When you’re in a nutrition RUT, it turns into an everything RUT.
We all have bee there. Low energy, not sleeping, moody, and caffeinated on the reg.
Worst.
Feeling.
Ever.
You’re stuck. Can’t stop eating bad things. You’re down on yourself for it, you’re asking “why do I do this to myself?” You’re surrounded with self-doubt. You know it’s a problem but you just roll with it because at this point, why not, right?
The biggest motivating factor (and not in a good way) that I see on a regular basis for members and friends, who are in this rut, is that they are overwhelmed with life. They’re overwhelmed with their job, money, their family, their new baby, the daily checklist they give themselves that never gets finished and the distraction of all the outside factors that seem to “rob them” of their time. You know who you are. We’ll call this your “rut phase.”
Well, that overwhelmed feeling and the reason you haven’t taken action to bring yourself out of your rut phase, and out of your own “you know what,” is simply a lack of clarity - clarity in your vision for the future.
Maybe you have an injury on the mend, maybe you know you’ll be losing your job or are transitioning from one to the next, maybe you just got engaged, maybe your family dynamic is changing. You’re soon to be an empty nester or the kids finally are back to school and the pattern to your days have changed yet again, or maybe you’re simply not happy in your relationship or have some overwhelming feelings of anxiety from an experience you’ve had in the past, or you’ve lost connection with a good friend, or someone you truly cared about. Maybe you’re recovering from a tragedy. Maybe you’re feeling simply complacent and un-challenged or un-creative.
Either way, if you don’t address it, and attack it (“swat team it” I like to say), your rut will not experience disruption, and will remain the same. You may be stuck in this rut for yet again, another month, or year, or 10 years. It’s up to YOU to decide for yourself what your dreams are. Your gym, your coach, your husband, your kids, none of them are going to save you. You have to do the work on yourself.
So right now, take a pen to paper, old school style, and write “I OWN MY DREAMS” at the top. List 3-5 dreams you want to seek out in the next year, 3 years, and 5 years. Very simple. But you have to truly want it. If you’re picking something that’s external to yourself (like a boat, or car) try to dig further. It may be the summer months with your family on that boat with feelings of complete happiness having everyone home again that fires you up. It may be that you want to do more traveling, which you’ve put off, but you want that awesome dream car for the ride… Whatever it is, there likely is an emotion attached to it and that’s what you need to find. For me, I want to conjure positive change in people’s lives. Millions of people’s lives. That’s my dream. That’s what gets me out of bed every day. I use that one dream to drive what I do, and the decisions I make for my life on a regular basis. Why do you think I’d up and move to NJ from MI? Yes, Ben has something to do with it J however, not all of it. Does that mean it’ll be my dream forever? No. My 20-year-old self, is not my 30-year-old self, is not my 40-year-old self, and same goes for you. You have to come up with your own. Don’t just regurgitate what you’ve always said, because that’s likely why you’re in the rut you’re in. Your dreams can come in various forms, it doesn’t necessarily have to be emotional like I said, but it does have to be TRUE for yourself - not for your wife, not for your kids, it can involve them, yes, but it needs to be YOURS.
I challenge you to this exercise and hope you’ll take it seriously. If you’re in a rut phase, and you’re reading this now, that goes for you, especially. Once you have your dream, you’ll realize that rut doesn’t seem like much of a rut anymore, and that you have way bigger fish to fry. Time to step up! Good luck!
