We all have goals and dreams that we want to achieve, and it's so common to sometimes put these to the back of our minds, and lose focus on these goals. Since I moved home from University in August, I've truly fallen off the 'healthy eating' bandwagon, and I am really noticing a difference in not only the appearance of my body, but also in my energy levels. I've put on a small amount of weight, and my body fat percentage has increased as well, so I know it is unfortunately not all muscle, as I like to convince myself. Although I have my moments where I feel really down about the fact I have taken one step forward and two steps back in my health and fitness journey, I realise that it is so important to not let this get you down, and sabotage any future progress from being made. Sometimes it is ok to lose focus on your goals, and you just need to take a few steps to get back on track.
Here are a few things I like to do when I have lost sight of my goals.
1) Figure Out Why
Realising the things, or even events, that have made you lose track is really important, as you can use this as an opportunity to not only learn from your mistakes, but also to identify at what point things started to go wrong for you. For me, as mentioned, the reason I fell off track was because I moved back home with my parents. After spending three years on my own and cooking my own nutritious meals, moving back home where I ate whatever my parents cooked and had in the house, things slowly went bad. I stayed pretty focussed on the gym, so the choice of food was the only true issue.
2) Write a Plan of Action!
So for me, this meant writing a food plan, alongside my usual workout plan for the week. Not only this, but also taking charge of the weekly shop, and picking all the dinners for my household. Food was my real downfall when I moved back home as my parents aren't one for healthy food, whereas at University I was eating off of healthy protein, less processed food, and generally balanced meals. My house at the moment is stocked up to the brim with crisps, biscuits, chocolate and sweets, and these are my absolute weakness. I liked to only have a couple of treats in my house when I lived on my own, as it allowed me to remain balanced and not binge.
3) Prevent A Repetition
Yes, you can attempt to prevent losing focus again, although as I've mentioned there is nothing wrong with this happening. For me, I just like to have prevention methods in place to stop myself from going off track again, as I know how it affects me mentally. In this case I have simply tried to track my calories again, as this means I will not binge, and also I am begining to buy my own dinners, now that I have a job. Being in the office also means I cannot be snacking all day, so I think that this will be a good prevention for me.
I guess I just wanted to write this post to remind you that it's ok to lose focus sometimes, and not just in terms of health and fitness, but in other walks too. Sometimes you just need to take some time to readjust to new situations. Especially in terms of fitness, you have to remember that falling off track for a month or two isn't going to completely eliminate all progress you have made so far. Achieving your 'dream body' is not a steady journey, rather one that takes many ups and downs, so just view this period of lost focus as a chance to pick yourself back up, and work harder than you were before.
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