Sometimes stuff happens. You’ve had a few excellent days or weeks of sticking to your clean eating or workout commitments and then life happens. Suddenly, all your good intentions have disappeared. We have all been there. And no matter the reason, you’ve gotten off track of your health and fitness plan.
Sometimes an off day is just that, an off day. But when it stretches into several days, it is hard to get back into it. So, what do you do? Here are four tips to get you back “on” with your health and fitness plan.
- Change your internal conversation. So often, we focus on our mistakes and overlook our success. Instead, pay more attention to the things that you did right and that made you feel good. The best athletes are the ones that recover the fastest from errors. My daughter used to tell her teammates, you can feel bad for 3 seconds about that missed shot, missed play or bad pass. Then move on. Good advice for us as well. Feel bad for 3 seconds when you get off track, and then get back on.
- Focus on at least one achievement you have already made today (or perhaps yesterday). Use this victory to give you the confidence and energy you need to make your very next meal or training session a positive one.
- Change the environment. If you are having an off day, it’s easy to make poor choices – like taking an extra big bowl of ice cream, an extra cookie, or an extra hour watching TV. Instead, make a change. Any type of change, like getting fresh air, turning on motivational music, or finding a new healthy recipe, can spark some motivation to move forward toward achieving your goals.
- Use the five-minute just move idea. Sometimes it is just plain hard to get up and move. But once you start, you feel good and keep moving. Sometimes I will tell myself, “Ok just do 5 or 10 minutes.” And what I find is that once I start, I finish and I am glad I did.
So, if you don’t feel like working out, make a deal with yourself to commit to just 5 minutes of fitness. It’s also OK if you don’t give 100 percent effort. Do the best you can. Anything is better than nothing.
For nutrition, if you don’t feel like spending 30 minutes in the kitchen preparing a healthy meal, commit to grabbing something simple to eat, such as a healthy protein drink or protein rich snack.