The Healthy Bride

Do you, on occasion, feel the need for a pep talk?  One of my beloved clients was running lines in class the other day, and she said “Christi, I am in need of a major pep talk”.

She felt like her motivation had fallen off a cliff and that she was needing some coaching on how to avoid the junk food syndrome that she, on occasion, falls into. Her classmates and I immediately shifted into pep talk mode.

We asked her to reiterate all of the goals she had set at the start of the session.  She told us she was trying to be consistent with working out 4 times per week.  This is something that normally comes easy to her, but lately, she was only getting in the two classes we have together. One of her issues was not allowing herself to use weekend time as workout time.  I asked her about this and she said it was time she felt she needed to be spending with her fiance.  I asked her if she could get up an hour earlier, or better yet, get her fiance to join her in a workout once or twice over the weekend.  She said that she had not really thought of that, and that yes, she probably could talk him into joining her or at least giving her an hour of time for her to meet her goals.

The junk food syndrome is a tough one for all of us.  She said that she was regularly craving salty, crunchy foods and was giving in lately.  This bride has lost about 40 pounds over the past year, most of the weight came off on her own.  She was working out to home videos and watching what she ate – carefully.  My suggestion to her was to start keeping a record of what she was eating for a few days and get a good, complete picture of how much she really was eating.  I also suggested she use a program that allows her to track her workouts.  The group suggested that she drink more water, and to be very careful when shopping.

One subject of interest that came up re: shopping.  If you don’t buy the junk food, it’s a lot more likely that you won’t eat it.  Don’t sabotage yourself by thinking that you are only buying the “bad” food for others in your household.  If you won’t eat it, why are you buying it for anyone else in the house?  We suggested to this bride that she not buy foods she is trying to avoid.  Substitute something good for you like an apple with peanut butter (one of my favorite snacks), or a protein fruit smoothy for the pretzels.  Even popcorn is a better option than pretzels.

Jessica left our workout feeling much better and when I checked in with her a couple of days later, she said that she was feeling more motivated and that she thought she was over her slump.  She told me that having the group to talk to really helped, and that being held accountable to the group was a great motivation boost.

When you are feeling in a slump with your health and fitness goals, share your concerns and find a supportive group to help you through.  We all have cycles of ups and downs.  It’s just part of life and we all do get through them – but it sure helps to have a little support from our friends.