Healthy in Houston

Photograph by Gluemoon

…where I’ve been lately, it’s been a very busy (and very unbalanced) couple of weeks. Between work picking up and a weekend away visiting David’s parents at their new house, things have been very off-kilter. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the time to blog. Or more accurately, when I’ve had the time to blog, I’ve been tired and not at all in the mood to be in front of a computer (bad blogger!). I won’t bore you with all of the details of the past 2 weeks, but here are some highlights. There’s been a lot of: report writing, eating out, and eating sweets/desserts; only one day of push-ups per week; oh and ice cream for dinner one night (David vetoed it, but then he had to work late, so…). I’d like to blame Houston Restaurant Week for the eating out, but only one of our meals went to Restaurant Week (Post Oak Grill: Thumbs up to the Lobster Thermidor and bread pudding, thumbs down to the fillet and dessert duo).  Most days, it was really more a matter of laziness, gluttony, or desire to socialize. And of course we don’t eat particularly healthy when we eat out.  Both of our waistlines are feeling it now, and the scale agrees with that feeling. On the plus side, we spent time with friends and family,  I kept up with the running, and most of my breakfasts and lunches were healthy, so it could have been much worse.

Balance is an interesting thing. So many of us are so used to living such unbalanced lives that balance takes some getting used to. For the couple of weeks that seemed balanced, I felt good, but I also felt like something was off. At the time I thought that it was because I was making small steps in several areas instead of throwing all of my energy into one area, so it seemed like I was being less productive. Maybe there are times when being unbalanced means being really productive in one or two areas, but I don’t think that’s really what was off. I can’t say that I felt particularly productive the past couple of weeks, but they were definitely unbalanced. I think I’ve figured out what was missing during the balanced weeks…it was the stress…less balance = more stress. I’m so used to feeling stressed or pressured or weighed down by something that I’m not used to the feeling of not being stressed. So maybe these past two weeks have been good for me; they’ve helped me to see that I wasn’t missing out on being productive by being balanced, I was freeing my energy up to be more productive…and that thing that seemed to be missing, it’s not something I’ll really miss when it’s gone at all.

Tags: balanced life, increase energy, restaurant review