The first week goes by and it's really hard to get up in the mornings but at the end of the day you're glad you did it--after all, you're one day closer to X pounds! You hit week two and three just as strong and you are really proud of yourself for sticking to a plan for once. But then week four creeps up, and you're looking in the mirror and looking at your clothes and looking at the scale and thinking "why am I doing this? I'm trying SO hard and I have NOTHING to show for it!" You keep going into weeks 4, 5 and 6, but you're getting continuously more down on yourself. You start to stress about what you're eating, you start thinking that the goals you've set aren't enough. Some days it feels like it's actually YOU that's not enough. And as X pounds seems further and further away, and your stress level rises, suddenly you're feeling overwhelmed at work and there aren't enough hours in the day. You're tired. And by week 7 your workouts slip to just cardio days, and somewhere in-between frustrated and 2 months, you revert to where you were before you even started.
Change a number, length of time, or exercise here and there and you basically have the story behind every workout I have ever attempted. I have always aspired to living a healthy lifestyle, but felt like I failed every time. And then I had this revelation that changed everything.
I wanted to live a healthy lifestyle but what I realized late this summer is that for years and years and years what I was actually doing was trying to attain some number on a scale or a certain look in the mirror. The moment I changed my perspective, everything clicked. One big change for me was realizing that working out 4-5 days a week completely changed my mental health. I won't go into it now--that's a story for a different time--but I started to truly recognize exercise as a tool for being healthy rather than a tool for being skinny. Suddenly, every workout was a success.
I mean, think about it. If you're working out to "get skinny", when you're done with your workout it's really easy to fall into the mindset of failure and tell yourself (even though it's not true!) "This isn't working because I'm not skinny yet!" But if you think of working out as a tool for being healthy, then EVERY DAY YOU ARE SUCCEEDING! When you finish a workout, you can say to yourself "I am healthier today because I got more movement than I would have if I didn't get a workout in." And you know what the BEST part of this thinking is? It works for ANY AMOUNT OF MOVEMENT!
You know those days where you just couldn't pull yourself out of bed and get to the gym? Or the day when you forgot your gym shoes at home and instead of running in to get them you ended up running in and sitting on the couch? If you're anything like me, you told yourself "Well, there's no point going now because I won't be able to do my full workout, and my full workout is what's going to get me into shape, so what's the point of doing it halfway? It's not going to get me looking (insert every critical thing you say to yourself here)". But when you're working out to be healthy, your inner dialog changes. And you think "Well, if I don't feel like running today I can walk and that will STILL be healthier than nothing at all."
Maybe all of you have come to this realization much sooner than I did. But I have to tell you, it is the single best thing that has happened to my exercise routine. For the first time since I can remember, I have maintained a workout program for more than a few months, I feel SO much better, I am much less critical of myself, and, incidentally, I am also toning up more than I ever have before and am noticing visible results that matter much less now than before.
It is so sad to me that we can be so down on ourselves about doing what's healthy for our minds, bodies and families. And I KNOW, I promise you, I KNOW, how that cycle of negative self-talk is so hard to break. I still have days when I feel negative. But those days are easier to ignore than they were before, because I feel so much more successful than I ever have--not because my workouts are any different, but because I'm giving myself credit for the benefit they give my life.
So CHEERS to recognizing the good we do for ourselves, friends. Have a great week.
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