Are you feeling blah? Feeling like nothing tastes good? Can’t get motivated to make a start with exercise or healthy eating? Are you taking the easy route and relying on go-to take-away? Are you struggling to get into a solid exercise regime? I am sure we can all relate to this in some way or another and at least in one point of our lives. Oftentimes when we are faced with various life disruptions such as travelling, long work days, family commitments or illness we may be confronted with similar feelings.
This is a timely piece for those in my family as we have had a number of these disruptions lately. For example, my mum has been living the retired life and travelling on most weekends the past couple of months and will soon venture on an overseas trip to the United States to visit my sister for six weeks. In our personal training sessions together she has verbalised her frustrations in her lack of routine and feeling like she is in a rut- she is my inspiration for this post. Similarly, my baby girl has been sick with viral pneumonia and both my husband and I have also been ill for the past week. As you can imagine, our routine has been put somewhat out of whack and we are all feeling like we are in a little bit of a rut.
So here are my top tips on how to turn things around and get out of a rut:
- Pick one or two things to focus on first. It can be too overwhelming and not sustainable to attempt many changes at once. Instead pick one or two as priority e.g. prepare home-cooked meals and allow take-away once a week, walk 3x a week, reduce alcohol intake etc. Once you feel confident you have established these as daily or weekly habits then you can look at adding additional tasks or goals to focus on.
- Forget the image of being perfect. Take the pressure of yourself and forget about trying to achieve everything now. This is a particularly hard one for me to follow as I naturally like to do everything at once. Allow yourself to make mistakes, acknowledge them, then pick yourself up and go again. Start small and do what is manageable now.
- Always have your end goal in mind. Remember why you are doing this? Why do you want to eat healthy? Why do you want to lose weight, gain weight or gain muscle? Why do you want to get fit? Write these down and keep them visible to remind you and get you to take action.
- Congratulate yourself for what you have achieved so far. It is so easy to be so focused on where we want to be that we forget to remember how far we have come. Take a moment to reflect on what you have achieved so far. Similarly thinking of 5 things you are grateful for rather than focusing on the things you don’t have can help set a more positive mind frame. We are capable and worthy of achieving our goals!
- Talk to a friend. Talking about your frustrations with a friend is always refreshing and can oftentimes help put things in perspective or bring new ideas to light. Perhaps a friend of yours is going through the same similar feelings and you can work together to keep each other motivated e.g. organise a weekly training session together, Friday home cooking dinner-parties or enter a competition together such as a fun run or tough mudder.
- Take a break. If you are feeling stressed and overworked, perhaps you need to take a couple of days off everything- away from your computer, technology, people etc. Schedule in some relaxing time and do your favourite things. (Those with young children may find this an impossible task, but try do what you can and don’t be afraid to use any support you have around you. There is nothing wrong with taking care of mummy too). Oftentimes after the mini-break you will come back feeling recharged and with a new perspective. Have you ever gone on a holiday and made some big life decisions whilst away? It always feels easier to put life into perspective when you are away from every-day stressors.
- Try something new. Is there a new form of exercise or group activity you have always wanted to try but never got around to? Have you always wanted to try cooking a new meal or two? Trying something new can get you excited and motivated again. For me, I grew up playing competitive tennis (an individual sport). The past year my husband and I have joined a mixed sports team each week. It is a great change and we’re both loving it!
At the end of the day, we will always have our ups and downs, but my favourite Clark-family quote is “tough times don’t last, tough people do”. Just put one foot in front of the other, make gradual/achievable changes and know you CAN do this!!
