Lower my expectations…. WAIT??! WHAT?!!

Yep!  That’s what he said… you should lower your expectations.  Nobody is like that all the time.

Well, let me just get this out of the way right up front – I call BULLSH!T.

I want what I want and I will figure out how to have it too.  Talk about a little thing getting a girl all fired up.

So now I’m on a mission!  …to generate energy.

Rewinding a bit… I went in to the doctor due to a small-chronic-lack-of-energy issue I’ve been dealing with for about a year (with a few other symptoms I won’t mention here).  After sharing my year-long plight along with the lifestyle adjustments I’ve made in an attempt to correct the issue myself, I explained that I’d like to have my iron and thyroid levels tested… to which he agrees to test ONLY after telling me I should lower my expectations of what an appropriate energy level should be.

Now, I’d like to believe that I’m a fairly rational person but this just floored me because what I really heard my doctor tell me was that it’s OK and actually impossible to live my life to what I would define as my fullest!

• I have some big training goals.  You’re telling me I should only have energy for that? Or maybe I shouldn’t train as hard?
• Or is it that I should have just enough energy for the people I want to serve and support?
• Or perhaps only enough energy for my family and friends?

I DON’T THINK SO!

Now I fully understand that I can’t do it all… at once.  However, I do want to have more then enough energy to live each day creating, training, serving others and spending time with those I love most.  I have no desire to feel wiped out when I’m at home and using all my energy when I’m with others either.  Is that really so much to ask?!!

Here’s my conclusion:

It’s been 3 years since I decided to train for the Colorado Tough Mudder.  I did it for some motivation – something that would get my butt to the gym and inspire me to eat a bit better.  It worked.  Then I trained for the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon.  That worked too.  I lost weight and was feeling pretty darn good.  People noticed.

Then I settled in.  Started believing the naysayers when they told me, “Jenn, you have nothing more to lose.” Or,  “Where would you lose it?”  I didn’t feel bad at this point.  In fact, I felt pretty good.  I had lost 20 pounds and kept it off for well over a year.

Then in January 2014, I was in a car accident and had to batten down the hatches in an effort to recover from the mental and physical damage it had caused.  I took a deeper review of my eating habits (they weren’t bad… but they weren’t great), adjusted my sleep patterns, tweaked my workout routines, my water intake, modifying my supplement dosages, even spending time working on my internal dialogue.  Overall, it worked.  I lost an additional 10 pounds and went from needing a 2 hour nap to just a 30-60 minute nap most days.  That was all accomplished by doing the things that would honor and support my bodies machinery, it’s mechanisms and processes.

Now that I had done my due diligence, it was time to see the doctor.  His first question, why did I wait so long?  To which I answered, “I believe each of us has a personal responsibility to do the things we can do before asking to fix the things that aren’t actually broken.”  That took time.

Well, the good news is that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with me!  Yay!  Funny enough though, I wanted the quick fix – to have something wrong that a simple iron or thyroid pill would fix.  Crazy right?!  But I had just gone through making small adjustments which had yielded awesome results and I had a routine.  I wasn’t ready for change.   What I also know is that a pill is never going to really FIX anything and if something was wrong, something could have been REALLY wrong.

The exciting news is that I’ve get to go back to the drawing board a bit.  All of the things I did (and still do) to serve and honor my body means that my body is loving me back by performing at a super high level of operation.

So, now it’s my turn to seek out expert advice from those who have achieved what I now want – performance and sustained energy.

Create a plan:  

1. who can I talk too?
2. what are possible food (including timing of food intake) modifications I could make?
3. what other adjustments to my day would make sense (maybe working out in the afternoon when energy levels dip, this will allow me to create in the morning with vitality and focus)?

To wrap this up:

• If you want something, seek out someone who has achieved it!
• If you’re trying to trick your body with the quick fixes – something to keep you awake in the afternoon, to lose fat or get those bowels moving – take another look and find out how you can honor your body with healthy support first.  (Tricks work but only for so long and often times it comes with plenty of retaliation)
• Doctor’s are great when you walk in with the understanding that it’s still YOUR responsibility to seek out the answers and find solutions.  They are only the support team.

Friends – I love living my life to the fullest and I hope you do too!  Don’t settle for mediocre, fine or just-OK.  And definitely don’t let anyone tell you can’t do something or you should lower your expectations!  YOU are in the driver seat and YOU get to choose how you live your life to the fullest.

The #FitBodyFatLife Nation is about how YOU define living life to the fullest.

Jenn Abbenhaus

303-514-4940 | #FitBodyFatLife