WARNING: THIS POST IS GOING TO CONTAIN A LOT HUMAN MOMENTS OF COMPLAINING AND VENTING!!

I’m going to be blunt here…my summer SUCKED!

I was doing really well with eating clean and hitting the gym. The weight seemed like it was just falling off of me. Physically and emotionally I was feeling amazing! So what happened? I guess you can say life happened. Things are changing at my job. We are going through a huge reorganization, people are moving around to different jobs in different part of the country, and we are being asked to do more with less people. Things are pretty chaotic. This reorganization has been going on for a couple of years now and will not be complete for another couple, but it has really hit the peak of “crazy” within the last few months.

Now you are probably asking “where is Liz going with this?” Well, the hectic changes going on has lead to massive amounts of overtime at work. In July we started losing more people and those of us left are taking in the extra work. That means working more hours to keep up, a lot more hours. I’ve been pulling 10-12hr days 5 days a week for the last few months. That means I have rarely been able to get to the gym. I’ve only been to the gym one day a week for my personal trainer appointments. Eating clean has been a challenge as well. I pack my lunches and snacks everyday, but when I’m at work for a 12hr shift, I sometimes don’t have enough food to get me through. I’ve resorted to vending machine items or hitting the junk food tables looking for something to get me through. Needless to say I’m slowly slipping into bad habits due to time crunches and convenience. I’ve lost physical strength and muscle, I’ve gained a few pounds, I’m getting horrible stress headaches, I’m physically and emotionally exhausted, and losing any type of inspiration. There are days my husband almost begs me not to stay late at work. As of right now, we only see each other for about an hour a night and weekends due to my schedule.

I’ve been arriving home around 8:00-8:30pm and still have not had dinner. I eat, go to bed, and wake up at 5:00am just to do it all again. My spirit is a bit low. All of the hard work I’ve done over the last year seems to be slipping away. I’m struggling to find the work/life balance, but with my job being as demanding as it is (with no end in sight) finding that balance seems next to impossible. I’m letting my physical and mental well-being suffer for my job. But I need my job to pay bills.

UGH!! What is a pin-up to do?!?!?

My trainer Lauren has been amazingly patient with me. She sees how disappointed I am with myself during our training sessions. I’ve lost so much strength. Exercises that were becoming easy peasy are now major struggles. I feel like I’ve moved backwards instead of forward. Again, she pushes me and tries to lift my spirits by reminding me that I WILL get back to where I was. She’s pretty amazing!

OK, enough of the major pitty party. I’m going to move forward, try to figure out how to make this work, and get back on my track. I’ll keep you posted. As always…THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

Liz