How to Move Forward on Your Fitness Journey Even When You Feel Stuck

You ever feel like life is just getting in the way of your goals? 

Like you can just so perfectly picture exactly who you’d be if you didn’t have a million things on your to-do list. But life just keeps throwing those curve balls, work keeps piling up and you feel lottery lucky if you get to workout once a month. 

I was talking with a client recently about this very thing. As someone who has made incredible progress on her fitness journey, her work load and responsibilities have completely hijacked her routine and has left her feeling super frustrated and fearful of not moving forward. 

One of the worst feelings in the world, no matter what journey you’re on, is feeling stuck. 

While you might be feeling stuck, I want to offer you a different perspective. 

After hearing how full her plate was, how little time she really did have to give to her workout routine, I asked her if it felt doable to shift her goal from creating change in the body to simply just maintaining all that she’s already worked so hard for already. 

Instead of telling ourselves we’re stuck, there’s no way out of this, or I’m never going to get back into a good routine, we can flip the script and choose to offer ourselves gratitude for how far we’ve already come and a little grace for the timeline of the things we want to do. 

If this sounds familiar, I want to encourage you too that it’s okay to focus on just maintaining. In a world full of experts and influencers reminding us how much we “need” and “want” to feel better, stronger, more this and more that (and I completely understand I’m throwing this language at you too), I also want you to know it’s okay if that’s not your timeline. It’s totally acceptable to wait for the right time, and just show up for ourselves in the smallest ways to ensure that we’re being taken care of. 

If you’re in a season of maintenance, I want to remind you that getting enough sleep, eating 3 meals a day, drinking your water, going for walks with your dog, stretching for 10 minutes, and a long phone call to your best friend is enough. 

You now might ask yourself…But how do I know if I’m just making excuses? 

Oh, you’ll know. Once you let go of those expectations, once you just embrace where you are and get rid of all that annoying, blaming, shameful rhetoric trashing your head, you’ll finally see that space open up in your calendar and start asking yourself what you want to fill your time with. You’ll toy with the idea of “Do I want to workout?” And maybe for the first time, you’ll talk to yourself in a tone you’ve never heard before. There might be an eye roll, or a nudge, maybe a giggle and the answer might be “maybe.” 

And just like that you’ve started a new kind of relationship with your body. One built on respect and openness to listen. 

So try it out and don’t forget to let me know how it goes.