The other day I was paid a rather flattering compliment. A good friend wrote to me and said, “You could probably do a post on doing the dishes and relate it to both bodybuilding and life and pull it off.” As far off and exaggerated as that may sound, after some careful deliberation I decided I would take that as a challenge and put together a perspective piece on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
This is you at the height of your enthusiasm. You are new, refreshed, and ready to take on whatever mess can be thrown at you. At this stage in the game you are willing to commit to your goal and put in the work necessary to get the job done. Motivation is high and the goal at hand does not even seem like a chore. Prepping food, eating right, and working out are all things you enjoy doing.
As the week progresses you start to tire of the routine. The food gets boring and prepping food starts to become bothersome. You move forward, still determined to work towards your goal – however, you start cutting corners here and there and you may find yourself a little slow off the line. You’re keeping up, but signs of fatigue are starting to show.
You’re now nearing the end of the week. You really can’t be bothered keeping this up. To hell with meal prep, you will grab a salad from Subway for lunch and keep a few Quest bars on hand for at the office. The work week is really getting to you. You may not be able to take a day off from work, but a day off from the gym is well deserved. One day off won’t hurt – this will be your cheat or free day. No big deal. The weekend will be better you tell yourself. You can go at your own pace and do some catching up. You will prep all of your meals for the following week, you will put in extra time at the gym, and you will focus on maintaining healthy choices to rectify all wrongs.
As you roll into Saturday you get a little taste of the sweet life, taking things slowly and enjoying not being rushed. It’s Noon and you are still in your pajamas. You have had nothing to eat except a bowl of cereal and a coffee, and the idea of getting ready to prep meals or go to the gym is unappealing, to say the least. Why waste your first day of the weekend doing more work?
Now it is Sunday and you realize you have done nothing but procrastinate and make excuses to dodge your vow to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Riddled with guilt you look back on the last few days, swearing you will get your head straight and that next week will be better. Pondering the damage and setbacks you have caused you feel completely ashamed and disappointed. You wonder how you ever let it get to this point.
Motivated by your own poor decisions, you hit overdrive and work to fix your wrongs. Hours will be spent prepping food, meal plans will be outlined and prepared, workout routines will be made and executed with greater intensity, and excuses will not be tolerated. You take back what is yours, determined to not let your own weaknesses become your demise.
This is you going into the new week.
Sound familiar? Good – now get off your ass and go do the dishes.
Happy Lifting!
