Give yourself permission to be off track

One of the best lessons I've learned from my challenge groups is that bad days are going to happen and that’s ok. One or two bad days won't kill you. Heck, a week won’t kill you.

For me, those week are usually triggered by the exhaustion that comes with crazy busy, not having control of my schedule and/or the stress of keeping the million balls in the air that so many of us are juggling every day. Most days I keep it all together pretty well and it feels manageable. Other weeks it’s just harder to do. My sleep suffers. My mind just isn’t in the game. I don’t feel like cooking the meals I planned, or I cook them and then just don’t feel like eating. I go through the motions and do my workout and pack my healthy food but the whole time I’m doing it, I’m not really in it. I’m just going through the motions.

I used to beat myself up when those weeks happened. The worst part of that is usually they happen when I’m at my most vulnerable and my least resilient, a time when the last thing I need is to be down on myself. What I really need is quality time with a friend and a sympathetic ear, a few more hours of sleep, or a day home to lie in bed watching mindless tv with no one expecting anything of me. As you might imagine, those things rarely happen when you’re a busy working mom. What used to happen instead was I caved and either skipped meals or went to the other end of the spectrum and binged on whatever food was in my sightline, good or not. Half the time it wasn’t even anything I wanted, it was just there and to me when I’m tired and my defenses are down, food is comfort.

While I’ve put in a lot of time and energy over the past 2 years to change my habits and to make a meaningful, healthy change, I still have those weeks and I’ve learned to be ok with that. Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to just be off track for a week. Instead of playing the blame game and turning the finger on yourself for it, let yourself wallow for a bit. Give yourself the week or the month and then decide to snap out of it. That may sound too easy but as I tell my kids, the mind is a power tool. If you can harness it for good, you’re golden. And if you struggle with flexing that mental muscle (I most definitely used to!), don’t worry! That’s totally normal.

Accountability groups can help. 

How? 

Well, when I’m not feeling it or am just too blah to be mindful in the ways I typically like to be, I’m able to feed off of their energy, read about their little victories on the scale and off, and be there to support them through the bumps in the road. It can be slow going and mentally taxing when you’re going it alone. When you’re in a group, however, you can draft off of the group until you’re ready to get back in there and run on your own.

Last week, I was most definitely drafting a little but that’s ok. I listened to my body, got more sleep each night (it’s soooo much harder to build the strength you need to get back in the game when you’re tired!) and took the surprise 4 day weekend to get my head back on straight. 

Today was a day of mini pep talks: 

• You CAN do this.
• You WILL eat the healthy food you brought to work.
• You WILL do that workout after work no matter if you’re tired and hate every second of it.
• You WILL have a better week and these things will make that so.
• You ARE strong.
• You DESERVE it.

What I’ve learned is that if you can control the mind, the body will (eventually) follow.

If you need a little help getting your mind/body in the game or just need some help flexing that mental muscle, know that I have a new group starting up on Feb. 22^nd. That gives you another week and a half to wallow and to take care of you and then it’s game on. Let’s get you set up and ready to go so that wallowing has an end date. Are you ready?