What A Balanced Life Means To Joy McCarthy

Today kicks off a week of guest posts as I’ll be enjoying some R&R in the sun and attempting to “disconnect” to take care of my mind and body. As hard as it is to take time off, it’s important that I practice what I preach. I’ll be popping in on Facebook & Twitter to say hello, but here on the blog I’m leaving it to a great line up of guest post for you to enjoy while I’m away.

This first post by the lovely and talented Joy McCarthy of Joyous Health is absolutely perfect for The Balanced Life. Her story is a great reminder to us all. Take it away Joy…

What does a balanced life mean to me?

If you had asked me this question three to four years ago, I would tell you I have no clue what a balanced life means! In fact, I was probably one of the most unbalanced people I know. I was running a business doing in-home personal training, studying holistic nutrition, writing three health articles a week for Aol Canada plus managing my own blog and doing speaking engagements. Then I decided I would somehow find the time to train for a half marathon on top of squeezing in time to have a social life and spend time with my family. This is when my body decided to teach me a valuable lesson. It’s called BURN OUT.

As I was finishing the last kilometer of a half marathon (which was quite a feat for someone who never ran more than 10 km) all I could think about was how I would love to sleep for an entire week. I could just cancel all my appointments, skip school, close the blinds and turn off the world for seven days. Sounds like a good plan right?

When I finally got to the finish line I cried for two reasons:

1. Tears of joy; I was so happy I was done and could sleep for seven days.

2. Tears of tiredness; I was tired, tired, tired… with absolutely everything.

About a week after my half marathon I decided to go out for a light jog along my favourite running path, Toronto’s Harbourfront. I soon realized I was huffing and puffing after five minutes and my legs were cursing at me (despite my seven days of rest). I figured my body was just fighting something off, perhaps a cold. I tried again a few days later and then again. No deals. My body was angry with me and was not prepared to run, for what felt like an eternity.

This is when balance was forced into my life by default of not paying attention to my body. For the next six months to a year I was chronically tired, felt down in the dumps and inflamed. What I mean by “inflamed” is that despite being so healthy, I looked puffy all the time, I developed terrible PMS and I was not the picture of health even though I exercised and ate like a nutritionist.

Fast forward to today and my life is a completely different story. I feel like a totally renewed person but it took me about 14-16 months to heal from being burnt out.

Want to know what my secret to healing was?

Gaining balance and getting joy back into my life.

Here are a few of the steps I took to heal from BURN OUT:

1. I took the weekend off, indefinitely. I still do take weekends off to play 95% of the time, unless I’m teaching a workshop.

2. Yoga: I got bendy and stretchy on the mat and learned that exercise didn’t have to mean pounding the pavement five days a week. But yoga taught me more than I had ever imagined. It changed my life forever, for the better. Let’s just say it’s a better emotional detox than seeing a therapist (at least for me).

3. I changed my business strategy. I decided that as soon as I graduated from nutrition school I would stop personal training and focus 100% on growing Joyous Health, my nutrition and healthy lifestyle coaching business.

4. I ate nourishing food and took good supplements to rebuild and rejuvenate my body from the inside out.

5. I scheduled time for the friends I really wanted to see instead of stretching myself so thin meeting with everyone who invited me out because I couldn’t say no. So I said “no” more often!

Interestingly, people I haven’t seen in a long time always tell me I look like I lost a lot of weight and I look really happy/glowy. Truth is, I haven’t lost a single pound, but I am not tired, stressed out or inflamed.

Balance is always going to be balancing act. 😉 I do realize there will be times when I will need to remind myself to slow down. But I will always remember what it felt like for nearly a year and a half and this will keep me on track.

Joy McCarthy Holistic Nutritionist, owner of Joyous Health, coach, writer, speaker, co-founder of Eat Well Feel Well and holistic nutrition/lifestyle expert of Global TV’s the Morning Show.