Published November 20. 2020 11:25PM
After a bicycle ride of nearly four hours in fine fall weather, I stepped on the scale and weighed about five pounds more than expected.
The possible physiological explanation why my body retained water during an exercise session that normally causes about 2 liters of water loss is not germane to this article. This article is not about how the body functions during exercise, but rather how the brain sometimes improperly functions when something doesn’t live up to expectations.
Whether it be a bike ride or a gathering of friends and relatives during the holidays.
On ambitious rides, I wear a heart rate monitor. After checking the data this ride produced, I assumed the relatively cool temperature and my decision to remain seated on all climbs caused me to spend less than the usual 75 to 80 minutes in my “sweet spot,” a heart rate between 146 and 156 beats per minute - a rate intense enough, I believe, to improve speed and power on long rides.
Then I stepped on the bathroom scale and saw a number I was not expecting.
Now those subpar heart rate numbers occurred in my mind because “You just aren’t able to push yourself the way you used to. All those broken bones have done you in.
“You’ve become what you loathe: a young old man.”
Thinking is like breathing - an involuntary action you couldn’t stop if you wanted to - so I’m not ashamed to admit such negativity ran through my head. I am a bit abashed, though, to share with you that for a while I treated those negative thoughts as facts.
And that doing so changed my mood and my view and spoiled an afternoon.
My typical after-a-long-ride lunch that usually tastes as sweet as a decadent restaurant dessert, baked delicata squash, seemed bland. Something I always find relaxing, the time I spend on Saturdays creating healthy snacks to eat the following week, turned into a chore.
So did my every-Saturday, hurt-so-bad-yet-feel-so-good massage using a super-stiff foam roller.
You may find it ridiculous that a man of nearly 60 can have his state of mind altered by numbers on a scale. I do too. Because it is ridiculous.
In hindsight, that is.
But I have news for you. Unless you’re the best of the Buddhist monks or the holiest of holy men, something similar has happened to you.
Something has failed to meet your expectations and that perceived failure has put you in a bad mood.
I write about this on Nov. 21 because five days from now we will celebrate Thanksgiving. Because social gatherings have been limited in this year of the pandemic and the year itself has been such a struggle, this celebration probably has added meaning for you.
To keep Turkey Day from turning into a downer, here’s what you need to do: Remember those times when holiday gatherings ended, and you felt as I did when I saw that wrong number on the bathroom scale.
And figure out why you felt that way.
I bet it’s an example of what William Shakespeare so astutely observed: “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” I bet prior to the gathering, you imagined how wonderful the day would be and when it wasn’t, it brought your spirits down.
To end, I need to address why the guy hired to write a health and fitness column is, in essence, masquerading as your psychologist. It’s simple and not much of a stretch.
There’s no way to separate the different aspects of health.
The mental, the physical are inevitably interconnected.
Think about the last time you really felt down. How were your workouts during that time - if you mustered up the motivation to work out at all?
Half-hearted workouts or skipping a few creates another reason to feel down - and things snowball from there. You eat not for health but for comfort, which means too much fat, too many carbohydrates.
Three weeks later, you’re five pounds heavier, battling a head cold, and feeling as if you’d rather have a colonoscopy than get out of bed and go to work.
No, I’m not trying to depress you; I’m trying to keep you from a specific type of depression.
While Mental Health America cites stress, fatigue, over-commercialization, financial constraints, the inability to be with one’s family and friends, and expectations, as the reasons for what we’ve come to call “the holiday blues,” I see the last one as the linchpin.
I am not suggesting that you don’t stop looking forward to the holiday or purposefully think that it will be unpleasant. All you really need to do is separate expectation from reality.
It is good to have expectations. They put a bounce in your step, give you juice throughout the day, make the world seem a better place.
Just recognize that the pleasant anticipation of them does not guarantee that they become reality.
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November 21, 2020 at 12:42PM
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Will your idea of Thanksgiving ruin it? - tnonline.com
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