“Man, I am dragging”

Typical statement. We should all be familiar with it. It’s something we’ve told ourselves over and over and over again, many times. It’s that self defeating voice in our head. Or…is it rationale, trying to talk some sense into us? Probably a little bit of both. Let me explain.

It’s what I’m feeling right now. I’m now on week 6 of my 3rd round of P90X in less than a year. The first round was getting myself from post brain surgery shape to back to firefighting duty shape. Round 2 was more about getting myself back to where I originally was before my extended time off. This time, round 3 is about pushing boundaries and self imposed barriers. So, I chose to go the “doubles” route, and I’m doing just that (pushing boundaries).

I must say it’s working. I’m seeing the results in the mirror more so than the scale but the weight is still, once again, sliding off. I’m feeling better than I have in a long time. Actually, at 38, I may honestly be in the best shape of my entire life. But….I am dragging.

Saturday, I skipped a workout (Kenpo). I know, I can hear the collective gasp and overwhelming shock. I don’t miss workouts. When I do, I usually double up the next day in some kind of self inflicted punishment ritual. But Saturday I just sat down, crossed my arms, stuck out my bottom lip and said, “I don’t wanna”.

Well, Sunday was my “off” day. So I went back to back. Monday was crazy busy and I found myself at about 7 pm DREADING my workout. I was at a fork in the road.

I had been pushing myself. The doubles. The work. A night with little sleep at the firehouse the previous week. It was just adding up. Not to mention the winter time and our bodies natural tendency to slow way down and conserve energy anyway. My body was just trying to tell me “Whoa dude, we have to chill for awhile” (My body is an old surfer. What? It’s my body, I’ll lie if I want to!). So, it really was my body trying to tell me something. So I listened.

But then that charismatic old surfer dude, who had told me exactly what I needed earlier, then tried to take advantage of the situation. Once he had me (and had me good), he tried to keep it going as long as he could. Kind of like when a small child does something funny, and everyone laughs, the kid keeps doing it over and over and over, trying to hold the attention for as long as they can? Well, he tried.

As I said, your body has a tendency to want to conserve energy. On a primordial level, your body has no idea when your next meal is coming. At one point in time, mankind would have to go extended periods without food until some was found. We haven’t physically evolved past that concept yet. We haven’t adapted to ingesting salt laden greasy food yet (ok. That’s another blog topic. I’ll move on). So, since our body doesn’t know when the next bout of starvation is coming, it will do what it can to slow you down, just to conserve. “Just in case”.

And that’s where our “laziness” comes from. Our self defeating voice that tells you “it’s ok. You’ve worked hard today. Just sit for a few minutes”. Or “take the day off”. Or “lay in bed a little while longer, we’ll workout later today”. When in fact, if you just tell that voice to be quiet for a second, and really think about it, you know that if you sit down, you aren’t getting back up more than likely. If you lay in bed a little while longer, then there won’t be time for a workout because you have a crazy day scheduled.

What did I do, you ask? I compromised. I told myself yesterday that I was NOT skipping another workout. I readily admitted that I physically did not feel like working out again yesterday. It was late and I was still tired. But, I was out of excuses and wasn’t having any of it. So, I did not workout last night BUT I pushed the start of week six back one day. I did Day 1 on Tuesday, instead of Monday. I will just roll and adapt and start a new schedule. I will finish the next 7 weeks a day behind.

In the long run, it won’t matter that Im’ a day behind. But would have mattered was to just blow another day off, to let my old surfer dude dictate my schedule and talk me out of doing what’s best for me. To let him take away the best thing that I have ever done for myself, and that is, P90X my way into the healthiest lifestyle I’ve ever had. “Sorry dude”.

Remember:

When it comes down to it, you either do, or you don’t. Period

Bradley
Independent Emerald BeachBody Coach
BAM Elite Fitness
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Bradley is a Independent Emerald BeachBody Coach. He is a full-time firefighter, husband and father of 3 beautiful children. Bradley has coached and trained some of the top Indiana boys high school basketball players. After being diagnosed with a rare condition known as a Chiari Malformation and undergoing brain surgery in January of 2009 I committed to speak out to raise awareness about personal health and nutrition to help others live a long and properous life. BeachBody and P90X have completely changed his life.