When ‘Balance’ Means Buffet Tables and Deadlines

I didn’t publish a newsletter in October. In fact, I didn’t write at all. 

Partly because the word of the month was indulgence. I went on a cruise for my best friend’s wedding, travelled a lot for work, and ate my way across more buffets than I care to count. My plate was full, literally and metaphorically.

I also ran a grand total of 15k in October. About 10–15% of my normal mileage. Not because I couldn’t, but because I said yes to everything else. Yes to people, plans, work, and life. Lovely things, all of them, just too many at once. All in all, October was glorious and grueling. 

So when things finally slowed down, it didn’t feel like rest. It felt like rust. My body wanted to pause, but my mind didn’t know what to do with the stillness. There’s something oddly uncomfortable about taking a break when you’ve been running at full tilt for months.

So many of us are s**t at rest. Many wise friends tell me it takes a while to get there. To turn off your nervous system, to lower your heart rate. The problem being, when we finally get to that point it’s time to return to the chaos of everyday life. 

On Struggle and Permission

When I wrote in September about invisible labour, privilege, and what happens when the ‘help’ disappears, it sparked a lot of reflection, mine included. The responses reminded me how complicated it can feel to talk about struggle, especially as women.

We have this reflex to qualify it.
To say, ‘I know others have it worse’, ‘you should be grateful’, or ‘welcome to the real world’.
As if we need to earn the right to find something hard.

But two things can coexist. You can be grateful and tired. Privileged and stretched thin. Capable and quietly wondering how long you can keep all the plates spinning.

Leadership, motherhood, partnership, none of it comes with a hierarchy of who’s allowed to find it hard. 

Sometimes it’s enough just to name that truth and leave it at that.

Finding the Middle(ish)

So here we are in November, a new month, same chaos, but slightly more balance. I’ve already run more in three days than I did in all of October. I’ve meal-prepped like someone who actually cares about herself. I’m not counting calories or chasing numbers; I’m just trying to treat my body like it’s part of the team again. 

It’s funny how the reset doesn’t come from a grand revelation. At least for me it doesn’t.  It comes from small, ordinary decisions: getting enough sleep, making real food, closing the laptop before 9pm. Less about self-improvement, more about self-respect. Growth for me is about learning to be consistently average. I think this is why I find ‘easy runs’ the hardest.

The other pressing reason for this is that  November is OFF THE CHARTS busy. If I don’t rein it in then the slippery Christmas season slope will take hold and BOOM. I’ll be back to mistaking motion for progress

Something to Think About

If October was a lesson in overextension, November feels like a reminder to recalibrate. Not reinventing anything, just getting a grip on the pace before the year sprints away.

So maybe this month, ask yourself:
Where have you been saying yes to everything, even the good things, at the expense of yourself?
What would ‘enough’ look like right now, rather than ‘more’?
And what would it take to finish the year feeling steady, not spent?

Here’s to slower months, better meals, and the small rituals that remind us we’re human.

Warmly,
Claire