You’re Not Lazy. You’re Exhausted—and It’s Costing You Your Health

Do you wake up to an alarm after a night of restless sleep—your head swimming with everything you have to get done tomorrow and the conversations you’re dreading—only to launch straight into survival mode?

Hustle through a hectic morning.
Rush hour traffic.
Lengthy commute.

You finally get to work and spend the day putting out fires:
Pulled into meetings you didn’t schedule.
Handed a “quick” task your boss suddenly needs now.
Working through lunch, mindlessly shoving a muffin or bagel into your mouth from the cart because there’s “no time” for an actual meal.

Then somehow, you’re staying late. Again.
Tying up loose ends in the faint hope that the rest of the week will go more smoothly than today…
Except it never really does, does it?

A project ends, a trial date passes, a deadline is met—and instead of coming up for air, you’re already underwater on the next one.

You get home unsure what you’ll pull together for dinner. You help your kids with homework, get them fed, then drive them out to the middle of nowhere for practice. By the time you walk back through your front door, the idea of a workout feels absurd.

Where, in all of this, is the time—or energy—to move your body on purpose?

You feel trapped. And from inside that hurricane, it’s almost impossible to see options. You’re not breathing. You’re not thinking. You’re just running—like a hamster on a wheel.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth I need you to hear:

You are not responsible for every moment-to-moment demand that lands on your plate.
But you are responsible for the totality of your life: its pace, its expectations, and how you choose to live inside it.

There are always choices.
There are always options.

They are not about neglecting your job or your kids.
They are about doing things differently: lowering some bars, getting more help, and intentionally redefining what “a good job” and “a good mother/partner/colleague” really mean.

Because honestly—you cannot have it all.

Society has been trying to sell you that lie under the banner of “modern, empowered woman.”
Do more.
Do it all.
Do it perfectly.
Then watch her break under the weight of it.

That isn’t feminism.
It’s a polished form of female oppression.

And only you can stop cooperating with it.
Only you can redefine what success looks like in your own life.

That might mean:

• A momentous mindset shift.

• A different career path than you imagined.

• A new way of parenting that doesn’t centre on you martyring yourself.

As someone who hit rock bottom and learned—very painfully—that unsustainable perfection was killing me, I hate watching other women suffer the same fate, just more slowly and quietly.

Because here’s what I see:

This life, lived this way, is stealing your health.
Your physical health.
Your mental health.
Your emotional health.

Please don’t wait for your first health scare (and yes, I say “first” on purpose—because if nothing changes, there will be more). I’ve had a few. Each one rips away the illusion that “someday” you’ll get around to taking care of yourself. Suddenly, the things you swore were “non-negotiable” at work or at home become irrelevant. You see what actually matters with painful clarity.

Don’t wait for that moment.

Redefine your life on your own terms now.

And at the centre of that redefinition, I am asking—no, imploring—you to start taking your fitness seriously.

Because what almost no one is explaining clearly enough is this:

Your fitness is your health—present and future.
They are not separate categories.

You cannot be healthy if you are not, at a minimum, physically active and reasonably fit. I’m not talking about being an athlete. I’m talking about meeting basic minimums of movement and strength that protect your heart, your bones, your brain, your mood, and your independence.

Fitness is not an optional hobby for when life calms down.
It is not a vanity project.
It is the infrastructure that allows you to live this life you’re working so hard to maintain.

What is truly important—your health, your capacity, your future self—has to start taking up real space in your mind and your calendar. Not after this case, this project, this season, this school year. Now.

I know you are tired. I know you are overworked. I know you feel like you’re barely surviving the day.

That is exactly why your fitness cannot stay at the bottom of the list.
Because if you keep living in survival mode, your body will eventually opt out.

Start small. Start messy. Start imperfect.
But start.

Your future health is being built—or eroded—by the way you move (or don’t move) today.