Happy New Year! It’s 2024 and if you have found this blog for the first time, welcome! If you are returning, welcome back! Today is the second day of the year, which means resolutions abound. In particular vows to overhaul diet and exercise practices. While there is nothing wrong with these goals, I want to take a minute to talk about the unspoken mental and emotional load these can come with.
I certainly don’t want to start the year off with a downer of a post or discourage anyone from moving forward. That just isn’t who I am or what I do. What I do want to encourage, though, is a rational and sustainable approach. I have noticed in my two decades of practice that resolution season, more than any other time, really seems to promote a reliance on unfounded methods and motivation.
Detox teas, supplements, diets that resemble cults, and exercise programs that require full and complete devotion seem to rule this time of year. We could debate the causes of this phenomenon until next week, but that isn’t going to solve the current problem. The mental and emotional load that methods such as these place on us is, in my opinion, why so many fall off the fitness cliff by Valentine’s Day.
What is Mental Load?
Mental load is a term that is used to describe the unseen labor or thought process associated with a task. For example, I saw a great TikTok (I can’t remember the creator or I’d tag her) about the mental load of holiday cards. Her husband asked why they don’t send them. Her answer was because she had to find (or worse, coordinate) pictures, upload them and create/design the card itself, get them printed, make sure she had enough envelopes and stamps, round up current addresses, write and address all of them, send them, then keep track of who sent return cards for the next year. It is not just as simple as sending cards.
My point is that the methods we choose to attack our physical goals this time of year tend to require a heavy mental lift. Wanting to lose 30 pounds is not the problem at all. The diet and exercise programs you have chosen to go about this might be. Going from not working out at all to five days per week for at least an hour is a huge change and requires a lot of mental effort. Going from the decadence of holiday food to Whole 30 in the span of two or three days is the same.
Something about the new year inspires us to make changes that we see as positive. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But change, especially big ones, requires us to make small, incremental, and sustainable adjustments. The more steady the steps are between point A and point Z, the more likely we are to actually get there.
How to Evaluate Mental Load
So here are some tips I have to evaluate the mental and emotional load that your physical goals might be putting on you. First, examine your time frame. Like I said, the 30 pound weight loss goal is not a problem in and of itself. Wanting to accomplish that in 2 months is, though. This holds if your goal is gaining strength or muscle mass, improving mobility, or moving to a vegan diet. Plan at least twice as long to accomplish what you want as you think it should take.
I’ll call out weight loss because that is the most often cited goal this time of year. I, and any professional worth their certification, will never recommend more than 10 pounds per month. I’d say that somewhere in the 5-7 pound per month range is sustainable. Sustainable in terms of keeping the weight off (I’ve never met anyone who told me that they want to lose 30 pounds and then regain it) and sustainable in terms of continuing to move forward and make progress. That’s between 4 and 6 months otherwise the math isn’t mathing.
Second, you need to take a hard look at the methods you plan to employ. Working out five days per week is awesome, but if you haven’t been physically active, that’s a tough sell for your body. You’ll be sore and tired and relying on motivation which will only last about as long as January does. Starting with three for several weeks and slowly building up is the way to go.
Moving from relying on dinners out and fast food is amazing, but again, if you haven’t cooked regularly, the mental load of meal planning, prepping, and shopping every day can be too heavy. Better to start with half and as managing that gets easier, add another day or two.
Thirdly, take an honest look at your circumstances. Managing goals is much easier for a single person with straightforward hours at their job than it is for, say, a married person with kids and irregular work hours. If you have heavy mental and emotional loads in other areas of your life, adding too much to that is going to be exactly that. Too much. You won’t be able to keep up and you’ll have to let something slide. Spoiler alert: it won’t be work or kids.
Fourth, evaluate and re-evaluate the potential emotional toll. I’ve used mental and emotional load sort of interchangeably up to this point, but they are different. I think of mental load as the running tabs open in your brain. Emotional load is the internal stress that you feel. This internal stress can have long ranging implications for your Mental Health.
Some emotional load can be obvious. Dieting down to 1200 calories per day is going to cause immediate emotional challenges and stress. Some emotional load might not be apparent until you are underway. The challenge of getting 150 plus grams of protein per day for muscle development, for example. Have a running dialogue with yourself about how you are feeling and how difficult things are to manage. Any method over a 7 on a 1 to 10 scale needs to be re-evaluated.
Lastly, don’t feel the need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If at any point, what you are doing feels too big, too difficult, or even scary, take a pause. Notice what I wrote in that sentence: what you are doing. Again, the goal itself isn’t to blame, it’s the process you chose. There is no shame in course correction. In fact, those who can change direction while still keeping their goal in mind are usually the ones with the most success. Take a step to the side and try a different method.
It’s wonderful to be back, Warrior. I’ve got some things up my sleeve for 2024 including more focus on exercise, physical activity, and movement. If you aren’t following me on Instagram or Pinterest, come check it out cause I’ve got more content there. See you next week!
