Treatments, injuries, sickness, and life are all reasons why anyone takes time away from fitness. It’s easy to get off track but often a struggle to get back on. It can be discouraging to try a workout that used to be your usual routine and to be sore for days. However, that’s often how it happens. The old adage of “if you don’t use it you lose it” is, unfortunately, true, but it doesn’t mean that’s it for you. 

It’s about finding your FIT again- Focus, Intention, and start Training. 

Finding your Focus is important because it drives you when it might not be as easy to get up early or lace up your shoes to go when you just want to relax after work. Everyone has a reason for starting a fitness routine, whether it’s your kids that motivate you, improvement with treatments, wanting to do a 5k, or gain strength in regular activities. 

Your focus on why you want to accomplish or get back into fitness should be a huge motivation for you. It could be the thing that gets you that extra boost to get it done. The point is to get you thinking more purposefully about your focus and reflect more fully on why it’s important to you. When we give your focus the power it deserves to motivate you it can drive you with more passion, commitment, and intention. 

If you haven’t given it much thought to what your focus is, I challenge you to take a few minutes to write it down. By writing it down it gives it the power to keep you going even when it’s hard and you want to give up. Keep it somewhere you see it on a daily basis (mirror, daily planner, computer), that way it is always in FOCUS. 

Giving your focus Intention is the second part of finding your FIT. Be intentional in writing down your goals, making a plan, and get started. In every fitness journey, there is always a beginning, there are ups and downs, starting again as well as accomplishments. Don’t let this be the end, there is always an opportunity to begin again. 

Make a plan. Every goal without a plan is more likely to fail. After you find your focus, build your plan with intention. If you plan to go walking 3 days a week, pull out your planner or calendar and write it down, plan it ahead of time. You make time for what’s important, if it’s not important you will make reasons not to do it. If the goal doesn’t excite you, make a different plan. There is no one way to be active and work out, find one that is motivating and you want to do. 

You can adjust as you go. You can make it more challenging as you go, you can back off if you need. The one thing you can’t do is go back and start earlier. Get started now. You’ll be glad you did. 

Build your Training in a way that works for you. It’s time to put your plan into action. How do we break the cycle of being out of focus with our fitness? It can be discouraging to be starting back again, but it’s better to start where you are than to never start again. The weight of unknowns, stressors, injuries, and pain can get us down, but we don’t have to let it keep us down. 

When you get off track there’s discouragement, discomfort with weight gained, less confidence, and maybe some insecurities creep in. We will all face those when we are not on our game emotionally, but I promise you when you start to count the things you gain through making your comeback you’ll be encouraged and motivated more and more. 

Start small, start where you are, and more importantly just start. As you get started and you just don’t find that spark in your activity or enjoyment, try something new. Yoga, fitness classes, biking, swimming, walking, jogging, weight lifting, hiking, paddleboarding, as well as gardening are great activities to get started with. To stay motivated be sure to write it out, plan the plan, find people to keep you accountable, or do it with. 

Knowing you aren’t alone in your journey is encouraging and motivating. Trust me you got this. I know you can do it! 

Go find your FIT.