I know my blog has turned into a photo blog lately. Too bad! (Just kidding). So today I’ll try to make my post fit my photos of thunderclouds and still be on topic.
We all hit rough patches and obstacles to our diet and fitness goals. Illness, injury, over-indulgences, long hiatuses from workouts and eating right, family and friends who sabotage, emotional turmoil, personal and career stress, and even happy events can derail the most diligent practitioner in pursuit of fitness, weight loss, muscle gain, nutrition and diet goals.
These two rocket scientists came out of a dry storage shed to investigate what I was doing out in the downpour, immediately got soaked, and then looked down trodden.
The storms of life are inevitable, folks. You can run for cover but you’re going to get wet once in awhile. You can pull a “poor me” pitiful wet puppy act or you can buck up, weather the storm, and after it passes get back in the proverbial saddle. (I must have mixed a few metaphors in there somewhere).
Here are my top ten tips for dealing with fitness and diet trip ups, minor failures, and all out ‘pinned to the mat and down for the count’ wrestling matches between your goals and your present reality:
1. Get over it! We all fail. Nobody has ever succeeded in a linear fashion. You are not a failure or doomed to your current body just because you hit the wall. Get up when you’ve recovered (physically, emotionally, or circumstancially) and start again.
2. Forgive yourself. I separated this from number one for a reason. I read a lot of dieters’ blogs and quite a handful run roughshod over themselves, denounce their character, even question their intelligence, because of a setback. And they do this repeatedly. If someone else treated them with that level of abuse they’d run screaming. (I would hope!) After you get over the pitfalls you WILL experience, DO NOT make them a personal flaw, nor should you take it personally in any way. It’s called life and it has its challenges.
3. Learn from your mistakes, missteps, misadventures, and the experiences you’d rather have missed. There is always a lesson to learn or a different viewpoint to ponder. Maybe when you’ve recuperated from an injury or illness you can better appreciate what health you still enjoy. Perhaps you endured a poor performance in exercise or diet. Either can make you view past triumphs with more pride and resolve to do better.
4. Make a new plan. Your new plan can include your current lapsed or stalled program. Just plan to start again and succeed (even if you face new adversities). I recently stalled out on my workouts and had to change my diet. I had to restrict healthy vegetables and fruits while adding back white potatoes due to a colitis flare. And my weight has inched up to 122 pounds and 22 percent body fat.
So what? I’m feeling better (colitis pain has lessened) and I know I can start over despite any ground I might have lost. I'm plotting my comeback as we speak. So can you. I’m excited as I plan my next phase and you should be happy that you can start again too.
5. Start again. Even if you have to take baby steps, jump back in with both feet. Make a new start. Every workout and every balanced meal counts. Exercise and eating right are cumilative. It’s not perfection that gets you to your goals. It’s doing right most of the time, having perseverance in the face of hardship, being persistent when the road is long and full of detours, embracing the value of down time when you must take time off, and seeking balance. When you need to swing the pendulum in the other direction realize it takes time and energy to get momentum again. Expect to start back at square one. More than once and maybe often.
6. Have patience. It takes time and diligence to reach your goals no matter what they are or how small or grand. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a fit body. If you don’t have patience you’d better be able to hold on for the short term. Live one day at a time. Repeat.
7. Try something new and different. Studies show variety in foods eaten, a varied calorie intake, macronutrient manipulation – particularly in carbohydrates – and including totally different workouts into your fitness plan can fast track your results and budge you off a plateau. Take an outdoor sports vacation, learn to ski or raft, attend different fitness classes like karate, spinning, kick boxing, water aerobics. Try outdoor sports like hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. Try different exercise videos, machines, and programs. Make variety a part of you fitness pursuits. Keep things fresh and you’ll be more likely to stick to a fit lifestyle.
8. It’s a lifestyle. Embrace the fact that being healthy and fit is a lifestyle. There are no quick fixes. You can’t be healthy and stay in shape your whole life because you did a program once for six weeks, or six months, or a few years. You get back what you invest. If you want to be fit and healthy for life you will have to put effort into your fitness and nutrition for life.
9. Learn your stuff while you embrace variety. The more you know the better you can cope with the storms. Educate yourself and keep trying new things. Read fitness magazines and books. Learn new cooking techniques. Hire a certified personal trainer and learn proper exercise form. Simply learning the pros and cons of different approaches of nutrition including low calorie versus low fat versus low carbohydrate and how they work can be an eye opener. Question everything and find what works best for you. If you’re presently off-program for whatever reason, reading, learning and planning your next move can be very motivating.
10. Most importantly, enjoy the journey. If you make your journey to better health and fitness a drudgery, or resent the fact you can’t get fit in 30 days, or have unrealistic expectations (lose 50 pounds by summer, get a six pack without dieting, look like a fitness model despite your personal genetics), you will quit and you will fail. Find activities and recipes you enjoy. Don’t stress out over obstacles or stalls. Roll with the punches. This goes hand in hand with number eight. If you cannot stand what you’re doing or eating, you can’t embrace it as a lifestyle.
On a Personal Note:
I got up off the couch last night and said oww. Jerry repeated it back “Owww!”
I said, “Hey, I hate to break it to you, but my old lover returned. I’m having an affair with Arthur again. Arthur Ritis. He always come into town with the rain. And I’m still seeing his brother Cole. Cole Itis.”
While we talked I mixed a drink. I forgot whether I added vodka and asked “Did I?” Jerry laughed.
I said, “Oh yeah, I’m still courting Al too! Al Zeimers.” Funny how Jerry’s the one who can’t remember where he left his shoes. Or keys. Or where the olive oil is. Or…well you get my point.
