Get Back on the Wagon

Playbook for when your health starts to falter

We’ve all been there before. You had a kid. You had a bad breakup. You just got lazy. Whatever the case, we’ve all fallen off the health wagon.

It is impossible to be perfectly healthy your entire life. Accidents and illness will inevitably knock you down a peg. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how far you’ll fall.

This can be incredibly demoralizing and demotivating. When everything is going well with your health momentum will keep you cruising along for quite a while. If you’re firing on all cylinders and suddenly your diet goes to crap you might not notice it for months. Maybe years.

However, the damage is being done. Now imagine you get injured and can’t exercise daily. Your diet is crap and you aren’t burning calories from exercise anymore. You gain weight.

With more weight maybe you develop some sleep apnea. Maybe joint pain keeps you awake. Maybe you’re just not tired.

Without sleep, you’re not able to function as well at work. You’re cranky. People stop spending time with you. Your mental status deteriorates.

The point here is that your health is interconnected. You cannot only focus on one part of your health and expect to be healthy. I have seen this scenario play out many times.

Hopping back on the health wagon is not easy. Momentum doesn’t only work one way. When you’ve gotten used to sitting around all day eating ice cream it’s easy to keep doing that. Unhealthy people know they are unhealthy. They simply lack the motivation, knowledge, or desire to change their situation.

That’s where you must be different.