How to Hit the Ground Running After
the Shelter-in-Place
We are all in a really funky time in our lives right now. Some of us are bored out of your minds, completely lacking all motivation; some are completely overwhelmed with work and/or home schooling children. And some of us might be somewhere in the middle. So much of our lives have changed, and so very quickly, that few of us are working towards the same health and fitness goals that we set out to accomplish this January.
No matter where you fall on that scale of whelm and motivation, you have two options when it comes to your goals:
1. You can hit the “Pause Button” and pick up your health and fitness routine when life goes back to normal.
or
2. You can “Dial it Down”, and do enough to maintain you current level of health and fitness while you have other, more urgent matters, to tend to.
I want to encourage all of you to not hit the preverbial “Pause Button” right now. It’s a vicious cycle, and can become bad habit, that will prevent you from ever reaching your health and fitness goals.
When we hit the “pause button” we are telling ourselves that we will turn it back on when the conditions are perfect. BUT... there will never be a perfect time. There will aways be work, family, and other task that require a portion of your focus and energy.
Hitting this “pause button” ingrains the start/stop mentality that leads to yo-yo dieting, not getting stronger, and never actually getting fitter and healthier. Every time life gets hard, which it always does, you will hit it again.. and again… and again… And you will never be fully satisfied with your health and fitness.
Instead try to “Dial Down” your health and fitness routines.
Images from Precision Nutrition
We can’t have all the “dials” in our life turned up all the way to 10 out of 10. We just don’t have that much time, energy, or resources. Right now you may have a lot of extra stress from work, family life, homeschooling children, or mental stress and anxiety; and all of those reasons are perfectly acceptable during these unprecedented times. This just means that you need to dial something down, and odds are the previously motioned dials can’t be turned down, so your fitness routine may be the one that needs adjusting.
If your health and fitness routine is turned up to 10, it might look like going to the gym 5 days a weeks, eating right 90% of the time and getting 8 hours of sleep every night; this may be the time to “dial it down” to a 4 or 5.
Instead of going to the gym and busting your ass for 60 minutes with intense interval training; try going walk for a 30 minute walk and adding some squats and push ups sporadically through your day.
Instead of eating perfectly balanced meals three times a day, you make sure that you are still eating slowly, mindfully, and stopping when you’re 80-90% full.
Instead of stressing about the lack of quantity of your sleep, focus on getting the best quality sleep that you can, by limiting caffeine consumption in the afternoons and avoiding screens an hour before you actually go to bed.
And understand that these “Dial Downs” are temporary. You’re not going to live the rest of your life like this, its just a season of life. In the next season of life you can dial them back up, when you have more time and energy to focus on them.
We are all just doing the best we can do during these unprecedented times. We are all anxious, scared, and stressed about our current situations.. and its ok! If we don’t hit the pause button, and allow ourselves to dial it back, we can all hit the ground running and accomplish those goals we set out to accomplish in January!
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