Confessions of a Health Coach
It’s been a crazy 2 weeks!
I turned 40 the first weekend of October and my sweetie planned such a FANTASTIC birthday for me, more than a week later and I’m still on cloud 9!
My birthday weekend was full of great food, cocktails, late nights and early mornings! The weather was a little chilly and rainy but the party continued. This past weekend I spent in Atlanta doing more partying, had more drinks, yummy food and late nights.
So what’s the confession?
The confession is this: I completely fell off my clean eating, reduced-alcohol and healthy lifestyle. I totally went for it – eating foods I have sensitivities to like cheese, gluten and desserts; I had more drinks than I should and didn’t get nearly the amount of sleep I need.
I kept telling myself “tomorrow I’ll get back on the bandwagon” and then tomorrow would come and something else would come up and I would repeat the same thing again, rationalizing it was still part of my birthday celebration so it was OK.
And truthfully, it is OK. I don’t binge and do this kind of stuff often. But, that isn’t to say I’m not currently experiencing the consequences of my actions!! There are always consequences, even with good intentions.
After months of feeling GREAT — full of energy, mental clarity and the drive to plow through my to-do list, I’ve hit a wall. HARD. The last few days I’ve been extremely tired, less able to focus and not quite as motivated to get things done as I have been.
And the lessons are….
- That going “off-script” sometimes is OK! It can be cathartic and rejuvenating in some ways. I felt so much love the weekend of my birthday from all my friends and family that made the trek to NYC, spent money on hotels and flights and were truly happy to be there with me. It was worth the cost of feeling a little more tired than normal this week.
- Every day provides a new opportunity to start over. And even though I pushed out my “restart” date a few days, I woke up this morning totally motivated to get back on track.
- Perfection is not the goal. I used to be a perfectionist and at times I find myself still in that same mindset. But when it comes to my health, I understand that perfection is not the goal. The goal is to make today better than yesterday and in general, to do the best I can. Today, I will be better than yesterday and tomorrow I’ll be better than today. It’s as simple as that.
Where have you fallen off the bandwagon and struggled to get back on track? What helped you finally correct course?
Just remember, small and consistent steps in the right direction will eventually lead you where you want to go…
Photo credit: pickjumbo
Thanks for being so honest. I did great the first week of the detox, eating such healthy meals it was great. I felt better than I have in the longest time. The second week I just couldn’t manage, both my children had birthdys back to back, I ate meat and cake. I kept saying tomorrow I won’t eat any meat, the next day. Here it is the weekend already. As I look back, I must say I am proud of the progress and changes I did make. And I look forward to making more changes, and trying new meals.
I totally understand how easy it can be to fall off the wagon — as you can see, even someone who’s been living the “healthy” lifestyle for a while now can still deviate from the normal routine from time to time. Today, tomorrow — are opportunities to get back on track. I just came back from the Farmer’s Market and my food co-op and I plan to spend a few hours today and tomorrow in the kitchen making some yummy meals for the week. If I can, you can too! We still have a week left of the detox — jump back in! I’m so excited you felt really good the first week when you stayed on task, that is proof that when you eat right, you can definitely feel better. You just have to keep at it until it becomes habit and not even something you consider not doing for yourself. You’ll get there. I’m here to help!