50% Is Enough

*I'm currently on my monthly 7-day digital detox (First 7 days of every month). This was written and scheduled before I went offline ❤️

These past two weeks have been less than ideal.

Two weeks ago the Sandy fire started right near our house in Simi Valley and we had an emergency evacuation alert on our phones. We brought my mother in law to her sister’s place because Ivy and I were headed to Las Vegas to go house hunting. Six days later the chemical tank leak in Garden Grove was threatening to explode which was near where we dropped off my mother in law, so we had to pick her up to evacuate. Thankfully we could go back home because the Sandy fire was contained and the house was safe.

House hunting in Las Vegas was its own kind of stressful. Trying to find the best spot for this next chapter of our life which I’m calling “slowing down and tax optimization.” If you live in California you know how much tax season hurts. Coming from Canada this was a big no go for me. Enough venting about taxes.

I wanted to share all of this because even through that chaos, Ivy and I still got three strength training sessions in that week. Some of those workouts weren’t great. They had to be moved around a few times. But we still got them done because I know consistency compounds. The nutrition side wasn’t ideal either. The Airbnb we rented didn’t have many cooking tools so we ate out more than we normally do, had a lot of protein smoothies to compensate and managed to stay within our daily intake about 90% of the time. The quality wasn’t always the best but all we could do was the best with what we had.

It’s important to note that we knew this wasn’t our normal life. This was a high alert week where I was constantly thinking about whether we’d have to drive back because of the fires or the chemical leak.

I wasn’t perfect. I ate food that wasn’t the best for me. I waited until the last minute to get some workouts in. I watched TV until midnight because I couldn’t sleep from the stress. I drank more caffeine than I normally do which made me more anxious and more impulsive. I had a few moments where I shed some tears because of other things going on on top of everything I just described.

Life isn’t perfect. Life is messy. Life comes in waves and you have to stay adaptable.

I could have easily eaten my emotions, skipped my workouts because we were busy and gone down a less than healthy path that week. I could have put on 5 to 10 lbs, felt bloated, felt awful, felt like I had to “start over” when I came back home. But I didn’t. I wasn’t perfect but I wasn’t reckless either. I simply tried to make the best decision possible with what I had and accepted when I made a less than ideal choice. That’s all I could do.

By the time you’re reading this, Ivy and I will be packing our house and making the drive to Las Vegas for the next chapter of our life. And for anyone wondering, we are living far from the Strip. There are many beautiful residential neighborhoods out there. I’m excited for this next chapter. More peace, more stability and more space to be creative, write, record and have more impact.

I hope you can take something from this. Even someone who has been working out for 20 years, who has owned a fitness company for over 6 years, has never been perfect on this journey. Because perfection is not what’s required. What’s required is to be adaptable, to focus on consistency over perfection because it does compound, and to do the best with what you have.

You have 50% for that day, give 100% of that 50%. That’s all you need.

I appreciate you for reading.