Priorities and Weight Loss

September 13, 2010

Hello, my name is Emmie and I’m an overcommitmer.

What’s that? Someone who commits to many things without thinking about the effect on the priorities in life. I’ve struggled with this problem off and on my entire life. In high school, I was in the drama club, school plays, tennis team, swim team and anchor club (volunteering), among others. I’m a joiner. I like to help. I like to be involved.

Unless I feel like Fat Emmie.

Fat Emmie likes to be a hermit. Stay inside and watch a million shows on DVR while snacking and taking the occasional nap. When I’m Fat Emmie, fitness is not a priority.

Through the years as I’ve gone from Fat to Fit and back again, I cycle between being a complete slug and being totally over-committed. Balance is not my forte.

This week, I’m over-committed. I had a Junior League meeting tonight, and tomorrow I’m volunteering at the Lexington Trivia Bowl to benefit Parkinson’s Disease research (which my mom had). Wednesday I’m sitting on a panel for the MBA program I graduated from. All of this on top of a still-catching-up-from-vacation work schedule, a house that is a mess, articles I need to write, and of course, this lovely blog! Throw on my 5 day a week fitness routine and I’m averaging 5 hours of sleep per night on a body that screams for at least 8. Last night I got 4. This morning, I got up and got on the scale and it said I was UP 1.8 pounds. I rubbed my eyes again and looked down at my swollen legs and feet and cursed them. I then cursed myself for not drinking much water yesterday and instead replacing it with TONS of coffee. I couldn’t even get my contact lenses in this morning. I felt haggard, and still do.

Since this weeks commitments are already in pen, I am going to do my best to try to prioritize. Really all these things are important:

  • Sleep
  • Working Out
  • Work
  • Trivia Bowl volunteering, speaking, etc- commitments I’ve made

So this week, I’ve decided the following aren’t as important:

  • Tweeting
  • TV
  • The blog
  • Surfing the web
  • Cleaning my house

If my posts are a little more sparse this week, please forgive me. I’m on the verge of insanity. I’ve missed the VMA’s, the season finale of True Blood, and now I have to force myself to not pound away every night my random ramblings.

If I feel myself losing steam, I will simply blast “Whip my Hair” to help restore sanity.

See? I’m so tired I just admitted to loving this song.

I want to know though: How do you maintain a balance? How do you say “no”- or do you even have to say “no?” What are your priorities?

Tagged as: anxiety, priorities, sleep

  • Marcie T

    Balance is something I struggle with every single day. I’m an overcommitter to – in my personal life, at work, with family, etc. My family is in another state, so committing there requires traveling and hours of rebound exhaustion that accompany that; I can relate with the messy house and other things that aren’t getting taken care of right now. You’ll be fine though. Just hold tight to that priority listing and GET YOUR SLEEP regardless, ’cause if you’re anything like me, you need that in order to do the other things WELL.

  • Adrienne Muller

    hey emmie! i noticed that your full blog posts don’t pull into reader anymore, just a beginning clip. is that the way it is going to stay? it makes it hard for me to read that way so wanted to check..thanks!

    • http://www.skinnyemmie.com skinnyemmie

      Hi Adrienne- I just changed it back, so check and see if you can read the full posts again.

      • Adrienne Muller

        I can and i love it :) thanks for fixing so quickly!!! there are so many blogs i can’t read because of that set up, so i’m thankful i didn’t have to add yours to the list!

  • http://twitter.com/AmyMPolk AmyPolk

    I, too, struggle to maintain balance. Running a home-based business, having a full-time career, a family, and leading the youth group at my church often overloads me… I bought a bible study book call, “Finding Balance”, but I just haven’t prioritized in order to get to it yet… I have found that I have to set boundaries and cannot say yes to everything and there are just some things that don’t get done, like the house work…

  • Lilyfluffbottom

    I’m a procrastinator. I have all this homework that I haven’t done, because I don’t have a comfortable space at home to study in. So i go home, I take a load off, I eat, and if I’m lucky, I’ll stretch in front of the TV. Or do crunches. Sometimes both. But not very often.

    Work is a priority. School should be, but hasn’t been this semester. Volunteer side projects. Keeping my friends, my friends.

  • iBirgitta

    I recently realized that I automatically volunteer: I feel like random requests are directed to me personally, and that if my calendar is empty I cannot say no. I have a similar issue with answering questions I don’t want to answer: If I KNOW the answer, I give it, even if I don’t want to share (for example: do you know what the gender of your baby will be? YES, I know, and NO I won’t tell you, OOPS, already did (this by the way is SOOO in the past, am not pregnant, in case you were wondering)

    So, I had a big epiphany when I realized I don’t need to say yes or answer questions that are too private (from my perspective). Still is hard, but it helps.

    More practical, have you tried putting your prioritites in your calendar? If you are working out, that means you cannot do the panel, right (even though you feel flattered for being asked, people are smart!!). Even cleaning the house can be an activity, let’s be honest, it takes a lot of time, and you cannot do it if you are junior leaguing. But remember: a clean house is a sign of a wasted life :)

  • http://www.mizfitonline.com MizFit08

    They only way Ive found that works for me is to NEVER EVER EVER SAY YES in the moment.
    no matter how FAAAB something sounds I always say I NEED TO CHECK MY CALENDAR and let you know!
    it has changed my life.

    truly.

