Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?!

Time… oh my!  We all know there are only 525,600 minutes in a year (thank you Rent!) And boy do those minutes FLY!!  While I would LOVE to follow the suggestion of the song “Seasons of Love” and measure in love, I can’t exactly get love to schedule life!

Before we go any further, can I just say that music can be used for anything?  I reference music all the time!! And just to clear the air… we can’t be friends if you can’t use lyrics randomly in the middle of conversation… Just sayin!

Let me walk you through my typical day.  To make things easy, let me start with Monday.  Most people call Monday the hardest day of the week, so let’s just get it out of the way!

Monday, Monday (bah dah, bah dah dah dah! – You know you sang it too!)

7:45ish AM – Wake up and get moving for the day

8:20 AM – Out the door and start my 35 minute drive to work, should traffic cooperate

9:00 AM – Start work

And this is where the day starts to get a little tricky…  I try my best to eat at the designated times, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen.  And I am a creature of habit, so the more structured the better!

9:30 – Take a minute and make breakfast and eat

Noon – 1 hour lunch

3:00 – Take a break, and eat a snack

5:00 – Start to 1 hour trek home in St. Louis rush hour traffic

6:00 – Get stuff together to go to the gym for Muay Thai

7:00 – Muay Thai training

8:30 – Usually when we get home to start and eat dinner

10:00 – Get the hubs on out to work, since he works midnights, and get myself in the shower

10:30 – Bed

Now, please hear my when I say “bed” does NOT mean sleep… Depending on the day, it can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 4 hours for me to fall asleep.  Yes, I am aware that my training could be potentially keeping me awake, but there are no classes early in the morning.  Besides, I am NOT a morning person.  Even if I sleep for 12 hours, waking me up before 10am just causes a grump to wake up.  I am also aware that my shower could be keeping me awake, but again… do I shower before bed and sleep clean?  Or sleep icky and wake up earlier?!  I choose clean sleeping!

My days are usually pretty much the same until 5:00. 

Tuesday and Thursday is Judo, which starts at 6:00.  Thanks to traffic, which always seems to be so wonderfully AWEFUL on these days, I am usually sliding into class by the skin of my teeth.  Tying the white belt of my gi as I am running from the locker room. 

But, for the most part, this is my typical day!  Saturdays and Sundays aren’t as structured.  But for the most part, my entire week is structured almost to the hour.

The worst part about ALL of this… somewhere, my husband and I are supposed to have Family Time, we both like to play video games, we both have a fairly active social life, AND both sides of our families enjoy spending time with us!  And somewhere in this time we are also supposed to go to the store (grocery, big box, farmers market…) get laundry done, and keep a house together.

It’s exhausting.  I won’t lie!  Training, getting healthy, eating better… it all takes scheduling.  It takes amazing time management skills.  It also takes understanding from those around you.  If you AREN’T the person trying to get healthy, cut your family member/friend/spouse some slack!  Thankfully, my husband trains on Monday and Wednesday are along with me.  We count that as family time, because we both really enjoy the time.  And fortunately for us, our families understand our goals.  They sometimes think we are crazy for training Muay Thai and other various MMA aspects, but they love us anyway.

If you are getting healthy, you will have to make sacrifices.  You will have to sacrifice time with friends, you will have to sacrifice that show you watch on certain nights, and you will definitely HAVE to sacrifice the foods that you love that are bad for you!  My food sacrifice was McDonald’s… I love that place… but I also know that it is slowly killing me.

If you are NOT getting healthy, but someone near and dear to you is… please don’t take it personally if they choose to go to the gym rather than sit on the couch eating a bag of chips or other various diet killing foods.  Cut them some slack if they choose NOT to indulge in dessert on a day that may not be cheat day for them.  Try not to be too selfish if they say “sorry, I have gym time that night or day” I promise you, they are not changing their entire lives to hurt or upset you. 

Instead, ask them about their goals!  Encourage them when they choose a large salad instead of the cheeseburger during a late night Denny’s run.  Keep giving them high fives when they share a new achievement!  They work hard to get where they are!

From experience, the first time I was able to go 3 minutes with my Muay Thai coach and all we did was hit pads.  But as soon as I realized I was able to go a full 3 minutes, you would have thought I had just won the lottery!  I was so excited!!  And I am STILL excited!  Not everyone can do what we do.  But I can promise you that if you put in the work, you can ALSO do this!

Schedule your time; it really makes everything so much easier!

Much love!  And leave me a comment with questions or feedback.  This only works if we are ALL engaged!

Happy Monday!