Are YOU A Quitter?

Posted on September 17th, 2008.

“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overcome by temporary defeat.”

 

Everybody faces moments in their quest for health when they feel defeated, frustrated or downright worn out. A time when I happened to experience extreme feelings of despair toward exercising and eating right was a few years ago after having bi-lateral knee surgery. For several days, I was unable to walk without the help from crutches. When I could finally walk independently, my knees still ached and I hated the hurt I felt. To top things off, my pain medication made me feel nauseated, tired and like a big blob of skin! Being an impatient person didn’t really help me much in this situation. I wanted to feel better now! I wanted to be back to my regular routine! But since recovery didn’t happen as fast as I had hoped, I was upset. I had been accustomed to exercising daily and doing all of the RIGHT things that were supposed to help me AVOID physical ailments and injuries! Yet here I was, feeling like my body had completely turned on me! My knees were traitors! I felt completely disappointed and discouraged.

 

During that time, I allowed myself to fall into a rut. I lost my sense of accomplishment that I got each time I finished a workout. I didn’t have the energetic and “full of life” feeling that I usually felt each day. I was now a tired, slow person who was a slave to pain.

 

The feelings of defeat overtook my emotions and I quit exercising all together. I didn’t eat terribly during that time, but I also didn’t eat the way I was used to. It was too painful to stand in the kitchen long enough to make something healthy, so I ate cereal for most of my meals. As you can imagine, I went from being active and fit to being tired and soft. I lost a lot of muscle in a short amount of time and that only discouraged me more. In the back of my mind, I knew that I should keep working on my upper body strength, but I did exactly what the quote above, says you shouldn’t do… I quit altogether. I let a moment of temporary defeat, get me down so much that I just stopped. I was done. I wasn’t going to try.

 

Well guess what happened. I gained about 10 pounds in a very short amount of time. What do you think THAT did to my mood? I was such a grouch! Luckily, I finally snapped out of my bummer mood after and I got back to my old habits of exercising daily and eating nutritiously. My mood improved almost instantly, but unfortunately, it took my body a while to catch up! For close to a YEAR I was unable to move my knees the way I wanted to, and even now there are a few {and they happen to be some of my favorite} exercises that I can’t do altogether! But the important thing was, I didn’t let my limitations get in the way of the things I COULD do. It still bothers me that my body has limitations and that I’m not as invincible as I thought I was, but I learned some very important lessons during that time of temporary defeat.

Here are some of the things I learned from that experience:

 

1.    The way you feel RIGHT now is not the way you’ll feel forever.

I had a hard time with this one. At the time, I thought my knees would never get better! And while they are not nearly as good as they once were, they are 95% better than they were right after surgery. Had I not let those negative worries get me down, I may have felt a bit more chipper throughout the whole ordeal. Remember this during times of frustration! Things WILL change and things WILL get better eventually!

 

2.    There is ALWAYS something you can do to benefit your health.

Like I said earlier… I knew I could have been exercising some parts of my body while my knees were out of commission. I could have kept doing upper body strength training, ab exercises and stretch routines. Instead of giving up on my entire body, I could have given some extra attention to the rest of me and would have reaped some great benefits from that! It doesn’t matter what is standing in your way, there is always something - even if is a TINY something - that you can do to treat your body well. Even if you are simply benefitting your EMOTIONAL health by thinking positive thoughts… there is ALWAYS something you can do that is healthy for you! 

 

3.    Your body loses muscle a lot faster than it takes to build it.

I was really surprised at how fast my body went to pot! After years and years of strength training and building firm muscles, I would have expected them to stay strong a little while longer during an exercise “drought”. But no… they turned soft and squishy within just a few short weeks! I felt like I had lost my favorite friends and replaced them with imposters! Maintenance is the key ingredient to living in your best body! You can’t achieve a certain physique and expect it to stay that way if you give up on your healthy habits. It just doesn’t happen.

 

So the message for this week’s MID-WEEK MOTIVATION post is to never - ever give up trying! It can be so discouraging when you work your butt off - trying to lose weight - but when you check, it’s still there… and it’s still rather large! Don’t let this temporary moment of defeat make you quit. Just be patient and keep going! There is SOMETHING in your body that is benefitting from your efforts! It may be your heart getting stronger, your cholesterol lowering, your energy increasing… sometimes we don’t SEE the benefits from exercise as quick as we would like to, but the benefits ARE there!

 

Or maybe you’ve had a bummer week - which enticed you to eat terribly - and now you feel like you’ve completely ruined the health kick you were on. Well don’t give up! Just get back to your healthy habits as soon as possible! Whatever your past history is like – whether days or years – your future doesn’t have to follow suit. You absolutely CAN change! You CAN start fresh! You can treat your body the way you know you should… you just have to start and not let defeat make you quit!

 

Your body will feel better and your spirit will be happier if you overcome moments of self-doubt or discouragement by continuing to live healthy. I truly believe that when we are at our BEST physical self, we are at our BEST spiritual and emotional self as well!

 

Since we are halfway through the week, hopefully your health goals are sticking and you are feeling motivated and strong! If not, remember the quote above as you finish out your week and don’t quit! I would love to know… What are you going to commit to for the remainder of this week? What problems are you going to plow through – that may be trying to sabotage your efforts? Do you have a situation at hand that may be getting you frustrated? Let me know what’s up! I love hearing from all of you and knowing that I’m not alone in my quest to be healthy! Good luck this week!

 

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