Persistence

Greetings and Salutations!

I just wanted to do a quick check-in to see how you were progressing towards your fitness goals and to share a little something about the value of persistence.

You see, I get messages from people all the time on Facebook about how I commit to my fitness regularly, day after day, week after week, without fail. "How do you stay motivated to do it?" they ask, or "I missed a month...isn't it pointless to start again now?"

Let me tell you...I'm by no means perfect, and the past two weeks have been a perfect example of my own imperfections. I was finishing up week #12 of the ChaLean Extreme/Turbo Fire hybrid and I simply felt WRECKED. I hurt, I ached, I was tired, I was run-down...I didn't want to workout. So I listened to my body and took two days off from workouts. After two days, I felt pretty good, but not awesome, so I took two more. I was ready to jump back in...but you know what? I didn't.

Instead, I just made excuses. I still was walking my dogs for 60-90 minutes every day, which is a workout in itself, but for 11 days I didn't push play. I felt guilty, but then I convinced myself that since I wasn't really staying honest to my fitness goals, I may as well let my nutrition slide. Yep, I'm going to admit it right now...I ate an entire carton of Ben & Jerry's Boston Cream Pie ice cream in an 18 hour period (though I did feel like crap the day after!). Finally, after 11 days of this nonsense, and starting to feel sluggish and 'thick' in the middle (hello...Ben & Jerry's...see comment above), I decided that enough was enough. It was time to get back on track...no ifs, ands, or buts (or ice cream in the house).

By now, I knew where my weaknesses were...I was allowing myself to push my regular after work workout time to the side, so I needed to workout before work. Period. This past Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I was out of bed at 4:15 a.m., pushing play at 4:30 before work. It's not the perfect arrangement for me...I can't do a long workout as I have to leave for work at 6:15 a.m., and my body is pretty creaky in the morning, so high intensity cardio doesn't really feel good. But I will admit that I felt great for the rest of the day, got my dog walk in during the afternoon, had time to do the things that were plaguing me in the first place (mainly grading student work), stayed more committed to my nutrition, and eventually got back to my TF/CLX hybrid schedule today.

I could have, however, decided that since I had already missed almost 2 weeks of working out that it wasn't worth jumping back in. It happens too often...people miss a day, a week, a month, or even two months of working out and then talk themselves out of getting back on the workout train. They tell themselves that it's pointless because they're a month behind schedule or that they can't commit to working out 5 or 6 days per week. Don't let it happen to you.

Nobody said that P90X or ChaLean Extreme HAD to be done in 90 days. Nobody said that you HAD to commit to a 6 day/week workout schedule. I assure you, neither Tony Horton or Chalene Johnson is going to come to your house and yell at you if you don't. They key, though, is to make fitness work for you. If you only have 3 days/week, do three days/week. If you missed 2 weeks, push play and jump back into where you left off. Yep, it might be more difficult than when you quit, but you can modify until you're feeling stronger again. Do NOT let excuses run your life...set a goal, practice persistence, and feel the power of accomplishment.

Message me if you need some support, answers to questions, or even if you just want to say hey. I'd love to hear from you.

Crush play!
Nancy