Sticking With It When The Going Gets Tough

In this episode of Simple Shifts: Conversations to Fuel the Body, Mind and Soul, Martha and Peter discuss the challenges of maintaining motivation and energy, particularly in the context of weight loss and wellness journeys. They explore the concept of ‘fighting plan fatigue’ and share personal strategies for staying engaged and inspired, including the importance of morning routines, the metaphor of pickleball for life’s ups and downs, and the power of movement to reset the mind. The conversation emphasizes resilience, self-care, and the understanding that both good and bad days are part of the journey.

Sticking With It When The Going Gets Tough Podcast

Video Transcript

Martha McKinnon (00:00)
Hi, welcome to Simple Shifts: Conversations to Fuel the Body, Mind and Soul. I’m Martha McKinnon from the blog Simple Nourished Living and with me is my partner and my brother Peter Morrison.

Peter Morrison (00:14)
Hi there.

Martha McKinnon (00:15)
Hi, how you doing?

Peter Morrison (00:16)
I’m good. How are you today?

Martha McKinnon (00:17)
I’m doing really well. And what I’d like to talk about today is the topic of this week’s Weight Watchers Workshop that I attended on Monday morning. Are you interested?

Peter Morrison (00:32)
I’m very interested. I’m on the edge of my seat.

Martha McKinnon (00:34)
Are you very interested? So the topic was fighting planned fatigue. And basically, when I heard that, I immediately thought of, what we’re talking about here is sticking with it when the going gets rough. Because sometimes, we get tired. We get overwhelmed. We feel like we’re kind of done. And as we know in life, it’s a big mistake to just stop anything right, dead in the tracks, because it’s a lot harder to pick up from where you left off and then just to sort of figure out a way to keep on going when the going gets a little rough. So I thought it was a really good topic. I found it very helpful.

I attended the express meeting which is essentially just a 15 minute meeting done in a webinar style. So it’s two Weight Watchers coaches who explain the techniques, share their experiences, ideas and thoughts without participation from a lot of other members. So it goes a little more quickly.

And it’s what I needed this week because I’ve got a lot going on and I just needed to, I wanted to get the meeting in, but in as quick and easy way as I possibly could. And so that served me really well. And so the first thing that comes up when you’re really not feeling it. You’re out of sorts. You’re having a hard time. Everything just seems harder. You’re tired of tracking. You’re tired of prepping your vegetables. You’re tired of your exercise routine.

It’s like, well, what do you do? I mean, how do you keep your head in the game? How do you keep yourself in the game without just giving up? Because giving up is a big mistake. And one thing for me is just like, just get to the meeting. I think the best thing you can do for yourself, get to your workshop. Do that as a bare minimum, because that could just be enough to re-inspire you. It could be enough to give you a little insight, a little hint. And so I found that to be very helpful. If I can’t do anything else, at least I can, especially now in this world of virtual meetings, if I can’t do anything else, I can at least log in and attend a workshop. So that’s one thing. Just show up. Just show up for the workshop.

Another thing that I’ve found really helpful is to just… I’ve made part of my life just this little mini sort of yoga routine when I first get up in the morning. And if I can get that done, if I can get that behind me, you know 10 or 15 minutes of stretching and strengthening and some balance and some breathing, it can just set the day off on the right track for me.

So I’ve found that even if I know the rest of the day is gonna be challenging because there’s lot of things unexpected, a lot of things that are happening, a lot of challenges. If I can front load the morning with a little bit of exercise, maybe with tracking breakfast because I know breakfast pretty much is going to be for me coffee with a little bit of half and half in it because I do still practice intermittent fasting. Those things can take me a long way in not totally giving up or just know, sticking with it.

Peter Morrison (03:48)
Do you find your morning yoga routine, is it something you look forward to or do you see it as sometimes as something you just need to do to get through? Like, do you know what I’m saying?

Martha McKinnon (04:01)
It depends on the day. I think that if I wake up feeling, you sometimes I wake up a little more logy and maybe then this feels like something I have to do. And then other mornings I wake up sort of refreshed and ready to go and it feels like more something I get to do. So I think that feeling can vary depending on the day. But what I have found is that it’s something, like brushing my teeth. I just do it. And by just doing it, it just helps, you know, start me on the right track and I can always look back and again like I said if the day ends up going downhill from there at least I know I’ve got that that I can be proud of for having stuck with.

