We are a full year into this pandemic, and it’s got all of us feeling all kinds of ways. We’ve missed workouts, our nutrition is outta whack… Stress, anxiety, fear, uncertainty, burnout… we know all of those feelings real well, yeah? So let’s talk about it!

MISSING WORKOUTS

Life is just… weird right now. We are a year into this pandemic, and it kinda looks like there may be a light at the end of the tunnel now that more people are getting their vaccines, but now we’re being told to brace for a fourth spike, so who the hell knows. 

1. Missing workouts happens from time to time… what happens when you miss quite a few workouts in a row for a week or two weeks or more? It’s okay!
   • It’s easy to push off a training session when you just aren’t feeling it… and sometimes that’s okay!

MY NUTRITION IS OFF

Same as with training… are you off your nutrition plan right now? That’s alright. It’ll always be there to come back to. 

1. One thing I like to do to help keep me on track without feeling like I’m on track is making bar food at home. If you cook at home, you can still make something taste trashy, even if it is good for you! Get an airfryer, that will help a ton.

FIGHTING BURNOUT

Hello burnout, my old friend… this is something most of us have dealt with in adulthood. There are five stages of burnout: 

1. The honeymoon phase – when we start something new, you’re dedicated to the cause, we feel okay about it… until step two.
2. The onset of stress – this will come about when you have the realization “today has been really hard… much harder than yesterday or the day before.” Symptoms include: grinding your teeth, high blood pressure, lack of social interaction, inability to focus, fatigue.
3. Chronic stress – we’ve discussed this in great detail on episode (xx) about stress. Symptoms include: Anger, aggression, apathy, chronic exhaustion, a cynical attitude, feeling panicked, procrastination, ressentfulness, increased drug/alcohol/caffiene consumption.
4. Burnout – welcome to burnout town… this is where symptoms are going to be more severe than chronic stress… your behavior changes, chronic headaches, stomach problems, feeling empty. Maybe you want to drop out of society, you have self-doubt, social isolation, you want to move away from everything.
5. Habitual burnout – This is the final stage. It means that burnout is so strong that you’re likely to experience a significant ongoing physical, mental, or emotional problems as opposed to being occasionally burnt out.