The Rest is Important, Too

So I took a little hiatus from blog-posting, you may have noticed. Lots of stuff going on -- but still on my food plan and maintaining my weight loss, I'm happy to say (despite the occasional pretzel M&M binge). The hiatus was unplanned, but very necessary since I had way too many balls in the air. And that leads me to this blog post, which touts the virtues of rest.

We all know about rest. I recently joked to a friend that it's what we tell other people to get plenty of, but avoid ourselves. However, without rest we'll burn out faster than a match. If you live the kind of multi-tasking, get-it-done-today, take on the world lifestyle I do, then you know what I'm talking about. You can't keep going like that endlessly or you will soon be stopped by either illness, accident or extreme exhaustion. None of these is pleasant, but they will force you to rest.

It would be much better to PLAN rest into our daily lives rather than have it forced upon us by misfortune. Plan to take that day off from exercise, or even just scale it down to a short walk with your dog or significant other. Plan to turn in early so you can make up for burning the candle at both ends the night before. Even plan to splurge on a meal once in awhile, just for the sheer joy of indulgence. For when we plan to do those things, we'll be less likely to go off the deep end and avoid exercise for a month or not get enough sleep for weeks at a time or return to a less healthy set of eating habits. It's much harder to climb out of these holes than it is to avoid falling into them in the first place.

As for me, now and then I'll take a break from the things that make my proverbial plate overly full. And then I'll return to them with a refreshed sensibility. That way, I'll be happier with what I'm offering, and I believe everyone else will be, too.