The pandemic has us all flustered.
Many of us have lost the will to take care of our body.
We don’t want to workout anymore. We just want to kick back and eat what’s most convenient and tasty.
We are treating the pandemic like some sort of vacation.
AND THAT’S OK.
In today’s article I want to talk about what you can do if you’re in this boat.
So, you’ve lost all motivation to take care of yourself. What do you do?
ACCEPT IT
Listen, this is a really friggin’ weird time for all of us. To some, the world is the same. To others, their world was completely flipped upside down. It’s no wonder a lot of people have stopped caring to do things for their health.
And it is what it is.
I know, you likely expected the “no excuses” response, but really, how realistic is that?
When we are facing times that have our rhythms out of wack, we simply need to accept it and move on. So, if you don’t want to workout, eat healthy, or do whatever else you used to do, accept it. It is a reality. There is no sense in fighting that reality so stubbornly.
But what to do about it?
MOVE FORWARD
A lot of people think that moving forward means getting back to where you used to be. It doesn’t. It literally means “move forward”. Just like it says.
And that’s what you need to do.
One of the things I love teaching to my clients is that significant long-lasting transformation comes from tiny steps taken on a consistent basis. If fitness is anyone’s race, it’s the tortoise’s race.
Tiny changes compound to make big results over time.
So start by making tiny changes. If you currently walk 30 minutes per day, walk 45 minutes per day. If you run 20 minutes, run 25 minutes. If you eat 80g of protein, eat 90g of protein. Be a little bit better week by week.
In fact, that is your assignment and takeaway from this. Find ONE thing you want to improve, and focus on that one thing only. Let’s say it’s increasing the amount of greens you eat per day. Right now you get a serving of dark leafy greens two times per week. Set a goal of getting three servings of dark leafy greens per week. Once that is a habit, make it four, and so on. Once you’re at a point of getting one big serving of dark leafy greens each day without thinking about it, then move on to the next item you want to improve.
It’s not sexy, but it works.
And taking the time to turn those changes into real HABITS will pay off for years and years to come.
DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
This helps me most when I am in times of low motivation.
As much as I enjoy strength training, there are times in my life when I really don’t feel like it. I am going through one of those times right now.
All I have at home is a set of bands and two dumbbells. Since the gyms are closed, that is what I have to work with.
I know tons of different things I can do to get similar results as I would at the gym. But if I’m not in the gym setting throwing heavy weight around, I just don’t really want to do it.
But I DO want to do other things. So I am capitalizing on that.
Right now I want to do some sprinting. I want to do some explosive work.
Will I lose some strength that I had when I was in the gym regularly? Probably. But that’s ok. That strength will come back. My priority right now is to keep myself from getting lazy.
If you’re finding yourself in a similar situation, I encourage you to do the same. Do what you WANT to do. If you’d rather do a weight circuit with your dumbbells than go on your scheduled run, do it. If you’d rather work on your mobility instead of doing sprints, do it.
Will you sacrifice some specific results that you may have wanted before this pandemic happened?
Maybe.
But the way I see it, it’s far better to keep yourself healthy than to get stuck into the life of a couch potato. When the gyms come back, the more active version of yourself will be ready to go back into that gym. The couch potato version of yourself won’t.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Accept that things have changed. It’ll keep you from getting frustrated and going nowhere.
“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” Move forward, no matter how small the step is.
Change things up. If you want to do one type of training over the other, then do it. Keeping yourself healthy is the priority.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.
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