It’s been a long last couple of weeks. I came frighteningly close to throwing in the towel. Imagine that? Who does that? Well… lots of people I suppose. I remember the first couple seasons of the biggest loser – the winners all gained their weight back. After that, the producers started incorporating mental health into the weight-loss mix and have had more success with the contestants long term weight loss. I gained four pounds. It might as well have been twenty…or forty. I’ve managed to lose it – plus one, which is a great boost to my ego but man… what a suck-ass week.
What happened? Well, it started 5 weeks ago when I threw out my back and couldn’t do ANYTHING for 5 days. Then, I had the bright idea to start the couch to 5k program over again and ONLY do that because my knees were healed and ready to run. I’m only walk/running 3 days/week and my calorie burn has gone down considerably and I didn’t factor that into my eating and the next thing you know… BAM. Mental friggin’ breakdown.
It’s quite fortuitous that I work in a mental health facility and am surrounded by great therapeutic minds. My friend and I sat and tried to figure out what went awry and we deduced that the change in routine was what through the wrench into the spokes and sent me flying. I recalled that this has happened before. Routine change has derailed many dieting attempts in the past. It wasn’t just the 5 days off, but the whole new routine that I decided to try. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. I didn’t realize it would cause such havoc with my mind. Beyond the obvious lack of calorie burning, the change actually messed with my head to the point that I considered just being satisfied with where I am right now. LOL I only have 48 pounds to get to my goal weight!
The thing with my brain is that once I understand what’s going on, I can adapt to the change. It takes a while and I usually have to push through some unpleasant things but I get there. I went out and broke some personal bests this morning during my walk/run. It’s as if my mental meltdown never happened. Everything is right as rain again.
My advice of the day? Don’t change your routine.
When something is working for you, just friggin’ stick with it. *ugh*
that could be my problem! My routine changes *constantly* and then then I have to figure out how I’m going to do things and then once I get settled in a routine…guess what happens…