Playing the Long Game
I really just like this saying…
Last fall, I was talking with my business coach about how often I wanted to send out this newsletter.
"Every week," I said.
She cautioned that she thought that a weekly email was a bit much (probably for all of you on this list too...), but I insisted. Once a week. Put my mind to it, and do it.
Right?
Hahahaha...um...no.
Almost 12 weeks and exactly two emails into 2023, I'm lol'ing myself as I sit down to send out number three. Helping people set realistic goals for themselves is a primary role in my job as a coach.
But let's be honest - of course I don't always take my own advice.
The thing is, no matter how good your intentions and no matter how solid your habits and routines, life is going to get life-y at some point, and even the best laid plans will get hi-jacked.
The question isn't whether or not your plans will be blown up, but how you prepare for the inevitable. Which is that you are going to have some days and weeks when your plans fall apart. I used to think of missing time in workouts as planning to fail.
I regret ever thinking about that or writing that, because taking a break isn't failing. Taking a break is an inevitable part of approaching any long-term plan.
In the world of strength training, there is something called periodization. Basically, you follow a 12 or 16 week program and the goal is to build strength progressively, adding sets, reps, and more weight as you go.
In order to stay healthy and ensure that you make gains, those programs also include what is known as de-load weeks. Meaning, you deliberately have lighter workouts during that week, to give your body a chance to rest and recover.
That’s what programming looks like for an athlete, or someone who is training for a power lifting meet.
For the rest of us, periodization is built into our lives already, in the form of travel, getting sick or injured, or managing other disruptions that show up naturally in our lives. The problem is, we can't always predict when that's going to happen. Sometimes we're forced to take a break a month into starting a new fitness routine.
Sometimes, a break happens after one week, or maybe even just one workout. And that can feel incredibly disheartening and discouraging. In those low and frustrating moments, I try to remind clients (and myself), that I'm playing the long game. Missing a week or two weeks or even a month isn't the end of your workout routine and doesn't mean you suck at life and can't stick with anything.
How consistent do you think you have to be with a workout or nutrition program to see results?
When I ask clients this question, the answer is often anywhere from 80% to 90%, and sometimes even as high as 95%.
According to a study from clients who participated in nutrition coaching with Precision Nutrition, clients who were less than 50% consistent with their nutrition changes still lost 5%-6% of their total body weight in a year.
That might not sound like much, but on average, that is 11lbs. And that is 11lbs that stayed off. Those people who were less consistent still got healthier.
You hear it all of the time, but I'm willing to bet you don't always believe it. Success isn't perfection.
In reality, success is never letting a break, from whatever behavior change we are trying to implement, last for too long. Our real trouble isn't that life got life-y, our real trouble is our reaction to when life goes off the rails a bit.
So when we have unexpected time off, we tend to see our breaks as a result of:
a lack of discipline.
laziness.
inability to make anything stick.
a moral failing.
Because of the shame we feel about not following through on our plan, even though we were battling extenuating circumstances, we let one day turn into one week, and then one month and then we've fallen off again. We quit. We consider our inability to execute as a moral failure, and as such, it feeds the narrative we are already telling ourselves.
Which is:
Here I go again.
I can never stick with anything.
I just didn't try hard enough.
But what if we started to build some weeks off into our expectations? I don’t know if I’ve ever met a non-athlete who didn’t end up needing to take some time off for external reason that was out of their control.
The difference between those who have success and those who don’t though?
The mindset around that time off makes all the difference in the world. If you can have a mindset where you anticipate that time off, you’ll be able to give yourself grace for the time off. You’ll be able to have some perspective for the time off. No matter how much time you need to take.
You’ll know that in the grand scheme of working out, a week, or two weeks or even a month off is nothing more than a blip on the radar screen.
If you view the week off as a moral failing though?
You struggle to show back up to the process because in your mind, you already failed. So you let one week turn into two, turn into a month, turn into years.