Today’s post is an important one. Did I say this one is important because it is and let me explain why….
I’m going to tell you a story that happened a few months back and how the word “gray” could have been incredibly insightful at the time.
Not because it’s termed, by definition, “Gray-means of a color intermediate between black and white, as of ashes or an overcast sky” because as of this moment, there’s definitely no overcast sky in Atlanta! It’s 92 degrees and scorching hot and without question, I could cook an over hard egg on my driveway.
Anyways, back to “Gray” (not Christian of course ;)) and why it was important in this situation. I was about to overtax myself with my current workload and told myself to keep going. I felt that if I put up healthy boundaries and began to say “No” then my clients would walk away and I wouldn’t have business. I kept pushing and taking client after client, regardless of the time of day or if they just asked me 5 minutes ago. I was in this mindset that it was either THIS or THAT, ALL or NOTHING, YES or NO when it came to my work mentality. I was hitting it hard, making zero time for myself and was losing my own sense of sanity in the process. My body reacted and basically threw in the towel saying, “I’m done Kim. I’m exhausted and worn out. I can’t do this much you have to slow down.” I literally had to take a few days off just to lay in bed. Hindsight, I wish I would have been more in the GRAY. Meaning, life isn’t all about THIS or THAT, it’s about finding that balance that works for you.
Instead of me pushing myself to the max and always working hard, hard, hard I could have had my ebbs and flows during the week. One day might be busier than the other, I could have scheduled my clients accordingly, etc. How often are we so quick to judge ourselves if we aren’t hitting it hard with work, training, relationships, etc. We become so quick to judge, minimize, and berate those that often times are in the GRAY area, why? Because we are so conditioned to think that if we aren’t busting our butts then we are failures. If we don’t work long hours, kill ourselves in our workouts or don’t have the kids in the perfect outfit then we lose. Our society has become so engulfed with the mindset that more is better. Guess what, I’m here to tell you it’s not.
Why is this important to fat loss? I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Well, I started working out and I didn’t see any results.” “I do eat healthy.” So on and so forth, right? Sure, we can go “all out” and focus so hard on a “diet” (that word makes me cringe) that we end up gaining weight because we are so consumed with calories, food, diets, and exercise that we lose our own intuition when it comes to making decisions. We focus so hard on what he or she has to say or what the latest book tells us to do rather than living in the “middle ground of the gray.” Life has it’s ups and downs, it’s twists and turns, it’s ebbs and flows but why fight it? Why fight to keep things so rigid, controlled and boring?
Trust yourself! Next time you tell yourself, “I’m hungry, but I’m not going to eat that.” What about telling yourself, “I’m hungry and what am I in the mood for?”