What are you training for?

Let’s get a few things straight!

You won’t have a perfect diet every day, you won’t be able to give 100% every single time in every single gym session.

You are human.

We all have bad days where we fall off the wagon, fail to hit our macro or calorie goals or overshoot completely.

Some days you’ll be exhausted and reach for a quick energy fix that’s not on the plan, some days you’ll be so busy you’ll hardly have time to think never mind eat, some days you’ll be anxious and stressed and the last thing your body needs is a high intensity interval session- some days yoga or a stroll in the park is the better option.

The point is that everyone has off days, and if this happens to you now and again you shouldn’t consider yourself a failure, nor should you think your day, week, month or year is ruined!

It’s only ruined if you believe it is.

It’s only ruined if you allow one day to turn into 10 or 20.

It’s not a failure, it’s a road bump, a learning curve or whatever other comparison you want to make.

There’s too much ‘go hard or go home’ mentality in the fitness industry at the minute, too much preaching from PTs and gym instructors about being 100% dedicated.  They are on their soap boxes (hell I understand it comes from a good place because that used to be me too) but it’s helping no one.  It’s easier for us in the fitness industry to be 100% focused because we eat, sleep and breath training and nutrition, but even we don’t manage it ALL the time.

Everyone needs to let their hair down now and again. Everyone enjoys a meal out or a couple of glasses of wine/beer/spirits (delete as appropriate). If it’s your friends wedding do you really want to be the one saying ‘No, sorry I can’t eat that, or that, or that, actually you know what I brought my food in some Tupperware, I’m fine with that!’ and if you think that’s extreme- I’m telling you that as a real life example. Here’s another one from a client ‘no treats or birthday cake…even on my birthday…’.

What do you think happens when all the willpower runs out? Because it always does, eventually! The blow out in my experience is directly proportional to the amount of time you’ve been ‘perfect’, and to the severity of the restriction.

I am not advocating giving into all cravings and wants all the time, that just makes a person weaker, and crave more. I am advocating moderation, something we seem to have lost amidst all the ‘your already in pain’ slogans and the current infatuation with abs…how the hell do abs improve your quality of life??

Unless you’re a paid fitness model or sponsored athlete, I don’t see the point. Especially for females, visible abs all year round is downright dangerous. You risk metabolic damage, bone density loss, amenorrhea, hair loss and infertility.

Those are high prices to pay for something so vacant.

The bottom line is that being perfect 100% of the time will eventually leave you hiding in your mothers wardrobe with a desert spoon and a family sized tub of Nutella- trust me, I’ve been there!

It can also lead to dietary and nutritional deficiencies and eventually bad health- the very thing you got into fitness to try to avoid!!

Having off days are part of the process, allow yourself to learn and grow from them, acknowledge the reasons why it happened and try to avoid these in the future.

Plan ahead.

But remember that even the best laid plans something’s go awry, and you know what? That’s not the end of the world- that’s this awesome unpredictable thing we call life! Roll with it and get back on the wagon the next day.

Never let one off day turn into a week or a month, this is where the problems arise.

I’m training to be healthy and live to a ripe age with agility and without aches and pains…..but I also want to enjoy the time it takes to get there.

What are you training for?

Naomi x

PTI Tutor