Q: I've been saying all winter that I'll start running again in the spring and let's face it I badly need to, what with Easter chocolate eating morning noon and night. I'm regretting taking so much time off now because for the life of me despite the longer days and slightly warmer weather I just can't be bothered. What is wrong with me? I need motivation – and fast – before I become the mirror image of this chocolate egg I'm enjoying while writing to you . . . . HEEEELP
– Anon (chocoholic)
A: What happens when we put something off for any length of time is that it becomes oh so very easy to well, just, keep on putting it off.
The reason you haven’t started up running again is the same reason you haven’t taken that evening class in taxidermy/French/whatever, or decluttered the cupboard under the stairs. Because there is never a ‘right time’, or the perfect set of conditions to start anything.
In fact, circumstances almost always make it the worst possible time. Which is why we must act anyway – right now – whatever the circumstances of our lives may be.
Spring can be such vague term, can’t it? As vague as you want it to be when you are putting something off until it begins. Unless you had a specific date in your diary, like the clocks changing, or April 1st, you could still kid yourself that, well, we’re not quite there yet.
And then, if spring never seems warm enough, or it’s a particularly wet one, maybe it will make sense to hold off starting running again until summer.
So this year, no stopping when the weather gets bad. This time you are going to stick with running all year round, so you don’t find yourself in the invidious position of having to start up again, which always requires a Herculean effort.
When it’s part of your daily routine, however, it’s that much easier to remain motivated because it’s just who you are and what you do. It’s no biggie. After all, your health is not a fair weather issue: it’s an all weather issue, so try and retrain your brain into thinking of regular exercise as the nonnegotiable component to your healthy lifestyle all year round, year in, year out.
Aren’t you sick of all that chocolate? Of the sugar highs and crashing lows and feeling so out of control? No? Me neither, but at least I’ve got regular running to balance things out at the other end.
You may be telling yourself that it’s all okay, but try telling yourself instead that it’s a train smash. Tell yourself that this unending chocolate binge is making you sick and that you are in fact, the mirror image of that chocolate egg you are happily munching.
Close your eyes and reimagine yourself as Humpty Dumpty, and made of the sweetest, sugariest, most sickly chocolate. And look what happened to him. He lazed around all day on a wall and fell off it. No one could put him back together again either.
Why? Because he was overweight and spherical shaped. If he’d taken regular exercise, he wouldn’t have fallen off the wall. Not because he’d be a totally different shape, but because he wouldn’t be lounging around sitting on it in the first place.
The Grit Doctor says . . . Don't be a fair weather runner. Good health is for all seasons.
Sign up for one of The Irish Times' Get Running programmes (it is free!).
First, pick the programme that suits you.
- Beginner Course: This programme is an eight-week course that will take you from inactivity to being able to run 30 minutes non-stop.
- Stay On Track: The second programme is an eight-week course for those of you who can squeeze in a 30- to 40-minute run three times a week.
- 10km Course: This is an eight-week course designed for those who can comfortably run for 30 minutes and want to move up to the 10km mark.
Best of luck!