Declaration: I Will Honor My Body’s Need for Balance

Hello, tender friends!

I did it again. I made the same mistake. The same stupid mistake I’ve made for years.

I’ve done well the past two weeks at balancing my work with caring for Jacob and Anthony. Working a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays? It’s honestly not a problem when I’m working on the job I love. It even rejuvenates me to have an hour or two to do work on the weekends. It’s a balance to the intensity of being a wife and mother and homeschooling through the weekends.

But I haven’t fared so well in maintaining balance in terms of physical exercise.

Let’s go back in time to lacrosse season, my sophomore year of high school. I was enjoying the smell of fresh-cut grass while running my warm up before starting drills. The terrain was rocky and full of weird holes from winter thawing. I ran next to my friend, Taryn, and my ankle twisted in one of the holes.

“Wow!” she said as I recovered. “You didn’t even really stop when you twisted your ankle. I’m impressed that you’re still going.”

“I don’t want to break my pace,” I huffed as cold air streamed in and out of my lungs.

I hated breaking a pace then, andI still hate it now. A steady pace, and daily workouts, are part of my productivity quota, and missing my quota makes me anxious.

Before starting my tutoring job, I planned how to meet my daily quota while accommodating my new work schedule. I decided to go into my first day with muscles as fatigued as possible since I wouldn’t have time for a “real” workout that day. I decided to squeeze four body pump classes into one week, alternated with other workouts.

Why, Stacey, why?

I could feel how tight my muscles were. I knew they needed a no-impact workout that would stretch them out the day of the fourth class.

You know how this story ends. With muscles as fatigued as possible, I tweaked my knee during my fourth body pump class of the week. The same knee I have tweaked countless times. The stupidest thing is that I could have taken a yoga class at the same time as the class in which I hurt myself.

As a result, I had to take a full week off of my beloved body pump class. Then, when I finally went back, I squatted super light weight and it still hurt my knee a little.

I’m making this declaration publicly here on my blog because you’re more likely to follow through with a public declaration: I will honor my body by giving it the balance it needs. I won’t weight train the same muscle group with heavy weights two days in a row. When my body is screaming for yoga, I won’t chase the pump. I will slow down and say, “Hey body, I hear you asking for yoga. I’m going to listen to you because you’re the boss.”

I’m going to stop bossing my body around. If you know me, you know where that’s gotten me in the past.

Your body is the most marvelous machine you’ll ever own, but machines need maintenance. And rest is part of the way God intends for us to maintain our bodies, minds and spirits.

Oh, and how’s this for spiritual synergy? As I was planning this post in church yesterday, Anthony leaned over and said, “You know, I really feel like God is telling us to observe the Sabbath. We need to rest more on the Sabbath instead of running around. We need to be intentional about rest.”

Point taken, Yahweh. I’ll do better next time.

Ok, that’s all for today, tender friends! Thank you for stopping by, and thank you for sharing!

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