Having been a trainer for over two decades now (Wow, I'm getting old. When the heck did that happen?), I know there are a lot of people that have a hard time getting fit and losing weight.
In my 20-plus years of being "in the trenches," I have found that most people can find the energy and enthusiasm to start a fitness plan, or a new eating plan. We make a commitment to ourselves and we start.
No problem.
Where the challenge lies is in staying committed to those goals on an ongoing basis. Think about how many times you have triumphantly told yourself that today is going to be the day, only to have that same enthusiasm wane as the days pass.
Or, how many of you have promised yourself, "I will start on Monday," only to have Friday come and everything we promised ourselves, and were kicking ass doing on Monday and Tuesday, is slowly starting to fall to the "not so important anymore" category in our daily lives.
All these broken promises to ourselves can leave us feeling resentful, frustrated and angry.
But, we are only human and we all fall and slip with our health goals. I even fall prey to this. There are some weekends where pizza, cookies and rum dominate my Saturday and Sunday nights and then Monday comes for me too.
Now, first off I want you to know that making poor choices with your health, when you promised yourself that you wouldn't, is not failure. Failure is not even recognizing that you need to change your lifestyle.
Ignorance is the biggest indicator to failure. Whereas admitting that you need to change some (or a lot) of things in your life to feel better, and then falling on your face every so often, is completely, utterly human.
So, what can you do next time you fall off the wagon? You have three choices. You can: A) Crawl back into bed and throw the covers over your head; B) Yell and scream and
blame everyone else for your slip up; or C) Dust yourself off and bounce back.
And, you guessed it, C is the clear winner.
To successfully pick ourselves up takes strength from within, support from those around you, responsibility on your part, an ability to embrace challenge and change, and a neverstop-bouncing back attitude. First, strength within happens through selflove.
You have to convince yourself that you are worth it, that even if you are starting over again you are still way farther ahead than you would be if you didn't.
You need to remind yourself that you are making better choices in your life - for your life.
Second, lean on those around you.
Don't feel like a burden; get help from your family, your social circle and even social media.
The more people that know you need help staying on track, the more people can help.
And, who knows, maybe one day they may need your help too.
Third, take responsibility for your actions. This is a tough one. It can be a hard pill to swallow, but recognize that you are completely and utterly in control of your actions.
No one is stopping you from exercise (you are the one creating the "I am too busy... too tired... too unmotivated... too sore... too old..." excuses that stop you from getting those runners on), and no one is stuffing bad choices down your throat in the form of burgers and beer. Take responsibility, learn from your mistakes, bounce back up and move on.
Finally, it's important to embrace the challenges and the inevitable adjustment that has to happen to change the direction of your health.
Don't put up stop signs. If you want to make a change, start and then get out of your way and let the changes happen.
Work on those little grasshopper, and then you will find that you can bounce back, come back and live through anything.
PJ Wren is a local personal trainer and writer. You can check out her newest online course, Over 40: Becoming a Fat Burning Machine, at www.fitnesswithpj. com.
