While I was binging watching The Biggest Loser, I noticed that at all the weight-ins ins AT LEAST one person every week was upset with the amount that they lost. And sometimes it was a lot of weight. one girl lost 6 pounds and she looked so disappointed in herself. Bob Harper and her coach tried to tell her YOU LOST 6 POUNDS! Celebrate Everything. Yes, it’s not what you wanted but you should be happy with the number. They killed in the gym that week but wanted to lose more.
We need to learn to celebrate things more! You did 10 bicep curls. Awesome, that’s better than not moving at all. We all get so caught up on what we CAN’T do that we forget the things that we can do. We need to start taking inventory of what we can do. Those are the things we should be focusing on. We need to work on moving forward towards our goals.
When I was a trainer at Planet Fitness I had one client see another member do a full extension burpee. (I call it full extension because not all exercises are full extension.) She said that she wanted to do that. I told her that she just did one. The version that we did in class was squat to a step out to push up to inchworm and up. I told her it was the same thing but just a different version. I told her she needs to celebrate everything that her body was able to do.
Just because you can’t do them now doesn’t mean that you can never do that. It’s all about taking baby steps! Remember we have to learn to walk before jog then run. Everything happens in an order. All of those cheesy metaphors for life are good for fitness too. You can’t just walk into the gym and do a single leg deadlift. (If you can, good for you! I’m so proud of you AND want to know how you did it.) We have to go in order. Start with a bodyweight deadlift, learn how to hinge and activate the right muscle groups, then add weights, next is a b stance, then go to one leg.
We have to remember that there is so much that our bodies can do! Our bodies are designed for movement. We have been hard on our bodies and it takes time to undo some of that work. But you are making the change that’s what should on our minds. Not the stuff we could have done in the past. None of that matters. Focus on the moment, and what YOU can do with your body.
