How To Get Back On Track After A Fitness Break

Fitness is a lifelong commitment. However, family obligations, work commitments, and social events may have too much space on our schedule and push fitness to the side. It happens, even to the most organized and best of us. We hit a steady stride on how fitness journey and suddenly, you fall off. You take a break for a few days and suddenly, you cannot remember the last time you visited the gym. You are bound to fall off. The most important thing is to try to get back on track after you take a fitness break.

Getting back on track after a fitness break can be hard. You have lost all the progress you made before and have to work extra hard to get your body back into the zone.  Here are a few tips to get you back on track.

1. Find your motivation.

You cannot trick yourself into being fit; you have to want it for yourself. Otherwise, you would keep losing motivation. You have to decide for yourself that you want to be healthy and get back to the gym. External motivators are good, but they eventually fizzle out. But if your motivation comes from within, you will not run out of steam.

2. Make a plan.

Schedule your workouts like meetings you cannot afford to miss. If you fix your workout for a particular period, try to make sure you do it without excuses. You can get a calendar, write your workout plans for the next two weeks, and hang it somewhere visible. Tick off each day you exercise and watch your confidence and motivation grow. Also, don’t forget to include rest days in your schedule as they are important.

READ ALSO: 5 Signs To Know You Need A Rest Day

3. Don’t go too hard.

Taking a fitness break, no matter how short, can undo the fitness gains you have already made. Sometimes, it might even be harder to get back the progress you have made. In other words, if you were consistent with your fitness routine but took a break, don’t expect to get back into your program as if nothing has changed. Pace yourself so you don’t sustain an injury. Remember, the point of fitness is to fix your body, not break it. Take your time to get back into a routine, and don’t try to push yourself too hard.

4. Don’t try to change everything at once.

The temptation to overhaul all your old habits and embrace a fitness lifestyle will always be there. That’s one mistake that people make – fixate on too many changes at once. They try to change their eating and exercise habits at the same time. Your body will revolt against making too many changes out once. Focus on one activity at a time and try to re-establish it as a habit.

Instead, you can slowly change your nutrition patterns not to feel overwhelmed and give up out of frustration. So, instead of completely removing carbs from your diet, you can slowly reduce your carb intake as the first step.

5. Don’t sabotage your efforts with food.

The fastest way to lose motivation is when you don’t see results for all your hard work. Most times, the culprit is the kind of food we eat. Remove all temptation, especially if you have started eating clean. If you still have them around you, there is a likelihood that you will give in to temptation. Also, set a time frame where you cannot grab anything from the kitchen or fridge, especially after dinner.

Fitness is an adventure with many ups and downs. Everyone will experience these things but trust your process, and you will see results.