I’m not sure if this is a sign of getting older, but some days I just feel like I am moving at half my regular speed. I’ll yawn, I’ll drag my feet, and worst of all – my brain just isn’t switched on. I can’t place my finger on it – my smartwatch assures me the previous night’s quality of sleep was perfect, my diet doesn’t change (lots of fruit, veg and complex grains) and I’m getting my workouts in (running and CrossFit). So why does my body just sometimes shut down on me?
I blame the modern life.
There are so many things to always have at the front of our minds, especially if you’re trying to prioritise more than a couple of things in your life. For me, study, work and health are the three things that I constantly juggle, and I sometimes come up drained – which defeats the point of trying to improve my health! I was sold this idea that if my nutrition was dialled in and I was getting good HIIT and strength training, then I would reap the rewards of a more energised body, able to face each day with gusto. But here’s the deal: Getting up at 6am to work out, making sure I eat a good cooked breakfast before uni, getting in there, attending meetings, completing readings, teaching undergrad labs with a sunshiney demeanour, making sure to eat every two hours, coming home, getting through my workload as a magazine staff writer, cooking a healthy dinner, and having 1-2 hours of downtime before ensuring a full 7-9 hours of sleep, that shit is a fucking routine to keep up! Add that to the intense party life on the weekends (because I could never say no to the boogie!), then you have a recipe for a Very Busy Person.
We have been told we can Have It All, but sometimes that feels pretty damn impossible. I try to remind myself that uni isn’t forever, and in the future I will just have the one job that I do 40 hours a week with only downtime in between, but even the people around me that have that seem to run into lethargy quite often. Is it possible that the modern life is too taxing? Who knows? We get to sleep when we’re dead though, right?!
Love, Akika xoxoxooxoxox