Healthy Me: The balancing act.

This week I lost a kilo. When I first started my healthy lifestyle change, losing a kilo a week was an expected occurrence. Now, three months in I'm looking more at around the 300-500gram mark, which is fine by me.

As you would know by now I'm aim at health, not weight loss. But it is a side affect.

So losing a kilo this week could be seen as an accomplishment, I mean we all want the instant answer yes? But it wasn't. This week, I became well acquainted with my old friend the toilet bowl as all my stress left my body, along with my daily food intake.

I ran from my exam room to vomit. My final exam room, my final exam.

I remember when people would get really sick at school, particularly with glandular fever. They would miss months of school and then return shadows of their former selves. Still sick, quite shaken, and a bit disconnected. And I would be jealous, jealous that they had lost so much weight. What the heck? But I was, and we would even joke, “how can I get me some of that?” I wished for it. I wished for poor health as an answer to my weight problems. That’s how desperate I was to no longer be the fat one. It’s taken me 24 years to overcome that.

This week I lost a kilo, and I realised that sometimes I push myself a little to hard. Sometimes I have ridiculous expectations of myself. I need to lay off a little. I am doing great things with my health, my uni, and my son. It's time I gave myself credit for it. I don't care for that kilo. In fact losing that kilo by getting this stress-induced illness severally affected the results of my final exam. There is no satisfaction in that.

I will not dwell, yet I will learn from it.

I need to start balancing my healthy lifestyle with a positive mentality. I need to stop telling myself, "That's just an excuse!" when sometimes it is actually a reason. Some nights I will not go to the gym, and that's okay. I need to take care of all aspects of my life, not just my physical health. Sometimes a walk to the park with my family is more important than a work out, or a clean house. Sometimes I just can't fit it all in. I'm not going back on what I said last week, I still quit excuses- but I accept reality. I accept that I cannot do everything.

I need to find a balance.

Exhaustion and stress can affect us in many ways. I am not one to physically fall pray to these things, but over the pass few months I have gotten married, changed my entire diet, started working out almost daily, continued to raise my son, finished uni, and all of this whilst 1000km away from my home town.

I'd say I've taken a lot on. Now uni is over, and I can't go back. I can't spend an extra hour studying here or there. But I did it and I am proud. My health will never be 'over'. It is something that will always need to be maintained. It is something that if I lose grip of it, I will be back to square one. I never want to go back to square one. It is something I will be proud of.

I need to start treating my mental health in the same way. If I am stressed I often find a run does improve the way I feel. If I am exhausted, it makes me feel worse. More rubbish, more sad, more exhausted.

Going to the gym is not always going to fix it, it is not always going to improve it, and sometimes it might make it worse. I need to accept this. Even though it might make my physically stronger, healthier, and fitter it is not always the best option.

This week I am going to try to find that balance. James is sailing three days this week, so I plan to start the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. I may not do it every day, I will not use a lame excuse to lounge instead of work out. But I might need to sleep, or clean, or spend time with my son, or time with myself.

I am searching for that perfect balance. The one that doesn’t make me feel like crap for putting my sanity before my fitness, and the one that can distinguish between I don’t want to and I can’t. The one that realises health is not just physical state, but also a state of mind.

Every day I learn something new. Everyday I am realizing how far my body can go, and also what my limits are. I don’t mean to contradict myself but I know at times I will. I am learning, and I am sharing my journey. But I am no means an expert and I don’t have the answers. I am just trying to make myself a better person, and that takes a bit of trial and error.

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This week’s loss is not relevant, it was achieved by illness.

My greatest achievement this week was running 5km after four days of illness. I could run, so I did. But the night before I left the gym mid workout due to nausea. I didn’t beat myself up, I got on with it.

This weeks hint to a healthier you focus on your mental health. Tell yourself you are great, because you are. Give yourself credit where credit is due. 

Be honest. If you don’t want to go to go for a run, find an alternative. If you can’t, actually cannot, then don’t.

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Review.

Jetts Gym.

Honestly I joined Jetts because it is downstairs from my apartment, literally 10m from where I live.

It’s a 24/7 gym. It is staffed Monday-Friday and Saturday mornings. The staffing hours vary between clubs.

The Pros:
It’s cheap, really cheap. I pay less that $10 a week thanks to a defence discount. It’s not much more sans discount.
It’s always open.
No contracts, although it’s never easy to cancel a gym contract so be wary of this one.
Access to all Jetts gyms Australia wide, which has been handy for when I visit my folks in Melbourne.
Modern equipment, each cardio machine has it’s own television which makes for an enjoyable workout, and at times a Big Brother addiction.
Seems to be enough equipment for all members, even though it’s a small gym.
Nice staff and personal training sessions are still available.

The Cons:

No classes. I used to love step classes, but you get what you pay for.

 The equipment seems to be broken for a really long time.

Very little floor space for stretching and core work.

The sound on most of the televisions is distorted. It really bugged me when Ben was dishing out life advice and I couldn’t hear it correctly.

No water fountains. There is a tap to fill up your bottle, but if you forget your bottle then you have to pay for one.

Very few bathroom facilities. The air conditioner rarely seems to be on, or on a very low setting.

I really cannot complain about my membership with Jetts. I am going to have to cancel when we move to the ACT as they don’t have gyms in that region. I’m stressed about cancelling, it always seems to be a difficult process- but I am hoping I will have a different experience with Jetts. Hoping, not expecting. I am not sad to be leaving, I don't really care. It's not the gym of all gyms, but it is good value for money.

Had it been a different gym in the same location I would have joined that one. My membership with Jetts is purely a relationship of convenience, but it has served me well.

I can’t say that I’d overly recommend them, especially if you are into classes, but if you just want to run or do some strength work this is probably the gym for you.

Being so cheap and so accessible is a big plus for me, but you would have to weigh up whether that can overcome the long list of cons.

I have been happy with my membership, but when I move to a suburban area I will not be getting a new gym membership and either use the navy gym or the great outdoors.

For information on membership and locations you can jump on the website here.

I’d just like to remind you that I do not receive payment for reviews and all products have be independently purchased by myself for my own personal use. The opinions expressed in my reviews are just that OPINIONS. They may not alway be correct, I'm human I make mistakes.

To read more about my personal ethical standard you can click here.

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Happy Healthing.