I know you freak out when you skip your workouts.

What if you don’t lose weight this week?!
What if you don’t win the weight loss challenge?!
What if you gain all your weight back?!
What if you lose your momentum and never workout ever again?!
What if you lose all your strength or muscle?!

No. None of that.

First, identify your patterns. If you’ve yet to hit your rhythm and are ALWAYS hopping on and off the wagon, we need to reconsider your intention and your approach to your fitness routine.

Things to consider:

1) Every cell within your body thrives off of movement. Any joint in the body that doesn’t get sufficient movement will start to lose function. Essentially, in laymen’s terms, your brain doesn’t get enough signals to keep the joint healthy, so it starts to die. This dying process causes pain and discomfort. Welcome to a world of injections, NSAIDs, and even surgeries. Had you chosen to move regularly, you are directly warding off the deterioration process throughout your body. The only way to maintain a joint’s health is through exercise. Don’t want a knee replacement or hip replacement? The answer is a sound strength training routine with proper form and progression. Yes, this still holds true even if your doctor has told you that you are “bone on bone” and need injections or surgery. Your unwillingness to accept this lines their pockets and they LOVE it.

2) If you’re using exercise as means to an end and solely using it as a way to lose weight, you will fail. You will fail one thousand and one times. Exercise is a really inefficient weight management tool. You will start a program hopeful that this will be THE THING that helps you LOSE WEIGHT once and for all. You will weigh in and you will become discouraged and quit until you see another Facebook ad that convinces you to try again.

3) Find a reason outside of weight loss to move your body. Pay attention to how much more energy you have, how much better you feel, and how much easier your day-to-day becomes once you start moving regularly. Something that yields so many benefits will be impossible to break-up with!

If you’re anything like me, lifting is part of your lifeblood. It’s part of your lifestyle. You love it and hate it at the same time, but you’re not ON A WAGON, because there is no means to an end and it’s not going anywhere.

At the time that I’m writing this, I’ve been in pain 24/7 for over 5 weeks. It started on my birthday and hasn’t stopped. As I was walking down the stairs, I felt a pain from my back and into my hip that took my breath away. The pain grew worse and worse and it got to the point where I couldn’t sleep and could hardly drive. As a passenger in the car, I’d have to kneel on the floor with my elbows on the seat just to make it through. I was lucky enough to have a short drive to work as anything longer left me in tears.

The pain didn’t freak me out because I trust my body. I trust that it has been built strong and that it is resilient and given enough time to heal and calm down, it will be back up and running (lifting) again in no time. There is no competition to win, no challenge prize to take home, there is nothing to be won or lost here.

I’m not freaking out because I’m not quitting.

I don’t need to saddle up again and find some bullshit reason to start again. I don’t need a new goal, I don’t need an excuse to stay sedentary and wait for the right amount of motivation to get me going again.

I’m not freaking out because this is not a means to an end.

A movement practice is like a healthy marriage.

Do you freak out whenever you and your husband fight? Or if you’re traveling for work and don’t get to see him for a few days? No. You suck it up and move forward and it’s literally the same once you get home, like you never left. You didn’t file for a divorce, right? Right. This is no different. Lifting is a part of my life. I don’t need to freak out when I can’t make sweet love to it every day like I used to. I can leave it for a day or two and it’ll be just as magical when I return.

What do you do when you forget to brush your teeth? Throw a tantrum and then just stop brushing your teeth for weeks because “OMG ??? I FORGOT TO BRUSH THEM LAST NIGHT AND I’VE RUINED ALL OF THE PROGRESS I’VE MADE BY BRUSHING MY TEETH EACH NIGHT FOR DECADES!?” No. You simply just… brush them again and carry on as usual.

Notice the difference between resting and quitting.

If you keep quitting, go back to numbers 1-3.

If you’re struggling with needing to rest and if you’re freaking out about the necessary rest component that lifting REQUIRES, read this again and again and again until it clicks.