As I’ve said before, I always think about “balance” as a verb, not a noun.

I’m making some adjustments so that I can better balance every day. These are kind of crazy times. I’ll revisit in a month or so, to see where I’m at, to see where the world is at.

Food

I’ve been trying to do three things revolving around food: stay in ketosis, have a compressed eating window, and lose weight.

Right now, that feels like too much. It’s starting to make me crazy.

I will stay in ketosis. That’s my primary concern. Staying in ketosis makes me feel better. Period.

I was trying to have a compressed eating window, that is, to stop eating four hours before I went to sleep, so at 6 PM, then not consuming any calories until noon the next day.

I have found that difficult to maintain. 6 PM to 10 AM is easier most days.

However, I’m going to be leaning into the “intermittent” part of intermittent fasting. For example, last night I really wanted tea and chocolate while I was reading in the evening. It wasn’t a lot of calories, it was still calories. So on nights like last night, I get my tea and chocolate. Even if it was outside of the compressed eating window.

I generally do have at least 14 hours a day when I’m not eating. That is just going to have to be good enough some days.

I am not going to focus on losing weight anymore. I feel stressed about what’s happening in the world. The stress isn’t major, but it’s ongoing and always there. For me, this constant level of stress makes it difficult for me to lose weight. Instead, I’m focusing on maintaining the weight that I have.

Again I will revisit this in a month and make adjustments. For now, this is where I’m at regarding food.

Writing

I’m still focused on the writing. My goal is always to get 3000 words per day. I am also focused on, “My Words First.” This means being more vigilant about not letting the world in until after I’ve finished writing for the day.

My writing is my sacred place. My release. My joy. I write first. Then I look at the world.

Walking

Because the gym is closed, my primary focus is on walking for exercise. (I still do yoga every morning, as well as Tai Chi every evening.) In general, I’m walking 10K steps four days a week, and doing more than 7K on the other days. My daily average is 9K. I figure that’s good enough for right now.

Meditating

I’ve been meditating for 2-5 minutes every might. That helps.

However, sitting in the evenings and breathing deeply helps more. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. I could be reading, editing, or even playing a game on my phone. I sleep better when I spend just a little bit of time focused on my breath at night.

It has also brought my resting heart rate down significantly. So just breathing, not full on meditating, is what I need to keep my focus on.

News

I am limiting myself on news these days. I have to for my own sanity. What that means is that I get to go to the CDC site once a day to get an update on reported cases. (I am well aware that these numbers are horrifically inaccurate. However, it’s an easy site to navigate and it gives me at least some sort of snapshot.)

I generally do this during one of my breaks in the morning, while writing. As long as it doesn’t take me too much out of the writing space, I’ll keep doing it then. If I find it isn’t working, I’ll change and only do it after I’ve finished writing for the morning.

During lunch, I was reading books. Now, I get to spend that time reading articles about what’s going on.

Once lunch is over, I’m done for the day. I may or may not look at the news later in the evening, such as if I see a particularly interesting article shared on Facebook. But I am trying to limit myself. Otherwise, there’s a lot more stress.

So this is what I’m doing to try to balance these days. What are you doing these days to balance your lives?