All Or Nothing

I’ve got Covid, again.

Part of having Covid means I’ve had to cancel the rest of my work week (I’m feeling pretty rough). The craziest thing about telling people I’m sick is the response that I’ve been getting.

“Omg, what are you going to do without the gym?”

Well for starters I’m going to rest. Then when I’m better I’ll go back to the gym and get on with it. In the last 24 hours I’ve come to realise just how many people can’t fathom taking a short break because it means they won’t return for months, as they feel they’ve ruined their progress.

My; attitude, self esteem, confidence, patience, and health isn’t dependent on the gym. If exercise is the magic 8 ball of your day that determines whether or not you’ll be a miserable piece of shit… you my friend have an all or nothing mentality.

The incessant need to do EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME isn’t a reflection of how productive you are. It’s a reflection of how much you depend on feeling like you’ve accomplished everything in order to have a good day. The people who fall victim to this also fall victim to the months of doing absolutely nothing, because if you can’t do it all, what’s the f*cking point?

The point of this email isn’t to bash you for wanting to do it all. The point is to redirect you to a healthier attitude. Instead of I’m going to eat only salad, exercise for 2 hours, skip my friends birthday cake on Saturday and go for a run, lets try something a bit more balanced and sustainable like I’m going to be consistent this week and focus on my nutrition, then on Saturday I’ll take a break and enjoy my friends birthday dinner and dessert.

Notice how one is going way over the top? That will last a few weeks before they end up doing nothing for 6 months. The second one is the type of attitude that you can sustain for life. So back to being sick for a second, can you sort of understand why the second attitude would be way better for someone if they’re getting smashed by a cold or something?

Rather than letting your cold knock you out of life for a week, and then out of your healthy habits until your next yearly burst of motivation… your cold can just knock you out for a week. That second attitude means you can take the time to recover, guilt free. You can wait until you’re feeling 100% ready to exercise again. The second type of attitude means you understand that life is going to get in the way sometimes, and that’s okay.

If you’re struggling with an all or nothing mentality, I challenge you to a month of doing the bare minimum. Exercise 3 times per week and enjoy all the lovely foods that would usually send you into a guilty meltdown. If you can do this for a month, you’ll have first hand experience in understanding how maintaining 50% all the time is better than 100% for 2 weeks followed by 0% for 24.

By the way, word on the street is that Covid is going around again. If you’re worried about time off the gym, research shows us that it takes weeks and weeks for our progress to start reversing. So don’t stress, and take some time to rest.

Your coach & friend,

Maddy