Week #10 When things go wrong

I didn't write a blog post this weekend.  Mostly cuz I didn't feel like it.  I had a massive migraine, so I took care of that instead.  So like all my best work, I will just make something up on the spot without research or forethought.  Pretty credible, right?

The fact is that when you are trying to be healthy, things will go wrong sometimes.  You will get sick, get hit by a car, get a migraine, eat some bad shellfish...  who knows?  If you have finally decided to get healthy, you may have some fear in the back of your mind about what will happen if your break your new habits.  It's happened before.  You were doing pretty well at the gym, something came up and next thing you know it's 6 months later and you are living out of the backseat of your El Camino and living on your substantial fat stores.

People who have been unhealthy for a long time may harbor feelings of fear that they will backslide into their old ways of wearing dirty sweat pants and eating ice cream from the carton.  This leads many people who are injured or sick to push HARDER at the gym.  The fear of losing their hard won successes keeps them working out even when rest has been prescribed.  Alternately, some people have a problem come up and they give up completely on their fitness because they know their old goals are no longer achievable.  They collapse into a sobbing pile of chocolate and marshmallow fluff.

May I suggest that the problem comes because people think of themselves as a fat, unhealthy, or weak person who is doing healthy things.  Do you think the Olympian next door is worried about getting sick and gaining weight?  Nope.  Because she IS a healthy person doing healthy things.  She knows that once she gets better, she'll start her training again and will catch back up in time.  She's not afraid of something breaking her healthy habits, but they aren't habits anymore.  They are part of who she is.

What's the point to this rambling?  When you are sick - take care of yourself.  The gym will be there when you get better.  If you are sick, injured, or have big life events going on - TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.  You body doesn't need to be distracted by weight loss or building muscle when it should be focusing on healing.  You may be surprised to see how fast you can recover when you actually take time off.

 If you need to lower your goals based on your new situation, then do it.  You can't fail as long as you are progressing.  Start BEING a healthy person.  Habits come and go.  Make healthy living part of who you are and you will never need to worry about breaking your goals.