Vacation ‘Setbacks’

A good indicator that our relationship with exercise needs an adjustment is how we approach, or come back from, a break from our routine. If we find ourselves dreading two weeks away from our gym, or punishing ourselves for 'x' behavior while we were gone, that doesn't mean we're did something wrong on vacation. It means we're going about our training in the wrong way.

Building off of the theme of consistency we had last month: if we are being consistent we should be developing a sense of trust and belief in our program. We have fine-tuned the input, we know what we are doing, and training for a specific desired outcome. We know our program is in place, we are pointed in the right direction, and it's a matter of showing up and executing. The 2,000 calorie desert, handful of beers, or lack of exercise over two weeks aren't getting in the way of that. I promise, you'll recover. Embrace the chance to let your guard down. Our program is there and waiting for us when we get back, if we're dreading a let down while we're on vacation, we've developed an unhealthy dependence or reliance on our exercise to compensate for something else. I would venture a guess that 99.99% of personal trainers have fallen into this category at one point or another. For many of us, this unhealthy obsession was the starting block for our career choice. Many haven't found their way out of attaching our routine to our identity and sense of self-worth. When you start training to love your body (love being an action, not a feeling), treating it as a chance to see what you are capable of and seeing the gym as an opportunity for self-care rather than running away from something or someone we don't want to be, we give ourselves a chance to be consistent, enjoy our time away, and hit the ground running even harder when we get back.