I needed.

While many people struggle with just getting themselves to the gym or heading out in the cold/wet for a run, I'm often quite the opposite. I have to talk myself down from the ledge of overdoing it both mentally and physically.

This time of year, I think it's much too easy in our society to overdo it in all aspects - overshop, overeat, overplan, overobsess, overthink, overexercise, overrelax.

Anyway, in the attempt to do what I wanted today, I started the morning off with a little workout I ripped out of my recent Glamour. I'm not necessarily looking for flat belly, sexy arms, toned butt or lean thighs, but this was a rare workout that I noticed I actually liked the exercises they included.



And tonight I went to the gym and enjoyed a cardio mish mash of whatever I felt like: 10 min stairmaster, 13 min bike, 15 min weights and 11 min elliptical. Just like that, a fun 50 minutes of sweat cranked out!

Are there aspects of your life you're feeling "over somethinged ?"

Just watched Michael Buble sing "Silver Bells" on Christmas in Rockefeller Center. His voice is pretty impressive.

Comments

Totally hear ya! When I'm not in training mode, I'm all over the place (workout-wise), getting in the things I missed or over-comitting to group runs + social stuff. Every once in a while I definitely have to stop and think "reeeelax."

Rather than doing our morning run today, I opted out and slept for NINE hours. Hah, so yeah. Needed that.
missris said…
I can be pretty militant in my gym-going, the point that I don't want to do anything else on a weeknight. Sometimes I find myself wanting to turn down other more fun stuff, which is when I have to remind myself to take a night off and have fun. The gym will always be there tomorrow.
Amber said…
Oh I hear ya. I have a complex about my daily workouts and MAJORLY guilt-trip myself if I don't fit them in. Sometimes two-a-days like Tuesdays run in the morning and hot yoga in the evenings. It's definitely important to take it easy on ourselves from time-to-time and remember that our schedules that keep us running around like chickens with our heads cut off are MOSTLY self-imposed!!
Michelle said…
You know I totally get this. Like Heather said, my workouts are all over the place when I'm not training. The hubs helps me remember the beauty in the randomness and that there will always be time to ramp things back up.

P.S...thanks for posting to my corner of the internet that I never update!! Ack--I'm such a slacker.
I get like this with social commitments. I feel like i have to say yes to everything... which resulted in an insanely busy Aug-Oct. I learned my lesson and started planning less stuff in November. It was so nice to come home, work out, and then have the entire evening to myself!!
J said…
I sometimes feel the same way. I need to rest, especially this time of year when its the off season and I don't need to over do it!
Anonymous said…
I am the queen of putting too much on my plate. Example - I am currently working on 7 research projects - that's more projects than each day of the week! I'm feeling like I agreed to a little too much, but, fortunately, there are no strict deadlines or anything.

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