How To Pull Yourself Out of a Funk

We have been going hard on the nutrition and training episodes lately. But we have to remember that there’s arguably an even more important component when it comes to igniting your inner athlete and that’s our mindset.

I strongly believe that having a perfect nutrition and training program means nothing if we aren’t mentally fit. Think of your mindset like the foundation of a house. No matter how nice the house appears on the outside, we all know it’s going to crumble really quick if that foundation is shit.

So, putting in the time and effort to be mentally fit is crucial and 100% necessary for optimizing our fitness goals and our true potential. 

Now being mentally fit doesn’t mean having your shit together 24/7. So many people get discouraged when they have an off day or are just feeling off for no reason and they get so down on themselves thinking there is something wrong with them.

When there really isn’t.

It’s normal to have off days. We aren’t meant to be robots where we are happy or positive 24/7. That’s not realistic whatsoever. Instead, being mentally fit (to me anyways) is having the skillset to redirect your energy (pulling yourself out of your funk if you will) and still getting the job done despite feeling off.

We have been so wired to instantly react to an emotion, where we don’t realize that we actually have choices. Just because we initially want to react a certain way, doesn’t mean we are required to do so. 

I’ll give you an example. I’m guessing you have had tough days at work, right? And after those tough days, the last thing you want to do is go to the gym. When we experience this emotion, our initial reaction is to skip the gym. Before exploring our options, so many will just go with that initial reaction. Just because we feel like skipping the gym, doesn’t mean we are required to.

And I get it, willing yourself to go to the gym when you don’t want to is torture. But only at first. I imagine that some of you listening have pushed yourself to go to the gym despite not feeling like it before. And what happens after the workout? Often you feel better, right?

That’s what we are going to talk about today. How do you go from not wanting to do something but doing it anyways – especially when you know it’s necessary for moving your needle forward.

Now before we get into that, I want preface this by saying that this is a skillset and takes lots of practice. Building up our ability to be mentally fit is no different than working out. When you first do bicep curls, they are super tough, right? But then the following week it feels a little bit easier and then the following week you become a little bit stronger and stronger and stronger. You wouldn’t have gotten stronger if you didn’t keep putting in that consistent effort. Building up our mindset is the exact same process.

So, let’s go over some strategies that you can implement here.

I think the most important thing we want to consider is exploring our options more. So, when you are making a decision to do something, don’t just explore one option that is your initial reaction, what are the other options you have available? 

And I think most people do this when they are making decisions over things that don’t have a lot of emotions attached to them, such as which root to take to work. It’s when our emotions are high, and we feel out of it that we stop focusing on all the options. And this is because your brain is trying to solve your problem as quickly as possible, so it’s easy to revert to the initial reaction. 

So, practice catching yourself more and thinking things through before making a final decision. Let’s use emotional eating as an example. Say it’s been a tough day and the last thing you want to do is eat your healthy chicken and rice dish you already prepped for yourself and would rather dive into an entire tray of cookies. Before we actually dive into those cookies, we want to catch ourselves and explore all of our options. As we explore these options, we also want to consider the consequences.

Option #1, eat the entire tray of cookies, which is our initial reaction. With this option ask yourself, is this really going to make me feel better? If the answer is “no, it’s probably going to make me feel worse,” then it’s time to explore another option. 

Option #2, eat the meal I have prepared for myself. With this option ask yourself, is this going to make me feel better? The answer may be “maybe. But I’m afraid I might still crave the cookies.” Well maybe there’s another option we can consider.

Option #3, eat the meal I have prepared for myself and have 2 cookies for dessert. Maybe with this option it will allow you to still adhere to your program as well as satisfy your craving. 

Do you see how just stopping and exploring your options for a few minutes allows you to achieve the best of both worlds? In this scenario, anyways. Some of you listening may be wondering about the 2 cookies and how they might not fit into your macronutrients or whatever your nutrition plan is. And honestly, I don’t care. If having this thought process allows you to have 2 cookies instead of 12, that’s way more important than fitting the cookies into your macronutrients. Celebrate this win and call it a day. 

Let’s go over another example. Let’s revisit wanting to skip the gym, because I know we all feel this way more often than not – myself included. 

Option #1, skip the gym. With this option ask yourself, is this going to make me feel better? Maybe the answer is “probably not. I’m sure I’ll feel guilty but at least I can go home and binge on my favourite Netflix show.” I’m going to assume that most of us don’t want to feel guilt during our downtime in the evening. So, because of that, let’s explore another option.