Peter Morrison (04:38)
So much of I think what you’re talking about came from the meeting is I think the stories we tell ourselves because it brings me back to pickleball. Surprise, surprise. Some days it’s like your feet are moving, you’re hitting the ball cleanly, the ball is going where you want it to go.

Other days. It’s amazing. It’s like you’ve never played before. It’s like you can’t hit the ball in the court. It’s going all over the place. But it’s like what’s different? I mean, yeah, you eat different, you feel different, you know, everything’s different, but it’s the same activity. So it’s amazing. From one day to the next, you could be like a totally different player and have a totally different experience.

It’s really hardest in those moments when things aren’t going well to sort of stay focused.

Because there’s not a lot I can change in the moment to change the outcome. Sometimes you just have to tough through the bad days, at least for me on the pickleball court.

Martha McKinnon (05:59)
And I think it’s a great metaphor. I mean, I think the pickleball is a metaphor for life. It’s a metaphor for what we’re talking about here, that that is life. And there are ups and downs. And I think the more we can recognize it and not get lost in it, you can have a really bad day. And if you don’t give yourself enough grace and if you don’t have enough awareness, you can just say, I’m done with this in a moment.

Peter Morrison (06:22)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (06:24)
And then you can regret that. And so that’s what we’re talking about, I think, is just that understanding that there are going to be ups and downs, there are going to be good days and bad days, it’s part of life. And to know that, you know, if you stick with it, you’re going to get back to that place where you are in the zone, where everything is working for you.

But you’ve got to give yourself enough grace and trust to just stick with it and figure out like, well, what can I do? You know, like on the pickleball court, what can I do in this moment when it’s really not working for me?

Does it mean I take three deep breaths? Does it mean I just laugh it off and say tomorrow’s a new day? I mean, whatever that is. I mean, it’s the same thing we’re talking about here with this ability to stick with it when you’re just not feeling it on your weight loss, you know, weight health journey. You know, how do you keep yourself in the game at a bare minimum? Maybe it’s just I’m going to get my water in.

Peter Morrison (07:22)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (07:24)
Maybe I’m just going to sit for five minutes and take a breather. Maybe I’ll just sit at the end of the day and reflect and think about how I can start off fresh in the morning. Maybe it’s just getting out and taking a 10 minute walk. So whatever you can do just at a bare minimum during those difficult times to get yourself through, knowing that we are going to bounce back and that tomorrow is a new day and that part of life is just, I think enjoying the really up times and then just having grace, you know, and, and patience in the, in the down times and knowing that it’s, it’s going to fluctuate.

And that can be just really powerful once you have that understanding, cause you don’t throw in the towel. Cause, my gosh, so many times in a moment of that overwhelm, you know, I have thrown in the towel and it’s a mistake because at that point in my journey, I didn’t realize it was just part of life, you know, and now I know it and now I want to encourage others to just, you know, sort of breathe through it, make the most of it, figure out how can I make it easy? How can I make it enjoyable? What’s the one little thing I can do? And that’ll make all the difference in just getting yourself through. So. Carry on.

Peter Morrison (08:41)
I like your walk idea. There’s something about a little, for me personally, a little movement, a little fresh air kind of cleans out the mental cobwebs and you can you could sort of reset.

Martha McKinnon (08:56)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah. You come back from a walk feeling differently. I think you’re right. It’s a way to clear your head. And I think a lot of what we’re talking about, I think it is in our head. We get lost in our thinking. And when our heads are really cluttered like that, we tend to make less good decisions. And so taking a walk, clearing your head, breathing can be a great way to just kind of reset yourself for whatever’s coming next.

Peter Morrison (09:30)
Well, that’s some helpful advice and look forward to the next one.

Martha McKinnon (09:39)
Yeah, so if you found this helpful, we’d love for you to like it, share it, let others know about what we’re doing here, because we’re just, again, we’re sticking with it too. We’re new to the world of podcasting and we want to be a help and we want a little encouragement too. So have a good one, everybody.

Martha McKinnon (10:02)
We hope you found this helpful and we’ll be back soon with some more simple shifts to fuel your body, and soul.

Peter Morrison (10:13)
Thanks Martha, have a good day.

Martha McKinnon (10:15)
Have a good day, Peter. We’ll see you soon. Bye bye.

Peter Morrison (10:19)
Bye.