It's OK to Enjoy Yourself
MidLifer Chronicles 26
A Weekend Away
This weekend we had a lovely trip away with friends to Whitby and I've reflected on a few things not only over the weekend about life and business, but about the weekend itself.
First things first, I approached the weekend knowing that my marathon training is now underway and my first official week of training (the previous week being my soft-start) required a longer run at the weekend.
I also knew that two things would make this challenging. One, I usually do this run on a Sunday and that was checking out day so totally not convenient. Two, alcohol would be involved over the weekend and that would mean a reducing of the chance of me wanting to actually go out for a run.
So, what to do?
I gave it some thought and decided to plan in a run at the weekend, but do it on the Saturday and make it shorter. which meant I had to make one of my mid week runs a bit longer. Now I am early in the training so the weekly mileage total I had to hit was ten miles. I had run a 3 miler on Wednesday so I decided to run at least 4.5 on Friday to give me a shorter 2.5 miler for the weekend.
This felt more doable but I still had to navigate the drinking and potentially feeling too rough to go out.
My solution? Well we were all staying in on big house (four couples) and had decided to bring along some food and our drink for the Friday and have a meal out on the Saturday.
This gave me the opportunity to take it easy on the Friday night didn't it? No not really. Given I know myself pretty well, I knew that if I didn't have a concrete plan to reduce the alcohol intake (not eliminate - totally unrealistic for this get together), I would get carried away with the fun of meeting up with friends we hadn't seen for some time.
So, having previously discovered some drinkable lower alcohol lager, I decided to take a batch of that and drink that on the evening to reduce down the amount I took in.
As it turned out, the combination of that coupled with knowing I had to do my run because I had committed to the marathon training really helped keep me on the right side of inebriated and I managed the run the next day. I was not too rough and felt great after it.
The learning?
1. It's really important to have a realistic expectation when going into events and social gatherings where previously I have learned I won't stick to any rigid plans.
2. I had given it some thought and beforehand solidified in my own mind what were the non-negotiables for the training and the weekend - keep myself right for the run on Saturday.
3. I lowered the expectation of what kind of run I needed to do - so even if I was rougher than intended I could still tough it out.
4. I had a middle-of-the-road alternative for the alcohol. I didn't need to be all or nothing.
Overall the weekend was smashing and such a laugh. And that reminded me that it's ok to enjoy myself even if training for something or working towards a goal. There are trade-offs and in this case, the time added to achieving my weight loss goal is worth the golden moments over that weekend. And I so so appreciated getting back home to my own bed on the Sunday night.
We don't have to live like monks to achieve our goals. We do have to live in the real world when working towards our goals. We have the choice to actually try to enjoy the process of working towards our goals.
I choose the latter.
My question to you is - what do you choose?
Find Out More
In the meantime, check out the podcast to check out the episodes and if you want to learn more about the support I offer in relation to helping you achieve your health and weight loss goals sustainably, visit the Academy or learn more about my more intensive Re-Shape Accelerator programmes, designed to help you to get your health back on track and establish lifelong habits for a more fulfilling midlife.
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Dave
Dave Algeo, Restless Mid-Lifer
'It is never too late to get life back on your terms and have even bigger adventures!'
dave@restlessmidlifer.com
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