Endurance

Photo by Dannii Coughlan on Unsplash

This is the hard part.

Every workout I do at Orange Theory is different - but they are all designed to foster strength, power, endurance, or a combination of the three. The hardest ones for me, are by far, the endurance workouts - especially if they are on the treadmill or the rower.

As I plodded along on the treadmill recently I thought “why does this feel so hard?” Of course, endurance workouts build actual physical endurance, but that wasn’t it because I knew my body could do it - it was the mental part. It was boring, it was hard to keep going because my brain was telling me how hard this felt, and time seemed to be moving so slowly. As the coach encouraged us to keep our heads in the game and to be persistent, it occurred to me that when we want to make changes, endurance is both NECESSARY and REALLY HARD because it is a mental challenge more than anything.

Endurance is simply sticking with it - despite setbacks, boredom, lack of immediate positive feedback and even uncertainty about where you will end up. But because endurance is boring, and our brains crave novelty, we have to use both for success. So many people who have the skill of endurance in other parts of their lives struggle to bring that same grit into changing their relationship with food because in this area it feels much harder.

Why does it feel harder? From what I see, it is because we make it ALL endurance, and forget that our brains need more than that, just like a fit person needs to build endurance and strength and power. A person wanting to lose weight needs to build endurance, curiosity, and variety.

In changing eating habits…

• Endurance could look like:

  • eating similarly from one day to the next most days of the week;

  • keeping a food journal;

  • reminding yourself daily that you are entirely capable of this work;

  • executing daily habits like movement, water consumption and sleep;

  • stepping on the scale and accepting the number as data, not judgement.

• Variety could look like:

  • when you have a chance to eat out, you choose something you never eat at home;

  • trying new recipes/products/workouts;

  • deciding which foods you love and enjoying them occasionally;

  • connecting with others on a similar journey, or finding other support for yourself;

  • recognizing when you are feeling stuck, deprived or bored, and bringing in some novelty.

• Curiosity could look like:

  • how is my rate of weight loss affected when I eat more protein?

  • how does my body feel when I eat a particular food?

  • digging deeper about your emotional eating patterns

  • if you notice that you sleep better when you eat in a particular way

If weight loss requires a collection of habits and behaviors that engender endurance, variety, and creativity, what is the best way to get going, or to keep going? The same way you would start any collection - with one thing. Then add the next. Keep going.