Our New Year's Resolutions Are Crushing us
For so many of us, we start off each new year in the same way. Here’s what happens:
In the week between Christmas and New Years, we start feeling badly about our bodies. Our bodies hurt, we are in pain and exhausted. The holiday season is exhausting, we have over-eaten and over-drank, and we spent all our energy shopping for the perfect gifts (and shipping them, which is always the biggest hassle). The pressure of the holidays, combined with the shift into winter, is detrimental for so many people, especially those of us who live with autoimmune disease.
The holidays are stressful and we don’t take care of ourselves… so by the time January comes we are exhausted, spent, depleted. And our brains begin to panic. We start feeling like we need to fix everything, and stat. We feel extra “lazy” “out of shape” and “disgusted with ourselves”, and we start making statements like “This is the year when I lose the weight” or “This is the year I get in shape”. We then go into overdrive trying to make this happen for ourselves, looking for quick results to feel better. We hit the gym, with the goal of working out more or we start a diet… and this always leads to crash, burn, flare-up. We feel worse rather than better.
The media messaging capitalizes on this, selling us fitness equipment and gym memberships and diet programs up the wazoo, to make us feel like if we just worked harder, exercised more, we would look and feel differently.
But instead what happens is that we go at it too hard, and we fizzle.
You see, we are already depleted from the holidays. Our bodies are exhausted from the stress and busy-ness of the holidays, and what we really need is recovery. Our anxiety spikes when we are in depletion mode, which is where these negative self-criticisms come from in the first place.
So when we push ourselves to exercise harder or to eat less food, and our bodies are already feeling depleted, our bodies rebel. Our bodies are trying to say “enough!” Because we live with autoimmune disease- if we push ourselves too hard and ignore that voice telling us that recovery is needed, our bodies will end up taking over and ignite an autoimmune symptom flare-up. That means, our body triggers a flare-up that will force you to take the rest and recovery time it requires.
Has this happened to you before? I bet it has. Here are my 3 tips for doing things differently, so that you can actually feel good about yourself in the new year.
Recover first. Your body needs to replenish after the December rush. Take a few weeks to focus on sleep, healthy eating (think protein, fruit and veggies), and hydration. Don’t restrict on calories, just think instead about selecting foods that nourish you. Sugary sweets and carb cravings are a sign that your body is depleted, so if you take the time to rest, recover and eat healthy foods, your body’s sugar cravings will subside naturally.
Listen to your body. When these inner anxious thoughts happen, they tend to take over. They are hard to ignore. So don’t ignore them. Instead, use them as a cue. If these thoughts come up, pay attention. Take a breath and ask yourself- “What am I feeling right now?” I bet you’ll find that what you are feeling is something like overwhelm or exhaustion. Acknowledge that, and instead of trying to restrict your food or hit the gym when you are exhausted, ask yourself, how can I modify that in a way that is restorative?
Exercise Daily. I know I know, this whole blog is about not pushing yourself hard to exercise. But that doesn’t mean don’t do anything at all! Movement is essential for healthy living. But there is a happy medium between crushing it at the gym and doing nothing. So, think small. Start with some nourishing stretches and a few strengthening moves. Start with just a few minutes a day and see how that feels. No flare? Then great, you can add a little more to your routine. (Want to exercise like this but don’t know where to start? Let Autoimmune Strong help!)
Think about January as a reset- but ease your way into it. The themes should be rest, recovery, rejuvenation! Let’s break this new year's resolution cycle once and for all, and actually start the new year feeling good. Because let’s be honest, we are all ready to kick 2020 to the curb and ring in 2021 with excitement!