So, last Thursday, I posted a blog that outlined my plan for daily workouts on keto. It was to include exercises I could do at home without equipment – such as lunges, crunches, squats, etc. I had the best of intentions. And then, the week happened.
Planning for Daily Workouts on Keto
I had the alarms set, the yoga mat in the room, and my motivation fixed firmly in my head. And then, things started to go wrong. I had several things happen at work that made me do some self-reflection and try to deal with stress the best way I could. One of our cats got sick. We had several things in our family happen that added both financial and emotional stress to our week. In other words, all hell broke loose.
Handling It When All Hell Broke Loose
So, what do you do when all hell breaks loose? Like, on all fronts? You handle it the best way you know how. The only thing you can do is take one day at a time and work your way through it, making the best decisions you can. And, you cut yourself some slack.
Now, I could lie and make up a story about how I did the exercises and just something about how I feel better. I could make up numbers about how many push ups I did and what I can do now. But, that’s not why we started this blog. We want to be real about how we started keto, and how we do it now. Reality is, sometimes it sucks and sometimes you just get through the day.
The truth is, I didn’t do one workout last week. Not one. I struggled with even getting up in the mornings and going to work. Workouts were not going to happen. Every morning, I woke up and thought about the workout I was supposed to do. And, every morning I rolled over and hit snooze on my alarm. Because I wasn’t sleeping. I was taking melatonin every night to get to sleep and it would help for a while, and then I would wake up and think about all the things that were causing me stress. I was exhausted.
Eating for Daily Workouts on Keto
The other aspect of doing workouts is eating. If you eat garbage – even keto garbage – it will not be good if you try to exercise. In all honesty, I ate garbage this past week. Again, it is keto garbage, but it’s still garbage. There was a lot of take out that was made to fit the keto lifestyle – burrito bowls with lettuce as a base, hamburgers without the condiments or bun, and cheese with pepperoni sticks. We weren’t planning or cooking when we got home, and we turned to the keto treats a lot.
It’s important to remember that just because you’re not eating carbs, you aren’t necessarily eating well. I tend to turn to keto sweet treats when I am stressed, just as I turned to junk food when I wasn’t on keto. It’s a behaviour I need to work on, for sure. I’m just taking in a lot of sugar alcohols rather than a lot of sugar. Sure, it keeps me on keto, but it isn’t good for me and it isn’t getting me the nutrients I need.
I made one dinner last week from scratch. Just one. And, it tasted so good! It made me want to do better and work harder on my eating. Again, life happened, and the next night we ate customized burgers from McDonalds. I know that with that much garbage in my system, my body is not ready to exercise and get stronger. It needs some nutrition before I get to that.
A Final Takeaway
My plan is to do better this week. I have the list of exercises still by my yoga mat and my motivation in place. I made a checklist of all the things I had to do to handle the things that were stressing me out, and it is getting slowly and surely checked off. The plan is to start this workout routine Monday morning. Will it happen? I hope so!
Here’s the thing – sometimes you just have to cut yourself some slack. Life happens. I’m so lucky, and most of the time, my life is good. Sometimes, it sucks. When you’re feeling stressed out and one more thing is going to push you over the edge, something has to give. Let yourself take the time you need to get some things done to make a difference in that stress level. Don’t just add more to your list. Be kind to yourself and know that one week of delay is not the end of the world, if the rest of your world is falling apart.
Wendy
