Getting Unstuck

You tell yourself that you'd like to get healthier, but after a few days on your nutrition and exercise plan, you decide that you want to be spontaneous. You don't want to follow a rigid plan anymore.

You only get to live once! Seize the moment!

Your brain starts listing excuses that will convince you that inactivity and junk food will make you feel better (momentarily).

But weight loss and putting on lean muscle requires discipline. It requires adherence to an exercise and nutrition plan for longer than three days. It requires planning. It requires doing what you need to do like meal prepping and going to the gym even when you don't want to do it. And if we're working together, it requires you checking in (even when it's the last thing you want to do).

So what's happening? When you decided to follow a health plan, that was a different you. That was the "I'm fed up with the state of my health, how I feel and look" you. Now, you're working with the, "what was I thinking and I don't want anyone telling me what to do, what's the point, boohoo, woe is me" you.

You sign up for a program, commit for a few days or weeks and then realize that following a diet and fitness plan isn’t comfortable. It requires planning. It requires adherence. It requires your coach asking you "what happened?" and being held accountable.

And frankly…sometimes you just don’t feel like it (enter toddler tantrum). You just want to relax. You want to tell the healthier you from three days ago that you need a break and to F off.

Committing to your health is exciting for two seconds and then when it gets inconvenient (parties, happy hour, stressful life events, that Netflix show that can only be enjoyed with a bowl of popcorn and bar of chocolate), you tell yourself you’re going to give yourself a “break.”

You deserve it.

But let's unpack the deservingness aspect of what you're about to do. You tell yourself that you deserve the junk food and alcohol because you've been"good" for a few days. Or maybe you deserve to relax with food and alcohol because work sucks, your partner didn't put their laundry in the hamper, and Costco was out of eggs.

Things happen that make us frustrated, angry, sad, annoyed, and irritated. But buffering emotions with food and alcohol doesn't make those problems go away. Oftentimes it makes them worse because now we're dealing with both the problem and the shame and guilt of falling off track yet again.

One evening of indulgence turns into two, and then three and then your motivation is hijacked because eating junk, drinking alcohol and playing couch potato steals your self esteem.

So let me ask you, do you really deserve to "let loose" or do you deserve better physical and mental health?

Sometimes exercise and eating well isn’t convenient.

But you know what else is inconvenient?

Depression.

Anxiety.

Isolation.

Symptoms caused by overeating and ignoring your emotions.

Sometimes staying on your plan isn't convenient and doesn't allow for a lot of spontaneity, but health is about the longterm not immediate gratification. It's about navigating unpleasant emotions and doing things you don't want to do so that you can be healthy and feel good.

We all fall off track sometimes and when this happens it's important to jump right back in and learn from what happened.

Try seven days of plan adherence. Then another seven and so forth. Once you've established momentum and start feeling better, it'll be easier to continue on plan and start seeing results.

Your nutrition and exercise directly affect your mental and physical health.

Only you can decide if your health is worth fighting for.