How many times has this happened to you? You had your day planned – you were going to eat well at every meal and go to the gym in the latter part of the day for a strength training workout.
But somewhere along the way, things didn’t go as planned. Maybe you chose a dough-nut instead of a homemade smoothie or oatmeal french-toast cake for breakfast. Or maybe someone bought pizza for lunch at the office so you ate that instead of your prepared lunch.
Or maybe something happened last minute and you couldn’t make it to the gym for your workout.
Okay, maybe those exact things didn’t happen, but I know you’ve had days where things just didn’t go as planned. You didn’t eat as well as you wanted to, your workout sucked and you weren’t able to improve your performance, or maybe you had to skip your workout all together. Heck, maybe you didn’t have the motivation to do those things and chose instead to veg out on the couch.
Bottom line – things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes we get off track either by choice, or by circumstance.
THIS Is What You Do
And how we choose to respond when things just don’t go as planned is important, and there are basically only two options.
1) Get upset about it, and maybe even make things worse. (Don’t do this!)
We made one less-than-ideal choice, so we let it be an excuse to make another one. For example, someone who had pizza for lunch instead of her meal she brought from home may think she screwed up so she decides to skip her workout and grab a burger and large fry at the drive through on her way home.
(NOTE: there’s not a dang thing wrong with eating and enjoying pizza, ice cream, or other not-super-healthy food on occasion. Refer to The Diet That Has No Name, but only after you finish this article!).
The point is, sometimes when things don’t go as we planned we get upset and mope about it or, worse yet, feel shame and remorse. I know, because I’ve done it! This is not a good response because nothing good can come from it.
That’s why option two is what you SHOULD do . . .
2) Accept it, and then do something positive. (Do THIS!)
So you missed a workout or two, or three . . . or even a month’s worth. That may be your reality.
Accept it. You’re not perfect (actually, screw perfection).This is what happened, and this is where you are now. Now do something positive about it. Choose to take action now. You can’t change the past and you can’t predict the future, but you can choose what you do right now.
Just start over or pick up where you left off.
I know this sounds overly simplistic, but that’s the point! Start taking positive actions as soon as possible. Start eating a bit better at your very next meal. Get back to the gym or do a bodyweight workout at home. And if you’re following a workout program from Lift Like a Girl or otherwise, just pick up where you left off. What I suggest you do, if you missed a week or so of workouts, is repeat the previous week’s workouts to get back into the swing of things, and then progress from there.
Don’t get upset, and definitely don’t be hard on yourself when things don’t go as planned. It happens, and will happen in the future.
Related Article: Self-Compassion: The Greatest Tool for being the Best Version of Yourself
Have a plan for getting back on track, and that means picking right back up as soon as possible and take positive actions going forward. Forget about the workouts you missed and the less-than-ideal meals you may have eaten – dwelling over the past (something you can’t change!) is completely unproductive and self-defeating.
Just pick up where you left off as soon as possible and go from there. (Or start back with the bare essentials if necessary).
Continue the journey to becoming the most awesome version of yourself.
Related Article: Exercise is Not Punishment for Eating and You Don’t have to Earn Food
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