We’ll keep this one short…
THERE MUST BE BALANCE
The words in the picture above came into my mind about 2 minutes into my elliptical workout last night. I spent the morning and early afternoon looking forward to my workout that evening, but as the afternoon moved on, I began to feel mentally worn out. By evening after dinner, I was sitting in a chair mindlessly staring at my cellphone.
Nothing wrong at all with sitting and relaxing…but I was aware this was pre-heart attack behavior. My commitment to regain my health and conditioning is still in it’s infant stages. My Fitbit app had recently congratulated me on 4 straight days of hitting my goals, and I have found hope returning within since that guy that lost 80lbs between 2018 and late 2020 showed up again inside…but I’ve also been here before, working hard for a couple days here and there only to stop the habits and return to the old patterns of inactivity. This just isn’t going to happen again!
As I say that, I want to make a point that I believe there must be balance. We need to listen to our body, it needs times for recovery, for mental breaks, we need to find different ways of getting exercise so it stays fun and fresh. As I say all that, I want to make sure it’s known I’m speaking from a layman’s position. I’m not a trainer, I’m not an expert in this area…just a guy who used to be an athlete back in the day, and a guy who wants to be active in my 60’s and beyond.
So…back to the elliptical, and the battles within my mind.
DON’T BE LED BY FEELINGS
When I talk with my probation clients about fighting for their sobriety, I’ve learned that we can feel what we feel, but we should never allow our feelings to occupy the drivers seat or we’ll be all over the road…or perhaps off the road is a better word picture. Allowing my feelings to dictate my choices is what had gotten me into so many of my life ruts…eating too much, binge watching TV, staring at my phone in the evenings. Knowing all that, I knew I needed to follow through with getting on that elliptical. Even if my workout was at a low RPM and I only got my heart rate up into the low 100’s, I needed to fight through what I “felt like doing” in order to strengthen this new routine I am intent upon establishing as a lifestyle.
LOOKING BACK
Here I am this morning looking back on my fight last night; I’m feeling stronger, more motivated, trusting myself more today because I made the tough choice last night to fight when I didn’t feel like fighting. I may have accomplished very little physically last night, but what I accomplished mentally is a powerful building block to solidifying the direction I am committed to go moving forward.
PROTECT THOSE FRAGILE NEW HABITS
If you’re attempting to add a new habit to your daily/weekly routine, guard it fiercely! Protect it while it grows and becomes stronger within you. There are so many forms of subtle resistance that try to come against us as we make those strides to improve areas of our lives.
Fight the fight you were called to win!
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