Yesterday afternoon I kicked off a weekend fast. My plan is to go for 4 days but I’ll make that decision based on how I feel as the days go by.
For me, the first 36 hours of a fast are the hardest. Mentally, I want to eat. Adjusting to not eating takes some time.
When I did my 5-day fast back in March, I was with my girlfriend Ella. We literally were in the same house. It made it much easier to get through the tough moments when we wanted to quit.
Last night, I wanted to quit. I wasn’t particularly hungry but I was bored and really craved the routine of eating.
It got me thinking about what I do when I want to quit, how I behave when I want to quit. Whether it’s a workout, a fast, or just the discipline of eating for health & fat loss – what do I do when no one is looking and I want to quit?
In the past, I’ll tell you exactly what I did: I quit.
I gave up on myself and gave in to excuses.
I’ll tell you what I did last night.
- I recognized that my mindset wasn’t in a positive place – I was thinking about what was hard and what I didn’t want to do.
- I asked, “Do I have one good choice left in me?” Yes, of course.
- I took a hot shower
- After the shower I took my time with eye cream & moisturizer
- I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly
- I poured two large glasses of water & turned out the lights
- I pulled up inspiring athlete documentaries and watched a couple of them – I wanted to focus on people who push through hard things and work hard in difficult moments
- I went to bed when I felt tired
I had the choice to generate motivation & focus or generate excuses & self pity.
I chose to generate motivation & focus.
We all have that choice all the time.
As I write this, you know what it makes me think of? One of my fave Primal Potential podcast episodes ever: How to bounce back.
Granted, I didn’t need to “bounce back” last night – but I did need a process beyond feeling sorry for myself.
If you haven’t listened to that episode, please do! We struggle when we don’t have a plan in place for the moments that are hard & we want to quit.
It’s what you do when no one is looking and you feel like giving up or giving in that determines how far you go in every area of your life.
What do you do when no one is looking & you feel like giving in?
Today’s workout should be a straight forward one. It is a 17 minute AMRAP which means you do as many rounds as possible in 17 minutes.
“Maya”
AMRAP 17:
20 Calorie Bike
17 Power Snatches (75/55)
20 Box Jumps (24/20″)
17 Wallballs (20/14)
After all the biking yesterday, I wasn’t too excited to get back on the airdyne today but you know what? It makes me better!
On the food front:
Uh, yeah. I’m fasting. 🙂
I was pretty hungry around 7am but it faded quickly. I’m already grateful for this reminder about hunger. I texted my girlfriend that I was hungry a few minutes before 7am and as I write this at 7:13am, I’m not hungry at all.
Yay for waves of hunger that don’t last!
PS: If you’re new to these posts, listen to this podcast episode to get the scoop on what changes I’m making in my life and you can start back at my first daily post here.