    Miz.

  • http://www.unveilingthediva.blogspot.com/ Stephnms

    I say no to TV and Twitter. When hubby is at work and the kids are at school all day, my TV stays off. Now if I could just say no to Facebook (ie Farmville and Petville). LOL I do have to say no to people who somehow think I have all the time in the world to do their dirty work for them since I’m an author who works from home. Grrrr. Drives me batty.

  • Chnoll

    I have started saying “no” to activities that happen after 8pm on a weeknight. For example, I was in several book clubs, but I was always rushing to get things in order at home just to get to the meeting. Sort of took all the fun out of it. I love to see my friends, but I’d rather do an occasional GNO on the weekend instead. I have also limited my 3 kids to one activity each, because it was too stressful to organize getting them to all their practices, etc.and I want them in bed by 8 so I can have some time with my husband. I still love to read, and my kids haven’t missed out by not being over-committed. Plus, I love having my weeknights free of obligations that kept me running all over!

  • Katdoesdiets

    You are absolutely forgiven if you’re not around…I am a reformed overcommitter. I think my top priority right now is not being overcommitted. I just can’t function when I am. I sometimes wonder what people think when I say, I’ll have to think about that and get back to you or, I’ll discuss that with hubby and get back to you, or simply, I can’t…then I realize who cares what they think because for my well being and for my family I simply cannot be ‘busy’. I have to remember the important things and ditch the rest when necessary. Sounds like you’ve got a good plan. Take care of YOU!

  • http://stylishheart.blogspot.com Abbie

    Glad to know everyone else has this problem! I’m literally dragging on the floor from the last couple of weeks. A slow build up of 5 hrs of sleep/night for the last few weeks is really catching up with me the last couple days. There’s just not enough hours in the day for someone who works full time and has law school evening classes :o ( But I’m determined to get 7 hours tonight!!

  • http://stylishheart.blogspot.com Abbie

    Glad to know everyone else has this problem! I’m literally dragging on the floor from the last couple of weeks. A slow build up of 5 hrs of sleep/night for the last few weeks is really catching up with me the last couple days. There’s just not enough hours in the day for someone who works full time and has law school evening classes :o ( But I’m determined to get 7 hours tonight!!

  • http://stylishheart.blogspot.com Abbie

    Glad to know everyone else has this problem! I’m literally dragging on the floor from the last couple of weeks. A slow build up of 5 hrs of sleep/night for the last few weeks is really catching up with me the last couple days. There’s just not enough hours in the day for someone who works full time and has law school evening classes :o ( But I’m determined to get 7 hours tonight!!

  • Fluffy girl

    1. LOVE that song. Any others you wanna share with me ;)
    2. I have been struggling with balance for the past 2 weeks.
    3.My priority is always to work out then everything else will fall in place

  • Karen

    I recently decided not to post as often. The whole balance and priorities thing. I wanted to be sure I still had time to be out here supporting other bloggers as well as not stressing about getting my own written.

  • http://twitter.com/Jessicasjaunt Jessica

    Just like you, balance is definitely not my forte. I got a promotion about 2 weeks ago and just yesterday my fiance was walking around in his swimsuit b/c he didn’t have any clean underwear. I figured it was faster/easier just to buy him more boxers rather than actually do the darn laundry.

    I feel your pain! Put sleep first and then everything else will eventually fall into place :)

  • http://twitter.com/Jessicasjaunt Jessica

    Just like you, balance is definitely not my forte. I got a promotion about 2 weeks ago and just yesterday my fiance was walking around in his swimsuit b/c he didn’t have any clean underwear. I figured it was faster/easier just to buy him more boxers rather than actually do the darn laundry.

    I feel your pain! Put sleep first and then everything else will eventually fall into place :)

  • Anonymous

    Another post you’ve written that I completely relate to!! I’ve had to let go of my blog and twitter a lot recently, too many things that I’ve committed or am obligated to. Normally this is where I’d let my health habits go, but I’m trying to stay focus. Like you I ended up writing a little post about letting go and realizing I have to be a little selfish and do what’s right for me! As always you’re always an inspiration while staying real and telling it like it is :-)

  • Anonymous

    Another post you’ve written that I completely relate to!! I’ve had to let go of my blog and twitter a lot recently, too many things that I’ve committed or am obligated to. Normally this is where I’d let my health habits go, but I’m trying to stay focus. Like you I ended up writing a little post about letting go and realizing I have to be a little selfish and do what’s right for me! As always you’re always an inspiration while staying real and telling it like it is :-)

  • http://thejourneytofit.wordpress.com/ Danielle

    I have a trouble keeping up with all my priorities and I don’t have that many. It’s something I really need to start working on or who knows what’ll happen to me when life *actually* gets busy.

    Right now, priorities are:
    - work
    - healthy eating
    - sleep (which I do quite well at!)
    - time with the bf
    - exercise (daily walks and gym 2-3x/week)
    - blogging
    - emailing/keeping in touch with family/friends back home
    - cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.

    I should have time for all of those, really, if I were to actually prioritize my life. Unfortunately, I tend to let things like “watching tv” or “reading perezhilton.com” take far more time than they deserve. Bah! It’s not that I have too many commitments, it’s just that I need to re-prioritize them.

  • http://twitter.com/LiveStartled kathleen wright

    Wise woman.

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