When Intentions Dwindle

Last week my daughter had an ear infection and needed extra time and attention from me. By the time she was feeling better I began to feel run down and, sure enough, eventually ended up with a cold of my own. On top of that, my husband was out of town for the three worst days of my cold. Needless to say, exercise fell to the wayside and my efforts to feed the kids and I rested on whatever was easy and fast.

Life happens. When it does, the efforts we make to be healthy don’t always fit into the schedule. And that’s okay. If we beat ourselves up over it and end up feeling guilty, we will only risk sabotaging our efforts to get back on track. But if we can accept those less than healthy days for what they were and move on, we are more apt to find the motivation to pick up where we left off.

I used to mark the details of each and every workout I completed on my calendar so I could look back and see how many days in a particular week or month I had worked out. But I found that when I couldn’t work out for several days in a row for whatever reason, I felt guilty. Now, I no longer record my workouts, but rather just take it one day at a time and am grateful when I have the ability to workout.

Similarly, we sometimes have days when it is difficult to eat as healthy as we want to eat. Whether it be from time constraints or lack of energy to cook a healthy meal or simply making unhealthier choices (football Sunday anyone??), we all have our bad eating days. Just as with exercise, if we focus on what we are doing wrong we will end up having a negative attitude towards health. What we need to do is focus on what we are doing right.

We are human. We are not perfect, nor should we try to be. What we should do is our best to be healthy; to exercise regularly; to make healthy food choices on a daily basis. And when our best isn’t very healthy, accept the setback and aim to get back on track as soon as possible.

Each new day presents a clean slate. It is a brand new chance to make the choices you want to make. If you choose to Live Healthy, start today and start every day. That way there is no looking back on what you’ve done wrong, only forward towards your goals. Thing will get in the way, inevitably. But it only takes one night to wipe the slate clean and start again.