Merry Fit-Mas!
I hope all our Forever Fitness family had a wonderful holiday and are buckling down to get ready for the new year!
Getting back into the gym after indulging in so many holiday treats can seem just about impossible! We are still looking at all our leftovers in the fridge, snacking on late night desserts, and still poring subtle glasses of wine or beer to cope with the stresses of 2020. All these habits are completely appropriate for this time of the year.
I think we all can find ourselves feeling guilty or angry about our food decisions during this time of the year. It is important to remember that food is associated with celebration in many cultures across the world. As part of our human nature, it is only embedded into our behavior to enjoy these treats. Being mad at yourself for eating the flavorus foods is not teaching yourself a healthy relationship with food. It is time to stop the negative self-talk and start facilitating positive self-talk while transitioning into the new year. Learn to be okay with your food choices! Most of the time we in which we feel disappointed in our eating decisions is stemming from two subconscious reasons.
1) You have not been eating a balanced diet and you are starting to feel that it is catching up to you.
2) You have not pushed yourself to the best of your ability in your workouts and feel that you “don’t deserve” the extra calories.
Let’s investigate these two subconscious guilty reminders that may be the backbone to your negative self-talk.
Weight gain is prominent when you are over consuming your daily caloric need. When we are constantly eating foods that are energy dense (meaning high calories low nutrients) and not nutrient dense (meaning they contain empty calories) our diet becomes off balance. Your body is an engine that needs fuel and oil to keep it running. Just like any auto zone you have ever been too, there are numerous kinds of oil and gas you can choose to put in your tank. When you choose to continue to put the cheap gas/oil in your tank, eventually are going to subconsciously start to feel guilty before your engine crashes. However, when you keep a consistent distribution between the cheap stuff and the high-end stuff you are putting in your tank, you do not feel as guilty. This is because your mind is aware of the upkeep you do to your engine. This concept remains true to our diets. If you are constantly eating an off-balance diet that is always more towards energy dense foods repetitively, your body subconsciously begins to feel guilty. On the other hand, if you continue put high nutrient dense foods into your body when it comes time to treating yourself you feel that you deserved this reward.
An additional reason you may be feeling ashamed in your food decisions is because you have not pushed yourself in the gym this week. Maybe you took a couple days off because life got in the way, something came up, or maybe you got quarantined! All are acceptable reasons to take a “day off” but there are still ways to stay active. You know yourself best and are the only one who can deem if your “day off” was a healthy needed one or an excuse. At heart you are the creator of your own health successes. If you put in 50% effort then, you are only going to obtain at most 50% of successful results. If you put in 100% effort then, you shall see 100% of your results. If you put in 120% effort you will experience self-growth in yourself that you have unlocked. It is important to keep pushing yourself to reach your health goals at 100%! You can still show up to the gym everyday but if you are not making the most of your workout then, you are still going to experience that guilty feeling of not deserving a reward.
At Forever Fitness we are a community that works together to help each other. If you find yourself struggling with motivation, having an off-balance diet, need help to figure different ways to work out under different circumstances, do not hesitate to reach out to any of our staff. We are here to not only help but work together to become a stronger and healthier community.
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