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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Learning to be Flexibly Consistent

I just completed week 8 of my Half Marathon Training. Just now. Like moments ago!

It’s Monday morning and I was scheduled for an 8 mile run yesterday, but yesterday I just wasn’t feeling it. My legs were still sore from the boot camp class on Saturday, I was tired, and there was no way I could escape both kids long enough to run that distance.

So I set my eyes on today, hoping the baby would cooperate with an early morning feeding and a late morning. He did and I was able to squish the run in before the husband started work. It was my first morning run in a long time and I must say, I miss them. There’s nothing like starting the day with a workout.

Unfortunately, I can’t always do what I want to do. I have other responsibilities, namely 2 kids I have to work around. Instead, I’ve learned to be flexibly consistent–pretty much the opposite of perfect.

For so long not being able to do things perfectly prevented me from doing them at all.

When my diet wasn’t perfect I might as well eat everything in sight.If I wasn’t able to go to the gym every day why go at all?

It was crippling.

Now I apply this Flexible Consistency concept to everything.

It’s not what I eat on a date night with hubby (which happened to be 2 margaritas and plateful of enchiladas at Don Pablos on Saturday.) It’s what I eat day in and day out that makes the most impact on the scale.

It’s not that I missed a workout while on vacation. It’s that I continued my training when I got back home.

Being flexibly consistent is a state of mind that has taken me a few years to master. It comes with practice and continual reinforcement that I am able to reach goals in a realistic and imperfect way. I think it started when I realized my diet had to be stateless. There is no on/off mentality anymore, just a string of decisions, all of which own.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. My mind wanders on these runs. :)


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