By Damien Padilla - Paseo Aquatics
A lot of people think that when we go through a break of not working out and being couch potatoes that we can easily go back into our workouts. We push ourselves harder than we remember and we feel so burned out that we in turn give up before we begin. As a swimmer and someone who has “yo-yo dieted” in the past I can attest to this, it is not easy and it’s intimidating after long breaks to think we can ever get back to where we once were.
Step one is the easiest, start off by setting small goals.
By setting small goals we are accomplishing more realistic feats rather than stretching our bodies to the extremes we are no longer use to. When I was unfortunate enough to get covid I thought after 2 and a half weeks of being in bed that I would be able to get back into doing 7 miles of running and 80 laps of swimming no problem but sadly I was wrong. First I started with one mile and then 2 then finally back to 7 but slowly going back to getting in the water.
Step 2 stop telling yourself “I’ll do it later”, because the truth is the more you tell yourself that, the more it will never happen.
You won’t accomplish anything by “eventually” doing it but by actually doing so.
Step 3 plan out your meals and be prepared instead of waiting till the last minute, by waiting you then take more time to choose rather than picking smart choices.
Step 4 smile and say hi to people regularly it will definitely create a more positive outlook on life and people will gravitate toward you making you even happier.
And step 5 the most important of all, sleep well. It sounds funny sleeping being a part of a happy life but truth is the more balanced rest you get the easier your life gets.
By putting all these steps into motion I noticed so much, I set my goals and accomplish them and am still in a process. As a coach I tell myself that every aspect life throws at me is a new feat to conquer not a failure. But after the process I felt stronger and happier, I said yes to more goals that I wanted to accomplish not just in exercise but in life as well, began practicing music again and writing more often and even in the bad days could never find myself in a bad mood. As a coach I have a long way to go until I feel totally accomplished but next time you think you’ve failed a task or there’s no point to it, get back up and try again because one thing I live my life by is “My will to want a happy life is stronger than my ability to accept the life I have”, so fight for your better life cause guess what I have and now I’m up to 60 laps in the pool 20 more to go.
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