As we enter into the month of March, many of us who created New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier, and exercise more regularly, are finding it more difficult to stick with these habits 100% of the time. Maybe by now you have fallen off the wagon once, or twice. It is perfectly okay to fall off the wagon, it will happen often, probably more than you would like, but don’t burn the wagon down. Just get back on and keep moving slow and steady towards your goal you have created for yourself.
In a world full of quick, and easy, we often forget that not everything worth working for happens overnight. It is the perseverance and strong will to keep pushing forward that will ultimately get us to our goal. Think about when you first learned to do anything, let’s use riding a bike as an example. Did you get it the first time you tried? Hell no, of course not. You crashed into a fence, a tree, the neighbor’s dog, but you got back up and tried again. You didn’t say screw this after falling once, I guess I wasn’t meant to ride this bike. So why do we do that now as adults? Eating healthy and training hard isn’t easy. If it were, we wouldn’t have the obesity epidemic we are dealing with currently. It’s gonna be tough, you are learning a new habit, just like riding a bike. Over time, the more you practice, the better you will get at it, until you do not really have to think about it (as much) and you are cruising down the street riding without holding onto the handles.
Maybe perhaps you are feeling discouraged because you are not seeing the results that you expected to. All the hard work and sacrifices you have made since the first of the year, and you barely see a noticeable difference. Often times, we expect drastic changes from our efforts, and often times we overlook the small changes that are happening inside us. You may not be 10 lbs. lighter like you had expected by now, but maybe you are sleeping better at night, have more energy throughout the day, have less back pain, or feel lighter on your feet. I want you to reevaluate where you started and where your journey has taken you thus far. I am sure you are a different person then you were when you started on your mission towards a healthier lifestyle.
I believe in the idea of do-overs, and clean slates. We are humans after all. We are going to screw up at some point, and that’s okay. What separates the strong from the weak, are the ones who get back up, forgive themselves and try again. This month I want you to practice the idea of clean slates. Whenever you do anything that deviates you from your ultimate fitness goals, acknowledge you screwed up and move on. The problem lies in not forgiving yourself, beating yourself up about it and quitting permanently. The longer you stay off the wagon, the harder it is to get motivated again.
Maybe you are someone who gets on the wagon, and falls off almost as quickly as when you got up, then you may need more accountability in your life. That’s when a coach is necessary. A coach will give you tasks that you can manage, hold you accountable, forgive you when you screw up, BUT the key is they make you get back on, and help keep you there for longer than you would do on your own. That is what delivers results. That is what will help you create a lifestyle change that you can stick to, just like riding a bike.
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Hi Andrea,
Great post. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting after last month and I found that this article really relates to my recent thoughts. My eating habits have been pretty on point for the most part. However, I was dreading my trip to visit my family in Texas for mid-February and Fresno at the end of February, because I knew traveling will always throw me off and plus I was heading towards southern food. My cousins in Texas are fat (yes I get to call them that) and we dined out almost every day for 5 days. I felt so disgusting afterwards and felt like they used me as an excuse for them to eat out at restaurants that they wanted to go to. I ate out more in February than like the past months combined altogether. So it’s been a shitty month for me.
What bothers me a lot is when I get judged by coworkers, friends, or family for my healthy lifestyle. They questioned how long had I become so clean, and when discussing where we should go eat, they would say “they’re healthy eaters” like it’s a bad thing. But if there is anything I finally learned, it’s to not care what other people say, and do what you want to do for yourself. Maybe I fell off the wagon like 10 times last month, but at least I know that my overall lifestyle when comparing to those who judge me is a lot healthier. So I’ll let them judge me for my hard work.
During my Texas trip: My girlfriend and I took 2 cycling classes, and one day we ditched my family – she went to yoga while I went to lift weights and then we had a healthy lunch at Whole Foods.
Fresno trip: Tyler and I got a hotel room with a kitchen and cooked some healthy options instead of eating out all weekend. We also dropped by the gym together.
As much as I was beating myself up for eating out so much last month, I am pretty proud of myself for keeping up with every session of my workouts you’ve written me, even when I’m out of town. So I’ll try not to let one month defeat my past year’s effort.
Thanks for being such a great inspiration!