Having a Day Off

I’m sure quite a few regular gym-goers and newbies alike have faced the same dilemma as me..

To gym or not to gym?

Sometimes it is just genuine laziness and you scramble around trying to find an excuse for not throwing on your running leggings and getting out there..haven’t washed my hair, ironing left to do, not enough time..blah blah blah.

Sometimes it’s just the result of being in a mood, so you go and when you get back you think ‘ah man I’m so glad I did that’ when the endorphins are kicking in.

But then, sometimes there are days like today. When you’re half way through a cold and even though you can function, have gone to work all week and other than the sniffles have nothing too much to show for it, you just can’t quite muster the energy.

So I’m not going, I’ve made the difinitive decision not to (it took me all morning, mind). I just feel drained and all I really want to do is lounge around and perhaps go get a coffee later to perk me up. Simple.

OR NOT, as my mind has been ticking over and I’ve had the little evil devil smouldering away on one shoulder and the little angel on the other. It’s silly really, how something that shouldn’t really matter too much can make you overthink. It’s just one work out, an hour, but my little devil tells me that I must go to feel good, it is weak not to, I might start getting lazy and turn this into a habit of cancelling.

But the little angel tells me to give myself a break, that it’s okay to not be up to it sometimes, let my body rest. One workout won’t dent my overall fitness and as soon as I have some more energy reserves I’ll be back out there.

I’ve decided to take the kinder advise today. It is down to you to make the call whether it’s your willpower dwindling or whether it’s your body genuinely yawning and needing to stop for a moment.

Ask yourself:
1. Is it  all in my mind? Discover whether your tired because of your state of mind or whether you genuinely have reason for it. A stressful week, or run down from a cold? You might be better off taking a day off. On the other hand, if you just couldn’t think of anything worse than pounding a treadmill or doing a few reps on the weights bench, get over it! The more you do it the easier it gets 🙂

2. Will I feel better for it? Sometimes when you make the call to go and exercise despite REALLY not wanting to, you come back with a big sense of accomplishment and feel great that you have gotten over another hurdle on your fitness journey. Other times you’ve the wrong call is made, slogged it out on a treadmill wondering if the sweat is from the exercise or from a coldy fever, and you leave feeling like a drowned rat, with an even further depleted supply of enegry.

3. Will this hinder my progress? The simple answer, really, is no. Missing one day is like a drop in the ocean. It’s how you percieve it. Dieters act in a similiar way, when a momentary lapse of willpower means a portion of chips were munched the thought process that ensues is ‘oh well I’ve ruined it now’ and so starts the descent back into bad habits. Well, don’t copy this behavior when it comes to fitness. Okay, so you’ve had a day off, hopefully for the right reasons, but you’ll be back to it, make a pact in your mind that once you feel better you will definitely book that spin class. Or even if in your heart of hearts you know you skipped your workout because you couldn’t be bothered, make sure you don’t leave it more than three days without a workout.

Don’t let a small hiccup stop you in your tracks, sometimes life does get in the way of our fitness regime but just keep in mind that you are ultimately the one in control!

Now, I suppose I should at least get out of my pyjamas!

x

Yum