Holistic!

This post comes with its own disclaimer.  I lived in Berkeley for 20 years, so I am allowed to use the word holistic.  You’ve been warned.

Sometimes working out is not the right answer.  I admit that working out is usually the right answer, but usually is not the same as always.  We have to take a holistic view of our health and fitness.

 

What that means is that unfortunately we have to rely on our good judgment.  This is boring, irritating, and risky.  We have to engage in the decision-making process.  And behave like responsible adults.  Phooey.  (We thought lunges were the hard part!)

 

So, let me give a couple of examples of how this might work.  I wake up tired and grumpy.  It’s cold out.  Working out requires that I wear a bra.  I have a gazillion things to do in the day ahead of me.  All of those things added up mean I should skip the workout, right?  Nope.  Working out will wake me up.  It will improve my mood.  It will get my brain working better for all those other gazillion things.  (No fix for the cold or the bra, but hey, nothing is perfect.)  On the whole, working out is better for me in this situation than not working out.  Plus, I get to feel virtuous.

 

In the second example, I still wake up tired and grumpy.  This time, it’s because I got a Covid booster and a flu shot the day before.  I spent the night having chills and fever and body aches.  This time, my body needs to rest and restore itself, so turning off the alarm, rolling over, and going back to sleep is the right answer.  If I wake up in the afternoon and feel a lot better, I can consider doing something light and easy like a bit of stretching or a gentle walk, but I can also keep on resting.

 

Please note:  our brains are very, very good at rationalizing.  If we discover that we have found “good reasons” to skip our workouts for three days in a row and those reasons don’t involve illness or injury, we need to give ourselves a (gentle) kick in the behind to get back to the gym.

 

Go play.