We all have excuses. I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll start on Monday. I’ll start when January 1st rolls around. It’s not a good time. My scale is broken. I have to read this first. I have to do this first. And one day turns into two… and two days turn into three…and three days turns into never. I’ve been there too often in my life and the culprit is usually me. I’ve created an idea of what my eating should look like and that it should be perfect.. That I will go to the gym once a day…no TWICE A DAY…and be supercrazyfit. I’ll do everything right…yes this time I will do it perfect and right.
But the trouble is: there is no perfect and right. Life is not perfect and rarely do things go ‘right’. The trouble with this thinking is that it leaves too little room for the fact that some days I hate the idea of the gym. I’d rather take the covers over my head and watch another episode of Grimm. And you know what…MOST people (fitness types included) are like that. Yes there are the freaks out there that claim to love the gym every day, but I think they are just gymshamers. Don’t gymshame yourself…you know…shame yourself for not liking the gym every day of the week. Someone who is gymshamer is someone whose manner of speaking implies a sense of superiority because they act as if they love the gym every day of every week. <eyeroll>
So…what should you do if the thought of going to the gym or doing something active seems like too much? Just practice going to the gym. You just have to have your bag packed. You just have to show up. You don’t actually have to work out. Sounds nuts, but yes…that is the only requirement on days you don’t want to go to the gym. Just get there. Just practice the habit of getting to the gym at a specific time that you plan to workout on the days you plan to workout. That is the habit to work on if you find your gym habit is inconsistent.
Or maybe you are trying a new workout program. If you see the program is 6 days a week and you think: well…if i try reallyREALLYREALLY hard, i might be able to do it next week all week…but only if i grit my teeth and try REALLY hard.
To me, it sounds like too much to commit to long term. So try to do a little less. Try committing to 5 days or 4 or even 3 or 2. The point being: start somewhere and build UP. Find a level of commitment that you are CONFIDENT that you can achieve in the next week and and commit to THAT. Then next week try a little bit more.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
So…stop gymshaming yourself and focus on how to make going to the gym a new habit that you do consistently. Every day you won’t like it. That is normal. Stop telling yourself that everyone loves to go to the gym every day. Some days you will love it and some days you won’t. That is perfectly normal.
