Some thoughts post-run today : )
I’m here in New Jersey with my family for my daughter’s softball tournament. I’m out of the gym for a week! I don’t think I’ve been away for this long since I started it.
I’m enjoying myself, but also missing my routine…and my gym. I miss seeing my folks come in each day and I miss getting in a good barbell workout. (I miss the pull-up rig too…but I might’ve discovered a set of monkey bars lol).
I had some thoughts that I wanted to share with you that I’ll summarize here.
- Our lives will perpetually go through various seasons – some shorter and some longer than others. Similar to myself, some of our clients are on vacation, another is moving into a new house, and others are having their family routine disrupted in various ways. When we go through these periods, it can be helpful to focus on being perfectly imperfect. For example, when maybe you strive to get in 5 workouts per week, focus on getting in even 3-4. Thinking of how I am making the best of it this week, a 15-minute or less workout with a dumbbell and perhaps a long walk or afternoon run has kept me feeling mentally and physically happy.
- Don’t be afraid to adjust your goals and do what you can. Focus on something to help you feel successful. For example, one of my clients, instead of focusing on 10-12,000 steps per day, adjusted her daily goal to 8-10,000 steps daily. That might not be how much she prefers to get in, but is still a healthy level of activity. Perhaps you generally strive to be 85-95% consistent with your nutrition, consider being OK with 70-80%. (I will also note however, depending upon your personal goals, it is also 100% OK to not compromise your personal goals despite circumstances).
- Strive to adopt the mindset of “we get to workout.” There was definitely a time in my life where I would use any excuse to not go workout. I felt like I should and would drag myself there. Over time, it became something I legitimately looked forward to. Our mission as a coaching team is to help people shift their mindset similarly. Yes, I am enjoying the opportunity to be on vacation; however, the time I take to get in a workout is not because I feel like I have to, I just genuinely want to.
- It’s 100% OK to not workout while on vacation – it’s your time to use as you wish. Depending on what’s going on with my vacation, I might drop down to just 3 workouts for the week. Other times, it might be that I just prioritize walking or getting in a nice run. You will not lose progress and depending on the person, it might actually be a good thing for them to take the week off!
In closing, I hope you find these little tidbits helpful! If you’d like to check out some more “Wednesday Wisdom,” go check out our Facebook group for some previous Wednesday posts.