A couple of weeks ago I was walking around as proud as a peacock over my workout routine. Then just like that the exercise gods were less than impressed by my cockiness and cursed me with a cold. But not just any cold. No, no, no, no, no… This was by far the nastiest cold of my existence. My head pounded, stomach ached and nothing, I mean nothing, tasted good. The worst of it was the fatigue – all my limbs felt as if they were made of jello. Everyday for about a week the cold strengthened, which in turn made staying on that workout routine more difficult.
The good news is I was determined not to allow the cold to be my excuse for falling off the tracks. The bad news it was nearly impossible for me to accomplish what I do when normally healthy. Typically at the end of a workout I feel good. Really good. Those workouts though, they were different. I felt disappointment in myself. What is the point if I am only doing half as much? It felt like I had taken 5 steps forward and then 7 back. A really annoying mind game that can squash motivation in an instant.
These are the times we need to remind ourselves to take it easy. Be patient. Let our bodies heal. I kept thinking “I just need to get on that treadmill and sweat this crap out of me” but physically it wasn’t going to happen. What did get an extra workout that week was my mind power. It would have been easy to allow the negative thoughts to take over and in turn do zero exercising. That zero exercising would have only caused more ugly thoughts towards myself. A vicious path that only leads to one destination – derailment.
So yes, for a few days my workouts were pretty wimpy. But that’s okay. By the second day of feeling back to myself, so did the workouts. In fact shortly after the cold left so did Sticky for work. This meant I really had to prioritize and make sure I got that workout in with two littles on my own over the weekend. As you can see Bingham loves to watch mommy do her thing…
(Before judgement begins I swear he didn’t start looking this pathetic until the cool down part of the video. It’s like he’s sad Jillian is over and everyone is done jumping around. Or maybe it’s his look of sympathy for his tired and sweaty mom. Regardless he’s darn cute.)
Illness, injury, travel, that extra piece of chocolate cake…all can cause one to veer in the wrong lane. It’s a mind game to not succumb to these road bumps. And another goal worth accomplishing in your path to feeling awesome.
Keep moving! I will be too…
