Starting Over

You’ve developed a physical activity plan that really works for you. You look for opportunities to increase your activity, and engage in some intentional form of exercise five or six days a week. You’re doing great.

And then it happens. Something unexpected happens in your life and your exercise program is suddenly derailed. You pull a muscle while skiing; your great-aunt dies and you go out of town to attend her funeral; you buy a house and get tangled in the red tape of escrow.

When things finally settle down, it’s tempting to start right in again on your exercise program at the level where you left off. You remember the pleasures and benefits of exercise, and you’re eager to experience them again. But if you don’t allow yourself some time to ease back into where you were before you quit, you can easily injure yourself and really slow yourself down.