Don't Let the Holidays Derail You!!!

I love the holiday season. I love holidays in general but THE holidays are the best time of year. Christmas movies and music always going, the government allows us to have special treats like eggnog, we generally spend more time with our friends and family but above all else, there is a magic in the air. You can feel it. And I 100% support the idea of allowing ourselves to indulge a little more than usual. Eat a little more, eat a little less healthy, drink a little more, etc. Plenty of people travel for the holidays too. Either back to where their family lives or maybe they are the hosts and have relatives staying with them. This can certainly mean that our regular routine, which includes exercise, gets interrupted. And that is okay too. Life happens and we should enjoy it. But what also happens to so many of is that we get derailed and for some, they are never able to get back on the tracks again.

As some of you may remember, back in the olden days, we used to actually go into a store to rent video tapes of movies, take them home, put the tapes in our VCRs and watch the movies. It may seem silly to young kids now but it was pretty great. Most stores would let you rent up to 3 movies at a time for about a week. I love movies and watch them all the time so I would frequently go to my local store, pick out at least 3 movies that I really wanted to see, and bring them home. Later that night, I would watch one of them. Sometimes it was tough to decide which one but I had to pick so I did. Then the next night, I would decide between the other two. This was a tougher decision but again, had to pick something. Then the NEXT night, maybe I had other plans and didn't watch a movie at all. So that final tape I rented was sitting there on my coffee table and suddenly, everything changed.

I no longer wanted to see this third and final movie I rented. Instead of thinking, "Well, at least I don't have to pick again. I am down to my final movie so that makes it easy," it was more like the idea of watching it was now this horrible chore that I did not want to do, akin to taking that last bite of my mom's disgusting Brussels Sprouts when I was a kid. How did this happen? I had originally wanted to see this third movie very much. Like I said, I am a big movie fan. Could watch them all day long and every day. But my perspective had changed. I had not watched the tape 3+ days and it felt like I just couldn't anymore.

Something like this can happen with our workouts too. Miss a couple of regularly-scheduled sessions and suddenly, getting back to it feels much, much harder. You initially liked your workout. Or at least, were interested in doing it. Now it seems more like drudgery. To make it worse, the mind loves to come up with excuses why it's okay to NOT return to your regular workout after missing a few days or weeks:

I've been so busy with the holidays, I just need some time to decompress

Got a lot going on at work too so my schedule is just CRAZY right now

Today is not a good day for me but tomorrow or later this week works much better

After eating more and not working out, I feel so out of shape and probably won't perform well

I should find something new to spice things up a bit (but then you don't actually do something new or at least, don't do it right away - it is just an excuse to not get back to the grind in this instance)

One way to combat any of these excuses is simply to give yourself permission to suck. What I mean is, show up for your workout knowing full well that you may not perform well and might feel out of shape, extra tired, unfocused, etc. and that this is okay. I am not a Nike fan but I will tell you that one of the greatest slogans I have ever heard is simply, "Just Do It." Don't even think about these excuses or any excuses. Just do it. Just get back to your workout routine and if you suck, you suck. If you find yourself getting tired faster, so be it. If you feel generally "off," so be it. All that matters is that you are getting back on track and that is a difficult thing so any effort you put forth is good effort. No one's watching and judging - it is just You vs. You and the key is, Just Do It! Tell yourself you are not going to be derailed after the holidays. Maybe you get derailed later in the year but will NOT let this happen after the holidays and be another statistic.

Let's say you are able to rise up and get back to a workout. Great! But you are not out of the woods yet. Some people can get back for a minute but then they drop off again. You don't just have to get back to your workout once, you have to get it back in your routine. May take a little while before everything starts to gel again so you have to be patient and persevere. 

It may not be as easy as I make it sound. Believe me, I know. I own a gym and am at the gym all the time and I have trouble getting back into the swing of things after even a short layoff. I give myself that permission to suck but I still don't like sucking. And those excuses that our brains make are good excuses. Or at least, so our brains tell us. Completely logical and of course, we can always get back to things later. Yeah, maybe. But I don't trust "later." There may be perfectly valid reasons not to continue my exercise program when "later" becomes "now." To me, there is no time like the present. Why put off tomorrow what you can do today? And you CAN do it today. You just have TO do it!