How are your mental energy levels?

2^nd February 2018

Embrace the pace of your own journey.

Another fantastic day yesterday, a very long one as we’re cooking in meetings and the tidying up afterwards takes longer but the last one was so funny it was worth not getting him till half 8.  I can’t wait to have a spare couple of hours to really experiment with some of the ideas that have been formed throughout the week and cook something actually delicious not just edible!

I’d had enough of beans and pulses for one week when I got home lunchtime, so made me an epic chicken breast cheeseburger, used one plain chicken and one chicken donor, added slice of cheese, cucumber, gherkins, tomato, lettuce and made a sauce with diced cucumber, 0% natural yogurt and mint sauce, it was so good.

I had a chat with a member yesterday and she asked me “how is that we just click and we’re back in the zone and on track, what happens?”, we both agreed we didn’t have that answer but we agreed that when we’re not on track sometimes it’s down to a lack of mental energy. What does that mean?  It hit home with me I have to say, because that’s how I feel at the moment, I just don’t have the mental energy to fully focus on ‘another’ thing.  I’m not eating unhealthily you can see that from my posts, but I’m not keeping a proper track on it all.

Right ‘mental energy’, let’s think about that for a moment, ignoring the science of energy (it’s too early in the morning for that), we all know we need energy, think of yourself like a battery, throughout the day you use up that physical and mental energy, so how do we recharge?

Physical energy is recharged with exercise, sleep and a balanced diet, but mental energy well that’s slightly different, we recharge that with love, praise, support, understanding and taking time out to do the things you enjoy, getting some sunshine and fresh air, all those things will reboot you.

Sadly these days, we’re all so damn busy we tend to continually empty our mental energy and not refill.  We’re emotional being and emotions play a part in that mental energy too, positive emotions given to another person increase the positive mental energy of both – how often have you stayed to a weight watcher meeting and come away buzzing – that’s refuelling your positive emotions and boosting your mental energy.  What about that time you didn’t get the result you wanted and instead of staying for the boost you left all negative and you shared all those negative feeling and thoughts with anyone who would listen (without getting any positive feedback to make you feel better), that would’ve depleted your positive mental energy and added to the other peoples negative mental energy – we’re all trying to get rid of our negative energy!

So what can we do, well energy rise if we don’t stress, energy depletes from emotional stress, this stress causes our energy to drain.  Tension is caused by so many different things, you’d be surprised what can cause us tension, even deciding whether to have that chippy tea when we really want to lose a few pounds (that was me last night, after eight when I finished, I so wanted to stop at the chippy, how I drove home and made an egg sarnie I do not know!

There’s so many instances where we experience a drain on our mental energy, yours will differ from mine, it depends on your coping abilities and they will fluctuate too most likely. 

Don’t enjoy what you’re doing – energy drains.

Enjoy what you’re doing – recharge your batteries.

It’s that simple!

We can’t get rid of all the not so good stuff in our lives (if only) but we can learn to cope with them and balance them out with the good stuff, getting that balance and the feel good feeling.

What happens is when we’re stressed, have lots to do, have loads of responsibilities we tend to forget about the feel good stuff because we don’t have time and that’s when we don’t have the mental energy to make the right food choices and stay on track.

When life’s good, weight loss is easy.

When life’s not so good, weight loss is hard.

Let’s try to put some good back in our lives, find that balance, stop believing the stories we tell ourselves like ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘I don’t have a choice’, then there’s ‘It’s not the right time’, or maybe you think ‘I need to be happier’ then there’s the good old ‘Life wasn’t supposed to be like this!’ and finally, ‘I’ll do it when I feel motivated’. 

Come on I know I need to sort my mental energy out, I’ve been working on it, I’m taking time out for me, to do something I enjoy.  Now I need to make time to move a little more, eat a little better, drink more water and less wine and balance my physical and emotional energy.

What about you BeYOUtiful – are you balanced?

This photo is me about half hour before my phsyical and mental energy completely depleted!