Energy Synergy: The Goldilocks Theory

I've decided to theorize this week, after some intense reading on the technical medical sciencey topic of energy systems in the body. Go ahead, google it if you like. You'll see. A host of charts and formulas, definitions with one familiar word (aerobic--hey I know that one!) out of one hundred, plus letters. ATP, LA, CP, MHR and more. I shouldn't judge. You might find it fascinating.

I do not, so I've decided to Pick One Thing without picking it apart this week. Because that kind of thing can drain you.

Your Energy: What Really Matters

What really matters (according to me and my theory) is that you have enough energy to lead an active life at a pace that fulfills you, a frequency that sustains you and a level that inspires you. Whether you are built for endurance or speed, intensity or tranquility, power or flow, I want you have the right balance of fuel-burning and healthy reserves in your life.

Sometimes it's a fine thing to work till your bones ache and then settle into a warm bed and sleep sleep sleep, knowing you done good and it was worth it. But to work like that without the "it was worth it" feeling later on, can be a different, not so good thing after all. My theory involves me telling you, as you compare the amount of energy you put into any of your activities: "It's what you get out of it that counts."

How do you feel, after all? Ready for more again today, or preparing to build up for more someday? Are you there and all set when people need you...are you there when YOU need you? What if you had to run for your life today? Did you save some juice, just in case?

Sometimes it's a fine thing to rest--sloth, even--till your bones ache in another way. A heavy way. Maybe then you pop up in a flash and get out in that fresh air and plant a tree, walk to church, sweat up a storm, howl at the moon. It's especially good if what you get out of it is something like, "Rest, good. Action, good. Balance, best."

Things have to fit. Fit your needs, fit your timing, fit your body.

Sometimes it's a horrible thing if you want to move more but don't trust yourself enough to meet your own desires. Sometimes you might try to find energy but it's. Just. Not. There.

Or so you think. See, it's somewhere, even when you can't find it. Is it in the foods you didn't eat or the water you didn't drink? Is it in the days you didn't take a break when you needed it or is it in the cushion of the couch where you left your backside for far too many wasted hours?

Did your boss or your baby steal some away, and now you need some alone time to fill yourself back up? Does the doctor have it but you don't have the time to go? Did you just not recognize it, or not know where to look?

Energy systems in your body have a lot to do with what goes in and what gets done with it. The proper nutrition combined with the right activity level (for you, personally) is the simplest way to find what's really important (according to me): wellness. Being well pretty much demands that you start here, with doing whatever works to support you in feeling good and having fun.

Not everyone wants to or needs to run a marathon or have seven children or do twenty push-ups or ski on one foot. Not everyone (much to my disappointment) wants to learn Pilates or jump around to Latin music. But EVERYONE, needs to do something, every day, that contributes to the proper mechanics of their energy systems, IF they want to be at their best.

One chair is too big, one chair is too small, but the one in the middle is juuuuusssst right.

Food (not too much, not too little)
Exercise (not too long, not too short)
Activity & Rest (not too crazy, not too lazy)
Oxygen (just get plenty, because it mixes with all the above and makes you whole in a way that is what really, really matters, leading us to....)

Synergy. Your wholeness is more than a sum of your efforts, and you move through life with grace and assuredness. That's how we will know when you are an energy systems rock star. You will be all like, "What? I was just resting after a nice meal, and now I have enough energy to go for a fast run," when the bears come home.