I don't have a housekeeper

 

Or house cleaner. We don't go out to eat either. I cook all of our own food at home. Sometimes I make pizza and sometimes for myself I use cauliflower dough. I make my own protein Jello and ice cream, using 1st Phorm Level-1, Phormula-1, and collagen. because they are high quality and have a texture and flavor, I'm unable to make on my own unless the calories are way too high to consume on a regular basis. Usually, I use the milk from the farm, but sometimes I use various nut milks.

I get it, it's hard to manage everything! It often feels like too much. But I just prioritize, sometimes it's like triage. Just make your list and pick one thing.

Not only do we don't have a housekeeper (light cleaning and organizing), or house cleaner (deep cleaning), but we do all most of our own construction and house maintenance projects. Right now, I'm scraping and sanding trim areas outside on our various buildings. In order to maintain normal chores and workout routines, I have to learn that it won't all get done RIGHT NOW, or TODAY. 

Being rather OCD about things, this is hard. There is always something left over for tomorrow and every day looming in the future!

Every day is different, because of the triage aspect of prioritizing.

It's so easy to say it's just too much to be aware of my calories, or allow myself to feel hunger (yes, it's part of losing excess body fat!)

Yes, it's all hard.

Last year it was dealing with all the health issues. 

Sometimes I gain excess weight and yes, the process is still hard, and it feels unfair that I HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN! YEs, it's THIS again. Over and over again.

That's life. I don't have a housekeeper and I still have to take care of myself as much as the house.

I still have to exercise as part of that.

I enjoy my walks with Randy. They are often spontaneous. The work will be there when we get back!

I love my swims, even if I only get a chance to go into town about once a week. Swimming takes a lot of time, sometimes there isn't enough time, so I have to do another workout instead.

I only run about once a week. It's got the biggest calorie burn besides the longer bike rides.

I just can't see driving the car to go pick up the milk from the farm 1.5 miles away! Even if it's only for 20 minutes, it's nice to get outside. 

I finally fixed my flat tire. It was the rear tire, so it was messy and a little complicated lining up the brake pads and getting the chain back on. I need to get a few longer rides in before winter comes. It's also hard because the longer rides take more time (about 2 hours.) 

It's also hard because the home maintenance projects are a lot right now, and I get tired. I usually need to do them early in the day before the mid-day gets too hot outside.

That means my workouts are AFTER the hard work on the chores.  I find that once I take a shower it renews my energy if I don't let it get too late. Workout rather than what I FEEL like doing (which is taking a nap or reading a book.) Just go do it! 

I never get tired of the view from where I work out!

The sunsets are always glorious, and I take in the view and appreciate it in between sets when I'm hydrating.

Always, the earlier I can get my workout in after the outdoor chores, the better! Sometimes after weight training I have energy to do a little cardio on the spin bike, sometimes not. But I'm thankful that I got in what I did, and somehow, I woke up with my abs starting to come back.

But I'm not even close to being at my goal. I don't look great in my Sheriff uniform yet. I'm not ready to get on the body weight scale. The food scale and portions and fasting as long as I can in between meals matters more. Yes, losing weight involves fasting whether you eat one meal a day or 6 meals a day!!! Even with 6 small meals a day you have to fast in between those meals and not eat extra even though you are hungry.  Every day doesn't have to be the same, but you will only get fat loss results if you eat a specific number of calories in each 24-hour block, over time.

By the way, on the subject of hunger; those in the 1st Phorm App with me have a new podcast today called "How to Combat Cravings." While we are doing our chores, we can listen. It is a win-win. Hunger is something we all have to deal with while trying to lose body fat time and time again over the seasons of our life. We lose, we gain, we go through cycles and seasons. We are never really "done", that's why it's a lifestyle, even when you spend most of your years maintaining as I have done for decades. I still have seasons like last fall where I gained, for no reason other than enjoying food and not really being aware that it creeps up so dang fast!

Maybe I'll get what I want for Christmas! But only if I don't give up even though the mental battle is so real, and it often feels like it's IMPOSSIBLE. 

So yeah, no housekeeper, no one to do the deep cleaning for me, no one to bake the bread or make the butter, no one else to count the calories for me or cook my food. No one to scrape or sand, then prime and paint the trim. 

No one to take care of my health but me. No one else to set the priorities, no one else to triage when very important things pop up that need to be done.

It's up to me.

It's up to you.

None of it matters without our health and quality of life. Money can't buy it. Only your own hard work and never giving up.

Money can't buy health. It can't even buy time! Even people I know with a housekeeper don't seem to ever have enough time. They often still don't get in enough exercise or manage their calories as well as nutrients properly.

One thing I've found over all the various seasons of life, when you think you will finally have time to take care of yourself is that your time will fill up with more things. When whatever is done which you think will give you more time, it fills up with new things. Life keeps throwing things at you.

It's just a different flavor of stress or things that need to get done.

So, housekeeper or not, the time to be aware of what you put in your body and what exercise you get is RIGHT NOW.

Time for me to go get to work!