Flexibility

I don't know if this is a problem across the board with folks on fitness journeys, or if maybe this is pretty specific to me. What's the first thing you do when you get amped up about getting in shape? You make a plan, either a very detailed plan, or perhaps a broad strokes plan. But nonetheless, a plan is made and that plan, that is your salvation. This is your path to the promised land!! But here is the thing about plans. They are great for framework, but if you are the person that can't be a little flexible about when you do what or how you do what, then there may be issues in your journey.

Take me for example. I had a pretty big step off plan yesterday. I have been consistently leaving the office, going to Walmart, and buying a turkey wrap they make there. It is $3 and 360 calories. I am fully aware of everything about its nutrition and it fits my plan for each day. Yesterday, I wound up having work lunch at a locally owned restaurant. The kind that doesn't have a website that I can go check on the specs of a dish. That alone set me off a little. But I made the best choice I could on the menu. I forgot to get on MFP and find something similar to my dish when I got back to work. Then later, as I realized I had forgot, I also began to dread doing it, fearing I would find that I am not at the calorie point I want to be at for 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In all of this mess, I began to stress a little. I don't know why really, other than instinct I haven't beaten out of me yet, but I had a Snickers candy bar. I thought for sure that was going to screw me for the day on my calorie goal. Basically, I was about to throw this day away, as I have done many times before. But here is how the day wound up playing out. I had a talk with myself and basically said throwing the day away is not an option. I will chart my food on MFP, I will take what it is and learn moving forward to protect myself a little better. So i began to chart, even the candy bar, and turned out, I made a really good choice at lunch and the candy bar was actually not 1 million calories. In fact, by the time I was done charting, I had room enough for supper and a snack without going over. So I get home, and it was like Kathy knew I needed something to fix my day, she had made a big pan of roasted veggies! Meatless Monday to the rescue, and I wound up with a very low cal, but very fulfilling supper that saved my day!

Yesterday was a day I had to be flexible to succeed. The office lunch was a tough thing, but I made it work. The super low cal/high nutrition supper was not really something I cherish, because I like meat. Historically, I would have ate it and then raided the fridge for some meat. Being flexible and changing my attitude towards Meatless Monday was just the thing I needed to pull myself out of the bad attitude I had been having all afternoon!

Continue this theme on to this morning. I have a general overview of what my workouts are going to look like each day. For this week, my plan was to do weights on Monday, do the elliptical today, weights again tomorrow, then a long session of cardio on Friday. I woke this morning and found out that the weather was just right for a nice long walk around my neighborhood. We cut the cable, so my keeping up with the weather has suffered. When I realized this, I made a quick change and decided to go with my long cardio day today. I enjoy outside workouts so much more than inside, but the heat had been oppressive for the last few weeks around here, so I was going strictly indoor workouts. I know this sounds like a dumb example of flexibility, but I am that guy that getting off my plan for the day can seriously derail me, even if getting off plan includes getting a workout in. If it isn't the workout I planned, I am in trouble. Another issue I face is being flexible about what time I workout. One one of my attempts that didn't quite take off, I was determined that I will workout at 5 a.m. 4 days a week. And I did do a good job. But then I had a couple of jury trials back to back, and I started to use that time for prep. I could very easily have gone to the gym at lunch on those days, but that wasn't the time I had set for me to workout, so I couldn't go at that time! A little flexibility on my part may have made that particular attempt successful, and not left me kicking it down the road once again.