Let it Come to You

We all have seen the fitness magazine articles in the grocery aisle.
"Do this work-out if you want to see improvement!"
"Add this into your diet if you're looking to burn fat quickly!"

They all have the same call to action words
Do! Add! Buy! Take!
In the culture of consumerist America, we love the call to action. It means there is an easy path or a quick fix to all of our woes! If we do this or complete that we will be on our way to success. And sure, sometimes we do need to add something or change things up to see improvement (I discuss that here!). But what happens when our plate is already full? How many times can we add before we can't take anymore and something important falls off the other side?

As a professional runner I deal with this issue. My life is dedicated to training and recovering. I have all day to train and can add everything if I want. I've fallen into that rabbit hole of doing extra core, extra stretching, and extra mileage. But it typically has not paid off how I wanted it to. I have sometimes had to take a step back and realize that just because I can do something doesn't mean I should. I had to find myself the level of working hard, that was doable, and made me happy. We each have a dinner plate of life. Different parts take up different sizes. This is something we are always trying to balance. Running has some portion size on all of our plates. At the end of the day we all have an amount on our plate we can dedicate to fitness, and if we go over that it will affect our other aspects of life on that plate while also hurting our running. Sure, green bean casserole is good. But if you have 3 lbs heaping over your plate, it might take away from the rest of the meal and make you enjoy the casserole a little bit less.

Sometimes what we need to practice is patience. Sometimes we need to allow ourselves to keep doing what we're already doing with patience until progress will come. We don't need to chase fitness. We need to work hard and believe that it'll come to us. Fitness is a lot like finding a Significant Other. It doesn't come to those who force their way into finding a date. It comes to those who put themselves in a position to meet someone and let it come to them. (Trying is good. Desperation is bad!)

So next time you're struggling to get over a hump to the next level of fitness you've been working on, remember, more isn't always the right answer. Believe in the hard work that you're doing and it'll come to you.