Day 13
After a few weeks of change you might have a day or two when you eat things that aren’t healthy or maybe one day you just don’t feel like working out. This is going to happen. If you are reading this and you are having a day like this, “Don’t give up. Keep the habit of activity.” Change isn’t easy especially if you are like me and have an addiction to food, or you have been inactive for long time like I was just two years ago. You will have a ton of excuses to break your routine, but I will tell you from experience it is easier to be vigilant 100% of the time than to just cheat once. The reason is that when you cheat you set a precedence in your mind that will allow you to justify future cheats.
If you have already cheated don’t give up it’s not the end of the world but the best thing for you to do is to get back on track immediately. If you didn’t work out yesterday stop reading right now and get into workout clothes and do your work out. If it’s only 5 minutes I don’t care. You need to keep the habit alive. If you have had a binge day or eaten a few things you shouldn't have, like I did today, don’t justify the next meal saying that you have already messed up the day. You mess up the day when you give up and revert to old habits. Fight the impulse to give up. You are no longer a quitter. You get up when you fall down. You must develop a positive mental attitude.
Many of you who read this blog may not have an addiction to food like I do, but in general the cycle of addiction is as follows:
Step 1) Strong Feelings: Feelings of loneliness, boredom, anger, tiredness, stress, or any combination of these feelings. You have to be aware of these feelings/triggers. Most of the time these five triggers are at the root of our addictions. We use our addiction to cope with these feelings or to fill time
Step 2) Isolation: We isolate ourselves from others either through our addiction or because we are ashamed of what we do, and we don’t want others to know we have a problem, because our society looks down on weakness, even though if everyone was honest with themselves we would all see this cycle in our lives.
Step 3) Relapse: We know what this is. We indulge in our addiction. (I eat food when I’m not hungry.)
Step 4) Self Hate: Here we beat ourselves up for relapsing, which usually leads to feelings of anger, and stress. Which takes us right back to Step 1, which leads us to Step 2 and so on. At this point I feel like I’m at the bottom of huge hole.
You may be reading this and saying but I don’t do that. I don’t have an addiction. I would say ok maybe fitness or nutrition related subjects are not your vice, but I guarantee if you look at your life you will find this cycle at work somewhere else.
The good news is that the quicker you return to your plan, and the less time you spend in that hole, the easier it will be to get back on track. As you recognize these triggers you can break this cycle before the relapse. The easiest place to break the cycle is at Step 2. When you feel isolated or when we physically are isolated and you recognize the triggers call a friend or family member, or visit someone. Tell them why you are calling, or visiting. If inactivity is your particular vice, ask someone to go work out with you. Make it easy for them to say yes. If they are not into working out pick something active like walking that they can do.
If you relapsed today, or you are thinking of it, I want you to know, you are not alone, and always remember,
“You are Beautiful and unique just the way you are, God makes no junk, sponsors no flops.”
Go out there and break the cycle.
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