As great as it felt to run last week, it's not going to have the desired effect if I can't keep it up.
I know I shouldn't be so hard on myself, but I really don't know any other way. I think I've proven time and again that I'm lousy at cutting myself any slack. If you know the secret of how not to hold oneself to impossible standards, please share it with me!
The truth is I accomplished what I set out to do. I made ONE workout my goal for last week, since that would be one more than any of the previous weeks. I set the bar low, and I achieved my goal. Initially I felt GREAT about it, and even dabbled in a teensy bit of optimism that my plans for feeling better just might work.
Running was such a positive experience that I couldn't wait to repeat it, and hoped to go for another run on Thursday...or Friday...or sometime over the weekend. Unfortunately, life got in the way, as it so often does. My determination has not created magical pockets of free time in my busy schedule...go figure! The fact that it's the holiday season only complicates matters further.
It makes perfect sense that I was unable to squeeze in another run, and yet I've spent the day beating myself up over it anyway. I've been pretty down all day, and at times I found myself blaming it on my lack of running. So now I'm seeing how my plans might backfire on me. When I can't manage to get in a workout, not only am I missing out on all the positive benefits of exercise, but I'm also dealing with yet another reason to feel like a failure. UGH. I don't know the solution. I guess I just have to try harder to find the time, because one run a week is just not going to be enough.
My goal for this week is 2 workouts. Wish me luck.
Instead of trying to refine the number of workouts you do in a week, have you tried to refine your deminition of "workout"? yes, definitely do 2 workouts this week, but instead of saying a workout is 10 minutes, call it 2 minutes. Then even on the worst day at the end of it see if you can get down there just to walk for 2 minutes on the treadmill. If you do and that's all you can do that day because of other obligations, you've still succeeded. But once you're on the treadmill, you may find yourself rationalizeing 4, 5 or 10 minutes instead.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. We all know how the obligations and life can spin things out of control.
DC
Thanks for the awesome advice! I gave it a lot of thought and I do think I'm going to expand my definition of "workout"! Because I want so desperately to run, I've sort of fixated on that as the one form of exercise I WANT to get, but it's not always the most convenient one to finagle. There's always the option of accepting a shorter amount of time on the treadmill as a full workout, but I'm going to take it even further than that. I need to give myself permission to count other forms of exercise too! When I can't hand off the baby to the hubby, I can maybe incorporate him into my workout with some stretches or yoga poses that can be done WITH a baby. I can also try popping in one of my fitness DVD's while the little guy is in his exersaucer. It would not be too hard to pause a DVD and grab him when he gets fussy, and maybe even resume once I've found something else to occupy his attention. That would probably be easier than hopping off and on the treadmill. So although running is my first-choice activity, I need to try other things when running is not possible, and give myself credit for doing SOME sort of exercise, which is always better than none!!
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