If you have ever fallen off the fitness wagon, or have fallen off more than once, then this is great.
You are pretty normal. ( I say pretty normal as really, what is normal??)
I get it, life can get in the way. Work, kids, sports, downtime, the housework, the garden, the pets that need tending
These can all just build up, and before we know it we are overwhelmed and something has to give!
And like I said before, if you are ‘normal’ you might have decided to stop exercising at least once or twice before. Hey! I have done it!! I have put myself last and managed to not only fall off the wagon, I fell off, tumbled along, got dragged a bit and ended up in a screaming mess in the dirt with the wagon rolling off into the sunset!
Yep, a week off becomes a month, and you think damn, now I am going to have to start all over again.
Here is a bit of a secret though. All of your efforts, where you were before, aren’t all destroyed.
The only way it is, is if you never come back to it.
This time though, you don’t need a 6 week challenge, you most definitely do not need a detox, and you don’t have to go for the all or nothing mentality.
You just need your comeback plan, that is realistic, shame and guilt free that gets you moving, but more importantly, keeps you moving.
Writing this I know that there are so many different ways you all approach things. So Iw ill look at a couple of ways.
Are you the resistant to change type? Do you like things to change subtly? If so, this part is for you.
You can treat it like you are an absolute beginner again. Starting today, you can go for a walk. Allocate your time this afternoon, and head out for a walk. Or do 20 mins of stretching on the loungeroom floor! This is step one. In two days time, either do that again, or swap it. You walked today, stretch on Thu. You stretched? Then walk Thu. And then swap it again for Saturday.
That is week 1, done! You have gotten back on the wagon again. Heading in to week two you can just keep alternating like that, or you can add in some more stretches, maybe some calisthenics. Remember, it only has to be 1% each day, that is all. It might be one extra stretch, or an extra half to a minute walking.
All the time, remember, you did this before, you can do it again. It might just take these baby steps to get back up.
Now path two.
You are OK with change, you know what it took last time, and you just can’t wait anymore, now is the time! If this is you, then step one can be, come see me. We have a chat, and you get right back into it.
This is where you just get on with it, you book yourself into a session and you commit yourself to it, you turn up and this time though, you scale, a fair bit. Again like the first example, just three sessions a week to start. Yes you have done it before, but you are resetting, not restarting, this isn’t from absolute scratch, your body will remember the movements, it will remember the feelings that come with it, so it is just a reset.
You will find it is only the initial week or so where you need to allocate time to yourself that is the hard part to get up front. Once you are in the gym and moving again all of the past efforts and such will come rushing back and you will be able to keep going, with the help of all of your friends and coaches at the gym.
Even so you will still only commit yourself to three days a week for the first two to three weeks.
After that we can look at adding an extra session in. Yes we can jump in head long to reset, but we don’t want to rush the process either. Scale and turn up three days a week for three weeks and you will be thinking ‘Why didn’t I just do this sooner??’
I also want to touch on those of us that are still going, but have become maybe a bit sporadic, inconsistent, hit and miss.
You too can hit reset. And you don’t need to wait until the start of a week. It can be any day.
So it is Tuesday today, and you haven’t been to the gym yet. So what? You can just go later today, or tomorrow. Book it into your calendar, and then go. Missing a Monday session and then thinking you will wait until next week to get consistent is another example of smashing your phone!
There are two options right away for you.
Something simple at home, or jump back in, it won’t be exactly where you left off, but it will be where you are at today, and any progress is so much better than none!