Babies are unpredictable.
No longer being in full control of your day is a big adjustment. There are so many unknowns and whilst you can still plan, with so many variables there's always a certain degree of flexibility necessary.
Sleep patterns, feeding schedules, sickness, tantrums, childcare, digestion. You name it, there’s a curve ball somewhere waiting to pounce. Usually just when you’re starting to feel a bit more confident that you’ve got it all figured out.
They poo through three layers of clothing on the day you didn’t pack a spare, decide they don’t like their favourite dinner after you’ve spent the afternoon cooking and freezing tiny baby portions in an attempt to make life ‘easier’. Or wake up uncharacteristically early on the night you decide to go OUT OUT.
It’s as if they know.
Our childminder was ill today and suddenly instead of the full uninterrupted day of work I had planned, your work schedule is dictated by the length of one single nap.
So what do you do?
You have two options….
Focus on how little you’re actually getting done and then spend your life stressing about when and how you’re going to get things done.
Or
Realise that you’re never going to be fully in control of your own day (or at least for another 18 years), fully accept that this is how it is and surrender to the fact that anything is progress.
(N.B. You could also invest heavily in some round-the-clock childcare but I imagine this option is not realistic or desirable for most).
Pleasingly, your workouts will be subject to the same uncertainty as your life.
There are genuinely going to be times when it just isn’t going to happen. Not like before when you might have had the opportunity to train but chose to do something else. But when you literally have no choice.
You aren’t always going to have a choice, and that’s ok, totally normal in fact. No-one said it would be easy.
So on the occasions when you DO have a choice, that’s when it’s so much more important to make the right one.
If your goal is to get stronger, fitter or healthier the every step, every squat, every vitamin......it all adds up. So when you are in control, BE IN CONTROL. Make good choices.....cultivate good habits.
Then when you’re thrown these recurring curve balls, you can afford to surrender, knowing that you’re doing what you can, knowing that you’re doing your best and that’s all you can do.
Bx
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