Getting back on track is tough!

Time to be honest now. We are 17 days into January and I have completed 1 workout this year, and even that 1 workout was questionable as to whether I can say I gave it even 75%. This is simply because I got married on the 3rd January and then spent a week and a half on our honeymoon drinking alcohol most nights, eating chocolate, biscuits, crisps, cheese and the last of the mince pies every day.

This may seem a little like self sabotage but it is in fact me just letting loose and enjoying myself, enjoying the foods that I won't eat again for the best part of 10 months until christmas comes back around. Enjoying some quality time with my wife and daughter without worrying about what calories are in this and that, and ruining our once in a lifetime experience because I am worriesd about gaining a lb or 2.

Given that you have to overeat by 3500 calories to gain 1lb of body fat, I would say I would be lucky to have put 2lbs on. I guarantee that 2lbs will be back off within 2 weeks time, because now the honeymoon has finished and I am back at work in a routine, my eating habits have returned to normal and it is all systems go. Granted I will not be back at my training regime until next week as I have spent this week chasing my tail and catching up on all the work I didn’t do whilst I was away.

I have two options at this point, I can either get myself all worked up and frustrated that I haven’t done any meaningful exercise and I may have gained a lb or 2 which will lead to my mental health taking a dive. OR I can be a normal rational person and realise that I won’t be getting married again so I should have enjoyed that time with my family, I am getting back on track and by next week we will be back to normal.

Normal for me is exercising anywhere between 4-6 times per week and eating 200-300 calories below my maintenance, I am able to do this I would like to guess around 80% of the time, which over the course of a year is only going to help me progress. If I were to look at a small timeframe (i.e. the last 2 and a half weeks) I have only trained once and gained 2lbs of body fat, that is pretty bad in all fairness but only if you look at it as that small timeframe. This is why I always bang on about consistency and accountability, if I can consistently hit my targets around 80% of the time across a month or even a year I will see huge results whilst allowing myself time to enjoy myself and occasionally take a little time off being strict with my food and calories. Those 200-300 calories that I am saving up over time do add up. After a month I have saved anywhere between 6000-9000 calories which is 2-3 days of calories for me.

So let’s time that by 12 and over a year I have saved 24-36 days (pretty much a month) worth of daily calories, so you can see here how making a small deficit of 200-300 calories per day can have a HUGE impact over a longer period of time.

Moral of this blog is to make sure you aren’t too harsh on yourself, and remember don’t do these things aggressively and short term. Always think about doing them longer term, this will make them more achievable and easier for you to maintain.

If you are unsure where to start or have any questions, drop me a message below.