HELP! I'm falling off the horse(and about to hit the ground)

[Guest asdf]

So my fitness endeavor has hit a wall and now I'm on a slippery slope downward. I used to be super gung-ho about working out. I gave 100% to my workouts always made them up if I missed one, ate as best I could with what was available to me and was well on my way to reaching peak physical condition. This lasted maybe six months. And then I started getting a bit lazy.

 

But for the past few months I have been getting lazier and lazier about my eating habits and workout schedule, and it has been slowly but surely going downhill since January. I'm basically addicted to sugar and desserts again, my consumption of salads has dropped a lot, and my workouts are way less frequent and intense as they used to be. These days I end up ending most workouts before I really should more often than not. I know that sometimes you just don't feel like working out and have to do it anyway, but it's another problem entirely when you are starting to feel like giving up completely.

 

I used to be that guy on the Nerd Fitness forum who thought that having made a few fitness gains suddenly gave him the experience and qualification to dole out LOTS of advice on just about everything. But sometimes life puts your perceptions in check, and the truthful reality is that I am still very much a "fitness noob" who should be spending way more time listening to the wisdom and advice of others rather than trying to give it. And when it comes to re-lighting that burning desire to succeed that got you started working out in the first place and has generally been keeping you going, it turns out I don't know much about that at all.

 

So I would like to humbly ask the Nerd Fitness community for help. How do I get myself back on track to where I used to be and where do I start? And how do I keep that fire burning once it's relit again? I welcome any and all personal insight, advice words of motivation/support and anything else. 

 

Thank so much

[Jay87]

Hey hey

 

It happens. I find that sometimes writing down one's reasons for moving to a healthier lifestyle can help when the pendulum starts swinging the other way - it's a reminder of why you're doing this and why it's important to you. 

 

Shaking up the workouts can help too. How about trying a new sport or activity? Something fresh and competitive could help get  new momentum behind it. Do you have a workout buddy? Can you join a team? Or is there just something new you can get into?

 

Getting into new music also helps me when I'm having a momentum crisis. I'll Youtube a couple 'workout motivation' mixes every now and again and see if there's something I like. Movies can help too (I WILL be able to do a Hulk Smash in six months, mark my words...)

 

Address the diet. This is super useful if you don't have time/can't be bothered with a workout. Make it super clean if you're having a 'but I just...can't' day. 

 

Pace yourself. I've gone all out with fitness before and I've found that it just isn't sustainable. It needs to be something that fits into your life - something you can do with everything else also and something that ideally complements everything else. Like a workout first thing so you can function better at work, but perhaps not every day. Life gets in the way sometimes. It's important to 'make time' for fitness, but it's also important to get the balance right and not overdo it to the point where you burn out because you've either been living in the 'fitness is my life' absolute or the 'I have zero time for fitness because it's such a big commitment' absolute. Make it a smaller commitment and integrate into your life. Ban absolutes. Don't full throttle > crash > burn. Allow yourself downtime. Then make sure you have 'uptime' afterwards Think of it as a graph - you want a ^-^-^ line not a /\____

 

Finally, go easy on yourself. You need to be friends with yourself because your brain and your body need to work as a team on this. (I know that's an odd sentence!) But if you beat yourself up over it, your resolve and focus may likely tank because of it. And if your body and your brain aren't on speaking terms, then your motivation will suffer too. 

 

Hope some of that helps! 

 

Very best 

[Ceasefire]

I find that focusing on the way I felt makes me get back into it. I love working out. I hate dieting. Right now I'm focused more on the physical aspect and that's okay. If you can only tackle one thing at a time, find that one thing that spurs you on (maybe you felt invigorated after a certain workout or you really liked the way a certain meal tasted and want to try to find similar meals) and ride with that until you're able to tackle more and more.

 

Baby steps are okay. Crawl if you gotta. =)