Maybe you had an injury. Maybe you couldn’t afford to pay the personal trainer. Maybe your DVD player broke, your walking partner quit, or you were exhausted and overwhelmed with work. No matter the reason for stopping your diet or exercise routine, you missed a workout or two. Once you’ve missed a few, it’s more than easy to miss a few more. Before you know it, you are no longer working out. And, the sad part is that while you sit on the sofa watching TV you might surf past a commercial for P90X and you think to yourself, I probably should stop eating these tortilla chips and get back to the gym. But you wonder how you will ever get back into it. Maybe you think you’ve gone too far.
Put down the chips. No matter how far you’ve fallen – and, sometimes, you fall pretty far – it’s never too late to get back up and start all over again. You did it once, you can do it again. Go back to the basics.
- Stop eating after 8 p.m.
- Eat breakfast every morning.
- Cut the sodas, the gourmet coffees, the cakes and cookies.
- Take a walk every night or before you go to work.
- Every commercial break, vow (and then do!) to complete a set of squats/push-ups/sit-ups.
- Take your kids to the park and play on the equipment.
- Bike to the grocery store instead of driving a mile.
- Add an extra fruit or veggie choice to each meal.
Any positive move is a step in the right direction and it’s a life-long journey, not a sprint.
So lace up those shoes and start again. As many times as it takes – you can always start again.