A Time For Everything

In Ecclesiastes 3, I read that there is a time for everything.

The last decade of my life has been a time of poor nutrition (with a few brief moments of awesome nutrition here and there), a time of little to no exercise beyond surviving each day with small children (with a few brief periods of genuine exercise), a time of exhaustion, a time of pitiful immune function, a time of just trying to make it to the next day, with no hope of thriving in this crazy life I lead. This season has left me broken, weary, and ready to give up.

But. God says (through the author of this passage) that there is a time for everything - and I feel like the time for the previous season is ending. My youngest is starting kinder/preschool, and I can no longer deny that while my children still need me to keep them alive despite all their efforts to the contrary, they don't need me quite as intensively as they did as infants. The time has come for me to focus a bit more on my own physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

I tried when I turned 40, and then again after that, and again after that, but this time I'm doing things a bit differently. I'm not focusing so much on metrics. Not using a scale. Not keeping a food diary. I am using a couple of apps for exercise, a couch to 5K and a walking app (I want to keep a record of distance). I'm not 'going paleo', or anything else special. I'm simply aiming to make each day a little better than the one before it.

Since a major factor in this adventure will be organisation and planning, I'm also including each day one organisational thing. I thrive on order. My brain works better, which will serve me well if I am to be successful. The last two days I have:  completely organised and cleaned (except for the bits I can live with) the room where my desk is located and come up with a menu plan for next week.

My plan (which isn't really a plan, per se - I just don't know what else to call it) is to eat more vegetables and more protein, to mostly stop eating my emotions, to earnestly try to drink a reasonable amount of water, to exercise more. To stop treating my health and well-being as a luxury to be sacrificed on the altar of domesticity.

That's it. No numbers, no rules, just standing up and trying again. This time, with the knowledge that I am fearfully and wonderfully made - not to be sick and tired and crabby all the time, but to be vibrant, energetic, and a joyful servant to the One who made me.

See you on the road,
Sarah