Option #2, go to the gym for a quick workout because I know it’s going to make me feel better afterwards and then I can enjoy one episode of Netflix when I get home. Maybe with this option it will allow you to feel more energized for the evening after a workout and it allows you to have the best of both worlds.

Taking the time to explore your options, despite how you are feeling, can really help you decide what’s going to objectively be best for you. 

Now it’s not always easy to do that in the heat of the moment and catch yourself to weigh out your options. So, let’s go over some exercises worth implementing into your day to day.

The first one is breathing more. And saying to breathe more is like wishing for more time, were always breathing, so how can we actually breathe more? I am talking about intentional breathing, where we periodically focus on deep breathes with the intention to oxygenate our brains and calm ourselves down. 

There are so many benefits to focusing on deep breathing, such as improvement in our blood flow, immunity, and sleep. It’s also been shown to calm down anxiety and reduce inflammation. Think of deep breathing as a natural painkiller.

So, the first exercise is the 3 by 3 by 3 method, where 3 times a day you take 3 minutes to focus on deep breathing. The deep breathing is where you breath in for 3 seconds, hold your breath for 3 seconds and then breathe out for 3 seconds. If you can do this every hour, even better. But start off by setting an alarm in your phone and schedule out 3 minutes 3 times during the day. That’s only 9 minutes of your time, I’m sure we all can take 9 minutes out of our days to schedule in this exercise. But you have to schedule it into your phone. So, take 2 minutes to do that right now. 

Go ahead. 

I’ll wait until you are done. 

Once you feel you have a handle of this, I would then progress this exercise by applying the 3 by 3 by 3 method in moments of stress and anxiety. Being able to catch yourself during these moments and calm yourself down is such an effective way to shift your energy versus just instantly reacting to your emotions and making a decision that you may regret later.

The next exercise to focus on is journaling. And I know some people roll their eyes at journaling, but it helps more than you might know. What is so great about it? It teaches you to stop and listen to your thoughts more. Our brains are constantly going and thinking all day long. There are so many thoughts that you can’t even recall that you had because of how active your brain is. Journaling allows you to hear yourself more, which we already know is such an important skillset to have when we are trying to shift our focus and be more productive when we are feeling off. Journaling has also been shown to relieve stress, keep your thoughts organized, boost memory, inspire creativity and encourage yourself to self-reflect.

I have had clients completely change their eating habits strictly from putting in the time to journal more. 

So, make the time to put pen to paper more. It doesn’t have to be much. Just 10-15 minutes a day. Take that time to jot down what you are grateful for, 3 good things that happened today and your goals for tomorrow. And if you don’t want to write them down, then at least list those things off out loud at the end of the day. 

The next exercise is to focus on what you are listening to. I’m talking music and podcasts. Do you put on a sad song when you feel sad or a happy, uplifting song? I get listening to music that’s in line with your feelings, but it doesn’t make you feel any better. It often prolongs the negative emotion you are experiencing. So as much as I love my sad or angry punk rock music, I would rather listen to something motivational that I know is going to shift my mood and mindset.

It’s actually been shown that our thoughts generate our emotions. So, if you are watching a bunch of negative shows on tv, or listening to a bunch of heart-breaking songs, all I have to say is that it’s not helping. So, let’s use science to our advantages here and focus on creating an uplifting playlist that we can not only listen to when we are feeling down and out by on a regular basis so we can ensure we are creating more positive emotions for ourselves.

I am also a big fan of podcasts. I’m guessing you are too if you are listening right now. But make that effort to listen to a personal development or motivational episode each day to help generate that positive energy more and more.

And my last recommendation is to focus on yourself. Only you truly know what you need and sometimes that means being ok with not feeling ok. Our brains have been wired to believe that we’re not supposed to feel bad, when in actuality, sometimes you just need to go through the motions of not feeling ok. So, listen to yourself and what you believe you need and spend that time focusing more inward. Do you need to nourish your body with fresh vegetables, or do you need a comforting meal? Do you need to rest, or do you need to feel accomplished and crush a workout? Spend the time to find your happiness and you’ll be out of that funk in no time.

At the end of the day, we all have moments of not feeling like doing something. It’s important to remember that we can’t have the rocky theme song in our head 24/7. But just because we have these emotions doesn’t mean we are required to react to them. We all have those moments of not wanting to go to the gym for example.

But how often do we leave after thankful that we ended up going? Quite often, right?

We have moments of not feeling like working out just like we have moments of not feeling like brushing our teeth. The only difference is we don’t skip brushing our teeth. Working out should be no different. So, fight through those “I don’t feel like it” moments. You might be surprised how you feel on the other end — you don’t always need the Rocky theme song

Hope this was helpful! 

Coach Krysten