Give yourself a break

This week started out with so much potential. I was ready to take on the world. With only two weeks left of my fitness challenge, I wanted to go out with a bang to maximize my results. After staying at a plateau for weeks, my friend, K, finished Jamie Eason's LIVEFIT 12-week challenge with great results, and as hard as we have worked, I really want to see the same changes in myself. I also took on the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and I was ready to write and finally get my legal blog moving forward. Enter...the nastiest head cold EVER! You know the "dizzy head, have to sleep sitting straight up to hope to breathe, take as many over-the-counter remedies as you can muster" kind of cold. So frustrating...

Isn't that the worst, when your motivation is at its peak but your body is physically unable to keep up? My workouts were all completed this week, but not exactly with the gusto I had hoped to provide. Calorie counting was out, so the whole carb cycling deal was definitely not going to happen either. The last thing I needed was something else making me feel weak and unenergized.

Then there was the whole blogging thing. Nothing like a good cold to give you writer's block. By mid-week I could barely hold together a coherent thought. I was using most of the energy I did have to tame my wild monster and convince him to take naps.

Yet, despite all this, I can never seem to fight that feeling of guilt. Have you ever experienced this? I changed a few things in little r's schedule with a hunch it would ease the naptime struggle, and it turned out I was onto something because he napped well each day this week. That aside, I found myself doing the same each afternoon and feeling horribly guilty doing it.

I always feel like I should be doing something more productive with my time, as if sleep isn't overrated enough, right? I should be researching legal issues, writing my blog, emailing or networking, studying German, or reading up and discovering travel plans for future trips with the family - NOT napping. My evenings were alone most of this week as well because Big R had a trial that kept him from getting home until nearly midnight each night. Because he was working so hard, again, I felt guilty if the house was a mess, laundry not done, or I wasn't working myself on SOMETHING productive instead of watching TV.

Why do we stay-at-home moms do this to ourselves?

By midweek I was done. I seriously had nothing left in the tank, so I gave in and decided it was ok for me to take a break. The world won't end, Big R certainly wouldn't hate me, and the blogs will get written - hopefully all 30 of them - by the end of the month. Taking a much needed break would be ok.

So, I took a nap, and indulged in horrible girly TV by catching up on Gossip Girl (dont judge) for the night and took a break from feeling guilty. It was much needed and it's something I should let myself do more often when its necessary to rejuvenate my mind and let my body rest.

Turns out I felt much better today. The cold is still lingering, of course, but I didn't feel like my head was in a cloud, and my run was actually refreshing. The next time you feel run down, try to remove the guilt and give yourself a break - you won't regret it...








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