Let me start by saying I understand if you have a differing viewpoint on this. I’ve wanted to write a blog about the balance between giving yourself grace and practicing discipline for awhile. The inspiration stems from seeing a number of women on Instagram sharing about their weight loss journeys. I saw a pattern: Girl decides to lose weight and shares it on IG. Girl crushes her first week and gets excited about results. A few days later, girl posts that she stress-ate a bag of chips and binged a new Netflix show instead of eating on plan and getting a workout in, but she’s “giving herself grace” and will jump back on the wagon tomorrow.
This story above is just an example. I’m not calling anyone out.
The word grace means “to honor or favor.”
The word discipline means “practice or training expected to produce a specific pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.”
Weight loss, maintenance, and elite fitness all require a mindset of discipline in order to be successful. My coach Mindy Lawhorne said something like this before when describing a difficult nutrition program. She explained how you have to “die to self” a little bit in order to make it to day 21, the end of the program. You can’t give yourself an out because you’ll always know that out is there.
So what does this mean in terms of giving yourself grace? If you know that you can mess up, forgive yourself, and restart tomorrow, you’ll allow yourself to slip up. Discipline requires consistent practice and you don’t want failure and forgiveness to have to become part of that practice.
With the definition of grace in mind, what if we flipped the switch and honored our goals more than our cravings? What if we looked at 30 minutes of exercise as honoring our bodies more than honoring the desire to lay on the couch? Yes, rest is VERY important but so is changing our mindset, right? I think there has to be a balance of the two depending on our goals. Something that helps me stay disciplined is telling myself that this momentary sacrifice will pay off in the long run and once I’ve hit my goals, THEN I can loosen the reins.
So with all this being said, if you feel like you’re always trying to lose weight, get fit, do XYZ thing but keep falling short, maybe it’s due to a lack of discipline or having a plan B always in mind? Take time to reflect on the moments that you have had success and write down what caused that success so you can repeat it.
Good luck!
