When you’ve missed a day at the gym, and then another day, and another, or when you ate something too indulgent for lunch, and then again at dinner, you are letting yourself believe that one slip-up ruins the whole day, or the whole week, and so why-not-just-keep-skipping-the-gym or -keep-eating-these-girl-scout-cookies. You are wrong.
The biggest mistake most of us make when embarking on a journey to a fitter, healthier self, is treating it like a diet. Strict and restricted, we MUST workout X times per week and we MUST eat ONLY this many calories and that kind of food. Worse still, we build zero room in for any variance to that routine, which makes us feel terrible when we want to enjoy a cupcake for our child’s birthday, a glass of wine at at girl’s night out, a slice of pizza at the company luncheon. And that is no way to live the rest of our lives. It turns into yo-yo dieting and with the ups and downs in our weight and fitness come ups and downs in our emotional health and view of our self-worth. Guess what? Nobody is perfect every day.
And, maybe it’s not true for all people, but some of us start to see a different person in the mirror, even if the version of ourselves that we see isn’t really reflected back to us.
I took a few days off from the gym this week and indulged a little too much in not cooking at home. I didn’t eat totally terrible foods, but my meal decisions were not always balanced. Yesterday after deciding to enjoy some dim sum on my day off, I felt incredibly bloated and out of shape. I was miserable, and when I looked in the mirror I did not see the same fitter person I saw when I was getting changed to work out at the gym today. In my misery, I convinced myself I was too tired to go to the gym, and I was unmotivated to make a healthy dinner. Treating your body badly, and letting it spiral out of control can do this to you.
So today, I made sure to pack a balanced day of snacks and lunch. I packed my gym bag and went to the gym after work. I powered through a workout even though I wasn’t feeling that great (didn’t eat enough before class for the intensity of the workout). And afterward, I made the choice to hit up Fresh ‘n’ Easy to pick up something quick and easy for dinner to ensure we ate right away and ate healthy. I’ve been on this new journey for almost two months now. It’s no longer a “resolution” but a habit. But I still have bad days, because I am human.
Maybe I will look like a celebrity one day, but I will get there by being honest with myself and by being realistic in my expectations. If I only work out 4 days in a week, if I eat a couple of meals that aren’t as healthy as they could be, the body fat I’ve eviscerated is NOT going to come back the next day. If I ate too many carbs or too much sodium and I am feeling bloated I’m going to remind myself that it’s temporary, and my results are real. Life is going to get in the way of my plans to be healthy, so I’m going to aim high, but not aim impossible.
So if you have fallen off your wagon, don’t get caught up in the wheels. Make a small change RIGHT NOW. Do 5 push ups. Eat a piece of fruit or a bowl of salad (no croutons and heavy dressing!). And tomorrow, make some time to get moving. You don’t have to go right back into beating yourself up in P90x, or go run the 6 miles you were running before you fell off, but you do have to get started somewhere.
Try my friend Jenn’s “The Jeff Harp Hates Me Workout”. One circuit should do it to get to started again. And modify as necessary (toe-knees-sky instead of burpees, regular instead of jumping squats and lunges).
Believe in yourself. I do. 🙂
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