My Journey With Health And Fitness – Stopping The Guilt

Ok, it is hot! Originally they had forecasted it would start cooling down by now but every day they seem to extend it. Now they say we are looking at relief early next week. Sadly that means I will have to keep getting up at 4am to hit the road by 5am and have all my workouts done by 10am. I am starting to look forward to Sunday when I can sleep in until 6am.

Yesterday nothing seemed to go right. I did manage to get out for my early morning 8k run but I knew the rest of the day would be busy so I planned on what my walks would look like. I walked the 1.5k to the coffee shop where a group of us meet each week and then headed off to the park where I meet the seniors’ walking group that I lead each week. That is where things went south. We got to the park and it was closed including the parking lot. Fortunately the young man responsible from stopping vehicles from entering took pity on me and allowed me to park on the road so that I could redirect my group to a mall parking lot. Once we were all there they had little appetite for going on a walk as it was already very warm. Instead we went for coffee.

At that point I started to calculate what I could do. I had time to do a 5k walk home so that I at least got some walking in but then I was out of time. I needed to get the dog to the vet and then to deal with my sister who had been relocated to a care facility. I wouldn’t do any walking after that as it was too warm. By the end of the day I had only put in 17km and 25,000 steps. I felt horrible since I have been able to hit my goals every day for 3 weeks and those goals are 20km and 30,000 steps (at minimum). I felt really guilty because I could have left the seniors at coffee and done a long walk or sucked it up later in the day for another walk but I didn’t. It was almost like I had let myself down.

This morning I regrouped and thought about it. I realized that on Sunday (which is my day off from exercising) I had done more walking than normal. Moreover, I know that on Saturday I will be doing far more than 30,000 steps. I calculated and thought, well, I likely am going to put in more this week than I did last week, why should I feel guilty about that. Quite frankly, even if that wasn’t the case slightly missing my goals due to extenuating circumstances should not make me feel bad, I am still committed to working hard and I have done so.

What helped even more is the text I had received from the friend that I am mentoring. She had missed yesterday’s run because she hadn’t slept the night before (likely due to the heat). She was proud to tell me that she had made up for it today and would get her 3rd run in tomorrow. I congratulated her on keeping going and knew I should follow my own words of encouragement and congratulate myself for working as hard as I have been.

Ultimately I tossed that guilt away. I don’t need to put that kind of pressure on myself especially when I work this hard at keeping myself healthy and fit.