Let's GOOOOOO!
Getting back on track
WHEN A BREAK BECOMES A SEVER
A year ago I bought a Peloton. The first year of Covid added a bit more BOD to my Dad Body than I preferred and going to the gym wasn’t in the cards yet. I mostly got it for my wife as I was never that into the few Spin Classes I’d taken. I ended up LOVING the damn thing. Along side that, I started meal prepping to help better control what I was eating…and to stop spending a billion dollars a month on eating out. After a while of seeing the results of riding and eating better, I added lifting weights into the mix.
It was all working. I was up before everyone, lifting, pedaling my ass off…literally, and eating the right things and the right amounts. I was feeling great and looking good. I kept this up for months and months and was just CRUSHING IT. And then…
…I took a break.
At this point, I can’t even remember when or why the break came about. I was like “you know, I’m doing so good that I think I deserve a weekend off.” So I stayed off the bike and ordered out that weekend. A well earned reward for months of hard work. Then I was all “I think I could extend this for the whole week. Start next week fresh and jump back in it.” You know where this story is going, right? That week turned into MANY more weeks. What started as a break from exercise and healthy eating turned into severing that part of me clean off for months to follow.
So here I am, a year later and I’m back to where I started when I bought the bike. Unlike some other points along the road in my healthy journey, I’m not beating myself up for it. I’m not wallowing in self pity. I made some choices and I’m paying the price for them. I can own that. I can also change things up and get back on track, which is my plan.
Today, after WAY too long off the bike and food wagon, I woke my ass up early and restarted the journey. A brand new Day One. I got on that bike, picked a ride and annoyed my family at 7am with my tone def renditions of Disney songs. Ate my healthy breakfast and packed my healthy lunch and rolled up to the studio and drew a funny self-portrait to go along with what I planned to share with you.
It might be too early to pat myself on the back, but FUCK IT! I’m patting away. We all know the hardest part of change is deciding to actually START the process. So…
….LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!
WORD BALLOON LIVE
I’ll be chatting with Siuntres live on WORD BALLOON today (1/18//22) at 4pm CST! Tune in!
My Peloton name is StupidFreshMess
Great job to everyone simply starting again. I like how you all are supportive of Skottie and one another. What a great group. Behavior change is super hard. But just like drawing (I assume, I'm not a drawer . . . yet), we just keep practicing, we improve. And relapse is part of every behavior change. So this sounds fu-fu, but self-compassion has been shown to improve meditation:
Breines, J. G., & Chen, S. (2012). Self-compassion increases self-improvement motivation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18(9), 1133-1143.
Participants in an online study who wrote a compassionate paragraph to themselves regarding a personal weakness subsequently reported greater feelings of self-compassion. They also experienced other psychological benefits, such as greater motivation for self-improvement, compared to participants who focused on boosting their self-esteem, distracting themselves, or nothing in particular.
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Well, that's kinda what Skottie started with his post here. He wrote about his break in a compassionate voice: "Unlike some other points along the road in my healthy journey, I’m not beating myself up for it."
If you are interested in learning more, here's one way to practice self-compassion as a way of increasing motivation to continue on the path of change: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/self_compassionate_letter
Good luck everyone! You all are a wonderful group of people. Here's to us all getting better this year.