Yesterday I got to hang out with Val over at SeattleRunnerGirl.com and through the course of our talking she gave me some really good advice:

Follow the advice you give to others.

I know I know, seems simple enough but truth be told we rarely follow our own advice that we give to others no matter how simple it sounds or how easy we know it is to follow. We spout words of wisdom and walk away feeling like we have all the answers that anyone could use and yet we never apply them to our own life.

Well I’m gonna do just that.

A few days ago I was having another conversation with a close friend about whether or not they should continue taking a certain class at the gym. They struggle to keep up and in the beginning it was fun to challenge themselves but as the weeks went on it became more of a burden and less fun and definitly more self deprecating. As we talked about what to do I said the following: If it’s not fun anymore then you should take a break and do something you enjoy.

Confession time:

I’m not enjoying all the time I’m spending at the gym.

I’m feeling extremely overwhelmed by all the time spent at the gym. It is my own doing. I take on too much and then when I get to a breaking point I don’t know how to give it back. I think people will be disappointed in me if I don’t go to the gym everyday. I think that people will begin to wonder if I’m giving up or don’t have the umpha to keep going as hard as I have. I expressed this to Val to which she said:

“Nobody will be dissapointed.”

“Except you.”

So ing true! I even said this to my friend when they said they were afraid of disappointing people. People aren’t really going to care whether you show up or not. They have their own stuff they are working on. People don’t get up in the morning and think “hmmmm, I wonder if Tara will be here today” or “Wow, Tara didn’t show up this morning at 5am. I wonder if she’s stuffing her face with donuts” or “Tara must have given up and will never be back to the gym again”

Why does my brain do this to me?

I’m not spending enough time at home. I’m not spending enough time with my husband. I’m not spending enough time sleeping or sitting on the couch petting my dogs. I’m not spending enough time reading and cleaning my bathroom. I’m not spending enough time just hanging out with me.

For some reason I think that if I’m not spending 3+ hours everyday at the gym on the weekdays then I’m not doing enough. I’ve even convinced myself the reason I can’t reach 170 is because I’m not at the gym enough (cause I’m pretty sure that if I spent 4+ hours a day there I’d lose those 3 pounds in an instant).

As we continued to talk about how we never follow our own advice she said something that really hit home; “I don’t want to be sitting across from you 6 months from now and having you wearing a boot on your foot or a brace on your knee because you are pushing too hard and not taking care of yourself”

Touche

So, here’s what I plan to do about it. I do not want to give up the boxing classes on M/W/F morning and I don’t want to give up boot camp T/TH evening. I don’t want to give up working out with Godfather when he offers so I’m going to give up going to the gym T/TH morning. It’s not much but it will allow me to sleep in until 6a and have a few extra hours at home in the morning. It will also free up my M/W evenings not having to worry about getting ready for the following morning (laundry, making lunches, packing gym bag) and give me some precious few hours to spend with my husband and those cute little four leggers I call Makenzie and Penny.

I put all of this into practice this morning and you know what?

Nobody cared!