Comparisons

People say all the time not to compare your fitness journey to someone else’s, and I think even if we fall into the trap occasionally most of us know this is true.

What’s really hard is getting out of the habit of comparing where you are now to where you yourself used to be. It’s fine if the change has been what you see as an improvement, your slimmer or have more muscle definition or your faster, can lift heavier. It’s much harder to deal with when you feel like where you are now is a step back.

Going for a run when you know you sued to be able to run much faster or to the gym when you once could lift much heavier adds an extra layer of mental challenge to your motivation. I also think that when you are bigger than you once were the emotions surrounding that make it that much harder to get out there and move, especially if you feel self conscious about the changes, and it becomes a double edged sword, where the things that would help you feel better about yourself are also hard to do when you don’t feel good.

Of course this is also a feeling that people starting from scratch with fitness often feel, but when you’re starting again there’s almost an element of shame added to it.

I honestly think fitness is a mindset thing, because the actual components of a healthy lifestyle aren’t complicated, it’s our emotional connection to those things that makes it that much harder.