why doing too much can hinder your fitness progress. Are you working too hard? Woman laying on a neatly made bed with her yoga mat. She is burned out from over exercising.

Why You Aren’t Making Fitness Progress

awareness habits mindfulness self awareness self sabotage Apr 14, 2023

The real reason you aren’t seeing results on your fitness journey is that you’ve overdrawn your account.

No, not bank account. Your body’s account!

But your body’s account does function in a similar manner.

Just like you can’t keep spending money once you overdraw your bank account, you can’t keep making progress if you overdraw your body’s account.

Overdrawing your body’s account refers to pushing your body too hard without allowing it to recover properly.

When you exercise, you put stress on your body, which helps it adapt and grow stronger.

However, if you don’t give your body enough time to recover between workouts or if you constantly perform high-intensity exercise without proper rest, your body can become overworked and fatigued.

It's important to prioritize rest and recovery in your fitness routine to avoid overdrawing your body's account. This can include taking rest days, varying the intensity and types of exercise, getting enough sleep and adequate nutrition, and listening to your body's signals for when you need to slow down or take a break.

Being mindful of how you’re feeling physically and mentally and honoring that will allow you to consistently make progress in your fitness journey.

What Happens When You Work Your Body Too Hard?

Let’s go back to our bank metaphor.

If you’re struggling to see results on your fitness journey, ask yourself these money questions to put your health habits into perspective:

Do you spend endlessly from your bank account?

Do you say yes to everything you want to buy?

How often do you make deposits? Once every two weeks? Once a month?

How often do you get to the end of your money and think, “Okay, I gotta hold off until I get paid again”?

These are all questions you can think about with your health and energy resources as the context.

Are you always on the go with a mile-long to-do list?

Do you say yes to doing everything even when you have no time or energy?

How often do you make time for yourself?

How often do you feel burned out and think, “Okay, I need to rest and recover a bit”?

In our society, we’ve been conditioned to go-go-go and give-give-give, but how often do we take back for ourselves?

Constantly overdrawing your body’s account could be (and is likely) why you aren’t seeing results.

It can also lead to burnout if you keep overdrawing for too long.

You may have even overdrawn your account without realizing it, adjusted to that feeling of running on empty, and accepted it as normal. But it’s not normal!

Here are some things that are common when you’ve overdrawn your body’s account that you should work on improving if you want to see results:

Feeling hangry and having 3 p.m. crashes.
Waking up with no zest for the day and feeling unable to get moving.
Brain fog and focus issues.
Stagnant weight regardless of calories and movement.
Feeling too cold or too hot most of the day.
Waking up in the middle of the night and not falling back asleep.

These are all signs that you’ve been overdrawn for quite some time and that you need to make some changes to your habits to start feeling like your best self and to start making fitness progress once again.

Practice Self-Care

If you want to put an end to the above symptoms of overdrawing yourself, then you need to start putting some thought and effort into self-care (a.k.a. putting deposits into your account).

Here are some ways the KJO coaches recommend to start making deposits:

Soak in a warm bath to relax.
Go for a walk in the sunshine with your favorite music.
Say NO when you don’t need to say yes. Boundaries!
Ask for help, and accept it when it’s offered.
Go on a date with your friends, your spouse, your kids, or yourself.
Do something you don’t have to do, but you want to do.

Once you start doing these things on a regular basis, you’ll start to feel more rejuvenated and have more energy to get through the day.

Our clients find that once they start depositing into their accounts, they can be more consistent with their healthy habits and start making steady fitness progress.

Improving Your Health

Still feeling stumped with how to start making progress? We are here for you!

Reach out to us to talk more about where you are and where you want to get to on your health and fitness journey.

The team at KJO Coaching would be thrilled to help you overcome any obstacles on your fitness journey. We specialize in helping high-achieving women prioritize themselves and start loving how they look and feel.

Click here to learn more about working with our stellar team of coaches.

And if you want to figure out what’s stopping you from achieving your goals, take our free quiz!

This quiz will help you discover the main area that has been the roadblock to your success so you can finally achieve your fitness goals.

Take the quiz here!

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