Our coaching question of the week comes from a member of the Metabolic Mastery Club Facebook group, who we will call Alicia for the purposes of this post! Have you ever felt like Alicia before, having goals that involve working out but then feeling like you are too tired at the end of the day to move your body?  

“I live in the wilderness, off the grid, except that we have satellite WiFi, a 12-minute walk down the valley. This 80-acre property is for sale, so my partner and I are fixing things and remodelling different buildings. 

We work HARD for hours and hours. And then I’m supposed to go back home to our geodesic dome, make sure that my computer has been charged so that I can spend 16 minutes working out! But I’m tired and usually hungry, and my muscles are sore already, so I just sit there and look at my blank computer screen – feeling guilty. I don’t know what to do.”

Alicia, we have some ideas to help with how to determine when it is best to push your body and get that workout in versus when it is best to rest and destress! Keep in mind there are many different ways one could answer this question! 

Hi Alicia! After “hearing” more about how your days are structured, and as your personal metabolic optimization coach, I’m wondering if we can walk through the detective process together. This will help us to better assess if your low energy is interfering with your workouts or if it is more a matter of reassessing the ideal time to schedule your workouts!

It sounds like your days are very busy, starting with a 12-minute walk down the valley, diving into working on the property as part of the process of remodelling, a 12-minute walk back home, and then feeling ready to simply relax after your day in the wilderness is coming to an end.

Most people find that the best time of day for a workout is when you can actually consistently commit to fitting that workout in. This means taking a look at your typical day and reassessing blocks of time when you have the energy to push more but also identifying a time without too many distractions or interruptions. 

I’m wondering if before your busy day off the grid starts, could you aim for an 8-minute workout? I understand this means only getting in half of our 16-minute recommended circuits, but this may help to begin the process of behaviour building. You may find that you have enough energy and time to fit in an 8-minute workout before diving into your busy day. And as an added bonus, if you wrap up your busy day and want to get in the remaining 8 minutes of your workout, go for it.

If the bigger issue is truly a matter of running out of steam and energy at the end of your day to workout, try to be a metabolic detective and think through things like your eating plan, sleep schedule, and recovery process to see if that is where your attention needs to be placed. We have tons of resources on our blog to help you with your energy concerns.

Remember, we want you to practice structured flexibility with all of our programming recommendations. That may mean shifting around the number of days that you can consistently commit to working out, revising your desired amount of time engaging in your workouts each day, or focusing on keeping your energy levels high and putting workouts on hold until you are able to cut back on the amount of energy you are expending as part of the remodelling process.

As for feeling guilty, remember that movement can still be extremely beneficial for body change goals. I have many clients who have successfully lost weight and inches through focusing on proper nutrition and sleep, while aiming for step counts at around 10k daily, and feel amazing through the process. Once they have hit a stall, then we will discuss adding structured workouts as a way to enhance progress. 

Here is more from Dr. Jade on why movement is so beneficial for your goals, even if that means that workouts take a backseat for a bit. Hopefully, this “metabolic talk” from Dr. Jade helps you to understand that structured workouts aren’t the only way to see changes to your body and overall wellness.

Now that I’ve shared some ideas, what do you feel would be best to tweak moving forward? Are you feeling like you could try experimenting with changing up your workout schedule? Or do you feel better knowing that you can still be successful with your shape change and weight goals while focusing on other aspects of your wellness such as good quality nutrition, proper rest and recovery, and moving your body as you typically do throughout the day?

We’d love to know if this has helped you think more about your goals while also reducing the amount of guilt that you are feeling as part of the idea of putting your workouts aside for a while! 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash