Most of us know what we should be doing to support our health. Unfortunately, knowing and doing are two very different things. It is one thing to know we should move more and eat more vegetables; it is another thing to get to the gym and skip the fries.
It is too easy to get in our own way — to let a quest for perfection, unproductive self-talk, and the fluctuations of life derail our health progress. It is way too easy to expect our bodies to feel like they did 20 years ago, and when they don’t, to think “screw this, I give up!”
Today, we reset. Today, stop putting off “til tomorrow” what we can do today. Today, we adopt a “find solutions, growth-oriented” mindset; we decide that even though we don’t look or feel as we did when we were 20, that doesn’t mean we give up. It is time to set our “future self” up for health success.
Reset your mindset: think “progress, not perfect” and find solutions, not excuses!
Life will not always go as planned. In fact, it will often not go as planned. When things go off the rails, it is your job to create a plan B (or C or D).
Embrace that “something is always better than nothing.” A workout doesn’t have to be “perfect”—or what you would have done in your twenties—to be worthwhile.… It just has to get done.
Find solutions, not excuses. Will a work meeting derail your gym plans? No problem—walk on a conference call or play a sport with your kids when you get home. Injured? Instead of using it as an excuse to sit and watch Netflix, go to a physio, and work on the injury. Get rehab exercises and find ways to move that don’t stress the injured area. Discouraged because you don’t feel like you did when you were 20? I get that, but that doesn’t mean you stop. Find things that you currently enjoy doing.
Waiting to act until your body feels perfectly motivated and injury free, and/or until you can find the perfect week to start the program, just keeps you stuck exactly where you are today. Perfect is a mirage. It doesn’t exist. No human is perfect. No health program is perfect.
Meet yourself where you are. Do what you can today. Aim to trend positive.
Train intelligently
The body is amazingly adaptive, but adaption takes time. Think gradual progression. If you have never run 5 km before, don’t attempt a continuous run tomorrow. Start with 1 minute of jogging alternating with 3 minutes of walking. If you have not hiked for 5 years, don’t start with an aggressive 3-hour trek. If you have not skied for 5 years, skip the black diamonds.
Respect where you are now, your past injury history, and where you want to get to.
Be Goldilocks. Know what is “too much,” what is “too little,” and what is “just right” for you.
For you
For you being the two critical words. Some people can run 5 days in a row without getting injured. Others need every other day off. Some people require 9 hours of sleep. Others thrive on 7. Some people can tolerate gluten and dairy. Others can’t.
Don’t unproductively compare your journey to anyone else’s. Thrive in your own lane! Become the fittest version of you—based on your threshold of “just right”—that you can be.
Make sure your goals are realistic. Your goals need to respect your genetics and the time, energy, and resources you have vs the life realities you want to have.
Put equal thought into BOTH recovery and training! The harder you train, the harder you must recover! Recovery allows the body to become stronger, leaner, and generally healthier. Being under-recovered is just as bad as being under-trained; being under-recovered leads to exhaustion, lethargy, muscle aches, trigger points, and stiffness, and left long enough it will lead to injury.
Recovery includes resting, staying hydrated, prioritizing sleep, doing regular stretching and massage, and eating a nutritionally dense diet.
When you do get injured, act appropriately. Consult an expert (physiotherapist, trainer, etc.) when needed, and don’t ignore warning signs. Don’t let a sore muscle turn into a full-fledged injury because you refused to skip a day of training.
Act with “future you” in mind!
Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash
Take the actions today that will create the “future you” that you desire. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says that every choice you make is a vote for the person you want your future to be. Dr. Peter Attia, the host of The Drive podcast, says, “figure out what you want to be doing in the last decade of your life and work backward.”
So, the question is, who do you want your future self to be? What do you want “future you” to be able to do? Do you want to be someone who still plays tennis? If so, do balance and coordination exercises. Do you want to play with your grandkids? If so, stay mobile. Do you want to be functional and independent, to be able to stand up from the sofa without holding onto something? If so, you’d better get to squatting and stretching.
Now, you don’t need to be perfect to “vote” for the future of your existence. No one needs 100% of the votes to get elected to office. What is required is a majority. It is your norms—your habits—that matter, not your one-off actions. So, get walking, squatting, and stretching. Rinse and repeat tomorrow!
Concluding thoughts
Being active and eating well should be thought of as non-negotiable, but the details of how you move and how you define your healthy eating plan are up to you. Get out of your own head. As one of the Peloton instructors, Jess Sims says, “no ego, amigo.” Thrive in your own lane, but make sure you are in your current lane vs your lane from 20 years ago. Let go of being perfect and just move. Something is always better than nothing.
Stop worrying about what you “could have done” or “should have done” in the past. Just get going. Today is the only day you have direct control over.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today. Start planting your health tree today!
Who is the author?
Kathleen Trotter
Kathleen Trotter, MSc, is a fitness expert, media personality, personal trainer, writer, and author of Finding Your Fit: A Compassionate Trainer’s Guide to Making Fitness a Lifelong Habit and Your Fittest Future Self. Making Choices Today for a Happier, Healthier, Fitter Future You. She has spent more than eight years writing for The Globe and Mail.
She has written for various other publications including Impact Magazine, ParticipAction, Breathe, Alive, Canadian Running, Today’s Parent, Chatelaine, and Glow. For six years, she was the featured personal trainer in The Globe and Mail’s online Fitness Basics weekly web series and was included in The Globe’s weekly newsletter for subscribers. She has been a personal trainer and fitness expert for almost twenty years. She has appeared in a variety of media outlets, including Inspire Health, Shape, and Sharp.
