Falling Off The Fitness Wagon

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It is inevitable. We all, at some point or another, will fall off the ole fitness wagon. For some of us it is only for a few days, others for a few years and everything in between. I figured this post was appropriate given the long holiday weekend being upon us. I am coming off of a fresh back injury that (thankfully) just seems to be a pulled muscle in my middle back. This was not a workout related injury, but definitely impacted my gym time. If you read my post on injuries, you know that it is not worth it to work through such injuries or even mild illnesses like the cold. I am going to discuss what has worked for me in the past (and present) when it comes to falling off the wagon.

For some of us, we just need a week or two of reprieve from the struggles and taxing nature that fitness brings. For others, we have decided not to focus on our “diet” or food consumption for things like a vacation or get together. And there are those out there that are forced to take some time off from fitness due to injury or life situations. The first thing you need to understand is that all the above are VALID reasons to take time off of the gym or your diet and should only be temporary. If you can break the cycle of guilt before it starts then you have already done better than most. I am only going to lightly touch on the injury aspect as this was covered in another post.

If you have an injury you MUST rest the impacted body part and the parts surrounding it. Even something as small as a pulled muscle can wreak havoc on your life and your workouts. If you continue to abuse that muscle by working out you will only make situations worse. Unfortunately any back injury can pretty much wreck all of your workout plans. The smaller muscles in your back (and thus more likely to sustain injury) are used in some of the most basic actions in life. Bending over, turning to wipe your butt, WALKING, standing up from a seated position, etc. When those tiny little muscles misbehave your whole life is impacted and there isn’t a single body part you can successfully get a good workout in for when you have this type of injury. Even increasing your intra-abdominal pressure (holding your breath) can result in further injuring the muscle. Sometimes this results in taking a few weeks off from the gym. Unfortunately, many off us, when forced to abandon our fitness regimen for a period of time, tend to let the time off the gym mean a free for all, which leads me into the other ways you can fall of the wagon.

There are many reasons to take diet and/or exercise breaks. I have discussed cheat meals or cheat days before, but I am talking about a prolonged breaks. For instance, many of you will abandon your diets and workouts for a vacation or a long family weekend over this Memorial Day weekend. In my personal opinion, that is completely fine! What is the point of getting fit if you can’t enjoy life as it happens? When I go on vacation I generally completely abandon my diet, but try to sneak in workouts (gotta have that pump when you’re down by the pool right?) Once again, you just need to get ahead of yourself and PLAN this out. I am not talking about planning what you’re going to eat or your workouts. How long are you abandoning your diet and exercise plans? For the weekend? For the week? The best way to do this is to give yourself ample time to enjoy whatever it is you are doing and have a SET DATE to get back into the groove of things. If you have a plan, then you are much more likely to stick to it. For instance, you could say, “I will be back on my diet and exercise program first thing Tuesday morning after the long weekend”. Yeah, you will have some ground to make up and you will possibly feel like crap and maybe even guilt yourself for what you did, but you need to realize that we all need these breaks.

This all works fine and dandy if you have the ability to PLAN your break for things like vacations or weekend getaways or family parties. In the case of injury you sometimes can’t really plan it out. You have to listen to your body and try not to guilt yourself too much while you’re laid up. I stuck to my diet for the first week I was off with the injury, but the second week was an awesome free for all. I was on the SEEFOOD diet. I see food…I eat it. It just happened to have worked out that it was one of the most beautiful weeks we have had in Michigan in a year, so I was able to enjoy the pool, sunshine, 80 degree temps and friends/family.

What about all the progress I’ve made? Our bodies are pretty resilient pieces of equipment. Muscle atrophy (shrinking of the muscle fibers) from not being used or “built” generally occurs after 2 weeks. You can have some atrophy in as little as a week, but most scientific studies agree that two weeks is the tipping point. You may feel “deflated” or “doughy” but that is just the loss of the “pump” and increased blood flow to your body parts from lack of working out, PLUS all of the excess calories or water/salt you have been consuming on your break. Your cardiovascular system is even more resilient than our muscles, but we still start to “decondition” or lose some of our cardiovascular progress in about 2 weeks as well, but the decline is much slower than that of muscle loss.

To summarize, if you’re taking some time off for an injury, let it heal. Try to be stable with your diet if possible or maybe even utilize some of this forced break time to gather your sanity and eat what you want again for a bit. If you are taking time off for any other reason, you generally will have the ability to set an end date. That is the key to getting back on the wagon. Planning when to get back to your diet and exercise is the key to getting back in the groove of things. Don’t lay on the guilt so thick that you start a vicious cycle of guilt eating or depression/anxiety. We all need breaks from our fitness journey and you need to allow yourself to enjoy these breaks (forced by Mother Nature/Father Time/God or otherwise). This is coming from the guy that has been whining to his wife for the last two weeks that he can’t go to the gym, which led to eating whatever I wanted for a whole week because I was feeling sorry for myself. I struggle with the guilt part, but I can also take a step back and realize that it’s not the end of the world or my fitness journey. Now that my back is feeling better I plan on easing myself back into the exercise portion of things starting Tuesday (taking if very light on back and legs day) and jumping right back into my diet regimen (no need to ease into this). There is no point in having a great body or being in great shape if you don’t allow yourself to enjoy life as it is happening around you. Fitness shouldn’t rule our lives, it should be a part of it and help us prolong it.

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