The trainer struggling with fitness...

I’ve often said it to my clients; “Sometimes in life fitness just can’t be a priority and it will be okay.” These last six-ish months I’ve had the pleasure of living my words, and it wasn’t exactly fun. As I played general contractor on our second floor I felt like I could actually feel my hard earned fitness leaving my body. Sure I could sneak in a 10 minute workout here and there but it was nothing like what my body and mind were used to. Then came “Dirty Kanza” season, a season I absolutely love but also a season known for the complete lack of balance. My actual thoughts included, "my arm strength is decreasing by the day.” I worked so hard to do a pull-up… was I going to lose all my progress?!?

In times of stress I try to separate myself into two parts, my emotions and then my rational being. My emotions where a wreck, a big part of why I workout is my brain. Without the usual stimulus of sweat, burpees and barbells my brain resembles a hamster running laps in a cage. When my emotions start running laps I entertain them for a bit but then try to force my rational self to talk them back down. 

My first concern was loosing my strength, as silly as that sounds. When we opened the gym I had zero strength and so I set goals for myself. Goals I had to work really really hard to meet. I’m not a natural “athlete”, so I had to spend several years of my life working to get stronger. It was a huge undertaking and something I’m proud of. My emotions felt like my progress and hard work were slipping through the cracks as the days ticked by. 

Here comes rational Tara… Okay emotions, let’s just accept that we are going to lose some strength. Is it really that big of a deal? You have spent literal years building the strength, do you really think it’s all doing to disappear over a few weeks/months? Come on Tara, you’re smarter than this. If you can only do three pull-ups instead of four is the impact on your life really that big of a deal? Can you still go to the park and play on the monkey bars with your kids? Yes, yes you can, so no, loosing a small amount of strength isn’t that big of a deal. 

Then I was concerned about the loss of momentum. I don’t care much for motivation, it’s fleeting and finicky. Momentum on the other hand, momentum is huge and when it starts to waiver you can get in hot water with your fitness regime real fast. Knowing how much momentum mattered made me stressed. A huge fear was coming out of the remodel and on the other side finding a life that didn’t have time for fitness? That’s a downward spiral that can go straight to the pits of “What have I gotten myself into” really fast, not exactly a productive thought pattern. 

Step back emotional Tara and let’s talk about stress. Exercise IS stress. It’s a good stress, but we know that all stress has an accumulating affect. There were a lot of stressors going on; the remodel, preparing for a huge bike adventure, amplified marriage and child stress because I was stretched so thin, financial stress as I just kept writing checks, and the stress of having so many things be out of my control. My rational mind knew it was a terrible time to put a huge amount of additional voluntary [exercise] stress on my body. There are a slew of negative things that happen when your body is stressed; among them being decreased hormone regulation and a decreased ability for your body to heal itself. These two factors increase the likelihood of sickness and injury, which were definitely not on my list of things to do. Rational Tara knew that the key was to get up and move as much as possible and accept that it wasn’t a great time to try to make huge progress in the gym. 

I  also want to take a moment to talk about “false starts” or as I like to think of it, a little guy named Murphy and his law. Murphy is not an emotion, he’s real, and we are friends. His law states that if anything can go wrong it will. Murphy’s Law seems to be amplified when things aren’t quite going the way you pictured them in your head.

There are weeks when I think I have everything lined up and worked out and have a solid plan for getting in some serious gym time. Only to be knocked straight on my butt by Murphy. For example, this spring I got hit by a car (weeks before I felt normal) and last month I contracted some weird vector-borne disease (days before I recovered). These are extreme examples but the misery of being completely sidelined taught me something. It helped me deal with more regularly occurring roadblocks like my husband’s job/schedule and my children, both of which have a way of bulldozing my best laid plans. 

With this in mind I keep Murphy in my rational thoughts and plan for him to show up at the worst time. If I know beforehand that the day is going to be chaotic I’ll sneak in a workout with the 5:30 group. If that doesn’t work I’ll try to at least sneak in a 10 or 15 minute session throughout the day. If my kids mess up my schedule I’ll take them to the park and partake in a completely unstructured “workout” instead of sitting and watching them run around. Sometimes there’s nothing I can do, so I take a deep breath and try not to dwell on it. After all, tomorrow is a new day! 

I will close with that, tomorrow is a new day! Like a mantra. Take a deep breath, clear you mind and set the intention/ goal for the next day. No matter what your last week(s), month(s), or year(s) have looked like… tomorrow is a new day. It’s never too late to try again. In my head we have all linked arms and are now signing, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya Tomorrow!”


Thanks for reading,
Tara Jo