Resting is Not my Strong Suit

Last week, my body rejected me. It flat out rebelled against the amount of exercise, post-whole30 binging, and traveling that I had put it through and got really sick. My typical reaction to any sort of sickness coming on is to hit up Whole Foods, buy some Umcka, a green juice, and Advil Cold and Sinus. I sat down on my couch Wednesday afternoon with full resolve to be up and running by Thursday morning. Unfortunately, my cold got worse and kept me housebound through Sunday.

It's sad that most of us need to be forced to rest. After all, how can we expect our bodies to carry us through the exercise and activities that we love to do if we are running on empty? Catching such a bad cold this season has been a wake up call to me that I need to build in mandatory time to relax and restart every single week. You don't wait until your car is completely out of gas to fill it up, so when your body starts to feel the effects of exhaustion, take it as a warning that your gas light has come on. 

I think that the reason I have such trouble slowing down is because I attach a sense of pride to my accomplishments. I'm achievement oriented, so resting feels like failure. In order to break out of this mindset, I think that those of us who struggle with slowing down have to start viewing resting as fuel, instead. One of my goals this year is to build a rest day into my week where I don't work out, don't work (so hard for me), and actually do something relaxing. For too long, I have tried to count busy days when I skip working out (because I don't have time) as my "break", and that's never going to do the trick. 

Cheating yourself out of a true rest day will never give you the satisfaction that an intentional day off will. So, instead of the method I've been using, I'm going to plan my breaks as seriously as I plan my activities. Giving your body room to breathe will always serve you better in the long run.