In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had to make some choices that I felt were needed, but still left me feeling a little bit guilty.
One, as I’ve talked about, was that I made the choice to take a week off from kickboxing when my morning routine got bumped up a notch as I entered a new mesocycle. I made the choice to give my body time to adjust. Though I still feel that was needed, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for skipping kickboxing.
The other was last week in general. I came down with some sort of stomach bug that forced me to battle nausea, pain, and weakness most of the week. I got a couple morning workouts in, but that was it – no kickboxing, and a only a couple of workday walks. I shouldn’t feel guilty about this, but there’s still a little part of me that thinks, Come on – you didn’t feel THAT bad. Could I have pushed through it? Probably. Would it have made me toss my cookies? Probably.
And then there’s the social stuff. The last couple of weeks were spent in no-cell-service ranges, where I let myself disconnect from the technological world and give the workouts a break (since I don’t think 12-ounce curls really count as exercises…). I laughed, played, and joked around with people I love, enjoying the sunshine and laid-back fun.
Consequently, when my alarm went off this morning at 5:30, I rolled over and went Nope!
About a minute or two later, I sighed, pushed the covers back, and rolled out of bed. Almost an hour later, coated in sweat, I congratulated myself.
The thing is, in breaking my routine the way I had, I had significantly interrupted my life-fitness balance – for good reasons, in some cases – which made it really easy to dismiss my alarm this morning and settle in for a few more Zs. But by ultimately making the decision to do my morning routine, I made a little bit of progress toward getting back in the swing of things.
For me, this is ultimately the difference between fitness being a phase and being a lifestyle. I have the flexibility to give myself a break when I transition to more difficult exercise programs. I have the flexibility to let my body rest and recover when I’m ill. I have the flexibility to pull my mindset out of a strict exercise regimen and have fun with loved ones. And I have the strength to get right back into the swing of things as soon as my body is ready.
Badass Is the New Skinny 