Why waiting to start “until next week” or “starting over” is ruining your health and fitness

Waiting to start until the perfect time usually ends up with more waiting.

What are some reasons you have said you were starting over with your health and fitness?

As soon as crisis happens and you hit that mental pause button on the plan you put together, all bets are off. The cheesecake, alcohol, french fries, and Netflix binging become a free for all. You’ll get back at it when life calms down, right?

Life doesn’t calm down.

Let me know when that happens, because I can’t wait for it to happen to me! We have a habits based nutrition program here at Northglenn Health and Fitness / Sacris CrossFit for many reasons, including stress. We focus on planning, preparation, habits, and food comes later. Sometimes much later. I am putting myself through the program and it is a huge stress relief mentally.

My habits I am working on now (yours will be different): Eating before I get hangry. Hitting the gym 4 times a week. The only thing the same between my habits and yours is that they will be low stress and you’ll have 90% confidence that you can achieve them.

The IRS doesn’t care about my health and fitness

This morning I came downstairs and started to make my breakfast. I had my plan to eat, and listen to my favorite podcast while I am eating. It is important to me to establish this habit and then add on to it when it comes naturally. In the middle of cooking, I see that someone picked up the mail and I naively start going through it. Hmmm… A letter from the IRS. Talk about a wrench in my day.

The letter is dated May 18, today is June 17th. The bill is due June 8th, today is June 17th. The tax year it is from is 2011. It is 2020. The notice says I now owe over $800. Are you freaking kidding me? I felt like I was kicked in the gut.

I Lost my Mind

Have you ever tried to call the IRS? Is there even a way to fight this that is not going to consume a ton of time, multiple days, etc? How can they change a tax return from 9 years ago and how in the hell am I going to win this battle? It is impossible and I don’t have $800 laying around, much less to hand off to the IRS. Talk about defeated.

To spiral or not to spiral

I start to spiral. I was moving around the house like a chicken with my head cut off. Looking for my 2011 tax return (as if it was just going to be sitting on the counter somewhere). Searching for my phone to call, wondering what to do about breakfast that is cooking, and clearly not thinking straight. Have you been there?

That is one example of a million things that can come up. Work. Kids. School. Money. Spouse.

Wait until next week? Start over another time..when life comes down?

Something will happen next week, maybe even tomorrow. Life doesn’t really ever calm down if you continue to allow chaos to control your every crisis. I can focus all my energy on this new crisis. But nothing good will come of that. The situation is what it is and I can’t change it in this moment.

I stopped and I remembered. I have my daily habits I committed to getting done. I’m going to eat breakfast so I don’t get cranky. My husband would tell you that cranky is a nice way to put it. I thought about my plan that I had put in place for a reason just like this.

I took control of what I could, my plan. While eating my breakfast, I ate slow and I put my fork down between bites. I focused on my podcast and I booked time on my calendar to call the IRS on Friday. Nothing at this point will lower that tax bill but keeping up with my plan might lessen my waistline.

It’s not starting over, it’s continuing to move forward

One thing can spiral you. But it doesn’t have to. Even if I HAD to skip a meal, miss a workout to deal with the latest crisis right then – child with a broken bone or a work catastrophe that keeps you late at work – you can still have the mentality to know that the next time you are calm your good choices go right back. Why should one miss, or two or three, turn into a weekend spent with Ben and Jerry?

Those crises that you can’t overcome in the moment can still teach you. If you see yourself in the same situation over and over again, then put a plan together to follow the next time it happens. While I sure hope it won’t be the IRS week after week, a surprise late night at work is not so much a surprise if it happens on a regular basis. Plan for it.

Don’t let today’s crisis affect your habits for another week.

Start today. Start now. Schedule an appointment with us to get help. We do this for people all day every day, we can do it for you too!