We are not quite ready to open. Allegheny County is in the yellow phase of reopening Pennsylvania. However, we could be close. If all continues to show decreasing cases of COVID-19, it should be a short time now until we are able to reopen our doors.
As conversations start to shift from everything being closed and staying at home, to things starting to reopen, we are learning that no everything is ready. That’s ok. As we have talked about for the past two or so months, we will be here when you are ready to return. In the meantime, it is important to keep focusing on your workouts and nutrition. Those are the things you can control in your life that will have the greatest impact on your health and safety through this pandemic.
Keep up with your fitness
Working out at home is different than working out that the gym. We get it. The workouts are different. The equipment is different. You aren’t busting your buns with 10 or 12 other people. So, how do you get motivated?
When you are struggling with the motivation to get up and move, think about why you started at IA in the first place. There was a reason you wanted to start a dedicated fitness program. There was a reason you wanted to do more than just run around the block a few times. That reason is your “WHY.” That reason is your purpose for working out. When you think about your purpose for working out, get a little deeper. So you want to lose weight, why is that important? Maybe it’s because you want to be healthier. Ok, why is being healthy important to you? The deeper you can get, the more emotional you allow your purpose to be, the more motivating it will become when it gets hard to get up and move.
Set some goals
We’ve learned a lot throughout the years of helping people become better versions of themselves. One of those lessons is that people without goals often fall off the wagon. You know that purpose thing we just talked about? Goals can be like mini purposes. Just because you are at home doesn’t mean you can’t establish some goals to shoot for. We’ve been working with clients for a long time to set and achieve goals through our Coach’s Corner Program. If you are struggling to decide on a goal, or need someone to narrow your focus, let us know. We can make it as formal or informal as you want.
When you are setting a goal, pick one that is measurable/trackable, specific, has a time period, and is reasonable. Then reverse engineer down to what you will do on a daily basis to reach that goal. Maybe you want to cut down your one mile time by 0:10 in ninety days. That’s awesome. Now, think about what you need to do tomorrow and later this week. Now, you have plan.
Speaking of a Plan
Sometimes, fear can stop us in our tracks. We’re not talking about being afraid of the dark, or afraid of going outside. We mean a sense of being overwhelmed. You might decide on a goal, start to think about achieving that goal, and you stop dead in your tracks. It’s called paralysis by analysis. You are caught up in all of the “What-ifs.”
When that happens, the best thing to do is start doing something. Take action. The first piece of action is the make a plan. It doesn’t have to be perfect. However, as you start taking action, the fear, and sense of being overwhelmed, will go away.
Don’t sacrifice your diet
Put good food in, and you get good energy out. Put bad food in, and well . . . A lot of people are struggling with maintaining any kind of healthy diet while being at home. And, for those who are not ready to leave their home, this is going to continue to be a real problem. It’s really easy to eat more cookies when you are at home during the day, and the cookies are ten feet away. It’s easier to consume alcohol when you don’t have to worry about going anywhere because you don’t want to leave your home.
Once you refocus on your purpose for working out, and you come up with some goals and a plan, fuel your body accordingly. After all, you can’t outrun a bad diet. Focus on lots of nutrient dense fruits and veggies. And, whether you are a meat eater or not, don’t forget those lean protein sources.
This stuff is so personal
Yeah, it is. We are learning that more and more also. A silver lining out of COVID-19 is that we’ve gotten to know a lot of our members so much better. When all this passes, and we start to reopen our facility, it won’t be business as usual. As much as we want it to be, we all know it will be a “new normal.” We are working on framing that new normal and specifically what it will look like. One thing is for sure, the services we offer going forward will be much more personal to our members’ individual needs.
Whether you are ready to include our physical location in your new normal, or not, we can still focus on you. If you haven’t talked with a coach yet about getting some personalized programming, please reach out. The beauty of personalized services is that we tailor to you. Wherever you are in your fitness, wherever you want to go, whatever equipment or resources you have available to you, we adapt to you. We will work together to design, tweak, modify, and perfect a program to help you get bigger, stronger, and faster while you are making the best of being at home.
