Finding Balance

One of the harder things I'm finding in life is how to balance everything. It's not joke that today's society seems to be trying to do everything at every moment and time is spinning wildly out of control. I almost feel like I have ADD when trying to deal with and balance everything I want to accomplish.

There was a time in my life where working past 6pm was a regular occurrence. Now, I am out the door at 5:00 to get to my workouts. It does make it harder to get projects done and I have sacrificed my 5:00 exit for a couple urgent things I had to get done as soon as possible, but I hit the gym immediately after...BALANCE.

I count calories and my family doesn't. They refuse to try many of the wholesome foods I want to add to our grocery list, but there are some things we compromise on. Reduced fat cheeses, fat free milk, low carb breads, lean meats, fresh fruit and veggies. These have been family-approved and while they're munching on Oreos I'm snacking on flax and oat bars. While they're eating potato chips, I'm enjoying hummus. We make it work in a way where I don't feel like it's all junk around the house and they don't feel like they're grazing cattle eating grass all the time...BALANCE.

I spent the majority of 2012 running every other day. Running became routine, but my scale has also not budged. With upcoming obstacle course races, I needed to add upper body strength. With the help of my new Lifetime Fitness membership, I have 2-3 days per week dedicated to weight training, but can also keep my run schedule going strong for the half marathons and 10k's in my future.....BALANCE

Outside of all these things, though, I'm finding my head spins when I try to find BALANCE in getting the housework done, managing our finances, cooking from scratch (and trying new healthy recipes), applying to scholarships for my upcoming return to college, and planning a fundraising 5k/10k for a local non-profit. There's a lot going on and it makes it so hard to concentrate on one thing, to prioritize one thing over another. I almost feel selfish in putting my workouts above the rest of it. The one thing I do know is that when I'm running or working out I leave it all outside.

It clears my head, puts my mind at peace and allows me to just relax, de-stress, and reset. I may not have BALANCE in everything yet, but it helps prevent a sense of panic from trying to find BALANCE in this world spinning out of control. I'll hopefully reach a point of equilibrium one day, where it's not so hard to figure out what to tackle next and what deadline to focus on next. That day is not here, but for now I BALANCE the panic with my workouts and put the world on pause for just a little while because when it's just me and sweat and effort, my compass stops twirling. That needle settles on north and I am focused on improvement and being better tomorrow than I was yesterday. That steady improvement flies in the face of constant chaos and encourages me to keep in pursuit of my goals of self improvement and finding BALANCE.