How I Pulled Myself Out of a Rut

Dress: Sail to Sable Sleeveless Oxford Shirting Dress // Sweater: Navy Cable Knit Sweater (Love this cable knit sweater under $50 from L.L. Bean) // Shoes: Nike Sneakers // Bag: Thrift Shop Find // Umbrella: Catherine Malandrino (Available on Amazon Prime – WOOHOO!!)

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately. There’ve been a few false starts to get back into blogging. I went back and forth about just throwing in the towel altogether. But I knew in my heart of hearts that that wasn’t what I wanted at all.

So we’re about to get real. Really real.

The last couple of years have been a roller coaster for me. I was able to break out of a professional rut and land in an amazing job that I love. When I was in my professional rut, I didn’t feel truly like myself for awhile. I felt stuck and being perfectly honest I turned to food for comfort. While I was going to barre and spin classes, I was turning right around and eating chips and salsa for dinner. Not ideal. I was sabotaging myself with junk food and mindlessly snacking. I stopped weighing myself altogether and gained 30 pounds. There were days I had to scramble to find something to wear to work because my clothes either didn’t fit or they didn’t fit right. It was frankly a demoralizing way to start the day.

Which is why my outfit posts became few and far between. It was hard enough going through the morning struggle to find something to wear. Seeing photos of myself was a dose of reality I wasn’t ready for. I wasn’t comfortable in my skin at all. That was a feeling I haven’t felt since high school.

And any time I tried to start writing a blog post, the words felt forced and stiff and just not me. I had a whole month’s worth of blog post ideas and brainstorms in my phone’s Notes. I knew it was time to make a change. For both my physical and mental health.

So here’s what I did to pull myself out of a rut.

Pulling Myself Out of a Rut:

Committed myself to exercise and diet

It was bananas that I was paying to go to a workout class and then completely undo that hard work with junk food. I knew that deep down but it took awhile for my brain to catch up to that little bit of reason.

Getting out of work at 6 isn’t always a reality for me and I haaaated getting charged for late cancelling or not being able to make it. I started scheduling my workouts for before work instead of after it. That way I could cross it off my to-do list. But more importantly, it put the onus on me to make the class and get my workout in.

I’ve also been doing the keto diet. Before, I used to avoid diets and focused on balancing out what I ate. If I splurged one meal, I made sure to balance a nutritious meal next. But because of my stress and rut, my eating habits were completely out of whack and I had to start back from square one. I had family members & friends who had had success with keto so I did my research and started adapting my diet. I don’t want to get into specifics since I’m not a registered dietician or health professional. But the big thing that keto has helped me with is getting out of the mindset of snacking or eating just because I can.

Re-arranged my nightly routine

With moving my workouts to the morning, I had to change up my nightly routine. I’m a night owl and just naturally stay up late. So I had to make myself want to climb into bed at a reasonable time and turn the lights off. I checked off two goals by making this my time to read. I aim to read every night for at least 30 minutes before hitting the lights. It cuts down on my screen time before bed and has helped me get back into the habit of reading, which was something I really missed. Here are some of the books currently piled up next to my bed:

Be kind to yourself

This has been a journey. I’ve had setbacks. I’ve lost weight only to go off track and gain it right back. But the important thing is to remind yourself you’re only human. And as my favorite literary heroine, Anne of Green Gables, says, “Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it.” I figured out what self-care looks like for me. For me, it’s a Sephora face mask, a good book, listening to a podcast on a walk, and cute puppy videos on Youtube. Hitting reset to remind yourself to keep going.

If you’re still reading, thanks for listening. I spent this weekend creating and writing content for the coming weeks to get a jump start. I’m excited to be back here on the blog and on the way to feeling like myself again!