Sometimes, when you’ve made huge progress with your physique and worked your tail off with serious effort and tight deadlines, it’s tough to decompress and slow down at the end of the push. First, I think it’s important to notice and realize the magnificent and awesome accomplishments you made. Take a moment to be grateful for all your progress. You most likely achieved more in a relatively short period of time than most people do in a lifetime. What you did with your physique and your mental mindset was HUGE. Now it’s time for rest and recharging.
Sometimes it’s almost “easier” to be all-in with an intense program and major goals with a deadline looming. It’s harder to stay motivated with the day in day out normalcy, a cheat meal here, a day off there. I almost feel like the REAL challenge is now, in the minutiae and trivial grind of daily life and NOT having to be “all-or-nothing”. It’s personally easier for me to be all-in or all-out, than it is for me to live in moderation. So, that is something that I am getting used to as well.
I actually feel that “treading water/maintaining” is a large accomplishment in itself. You’re not going backwards, so that is an achievement. I think it’s important to re-frame the phase in which we currently find ourselves. We should think of our fat-burning journeys as a trip across the country…. and we are stopping off at the Grand Canyon to enjoy the view for a few days – still moving forward, just slowly and leisurely enjoying the pace. Next week or the week after or next month, we will resume the trip. We’re just enjoying the view right now and getting used to our new bodies and our new selves. We’re not going back to the starting point of our trip, we’re just enjoying the scenery a little along the way 🙂
You can’t sprint ALL the time; sometimes you have to slow down to a steady jog for a while. If you are always sprinting, then it’s not sprinting!
Revel in your awesomeness (have you looked in the mirror lately?!!) 🙂 Now you are accomplishing other important things behind the scenes. Your body is repairing and refreshing itself. Your mind and body are recharging and gearing up for the next big push. Think of it as the wind-up for for your next big mission!