Hi, I’m Tara and I’m an Exercise Addict

I’ve talked before about my battle with exercise addiction. It came up again recently in my Beat the Bloat private group, and seeing as so many are dealing with this demon, I thought it would be good to revisit it.

Just to give you a little background, this was my workout schedule back in 2008 when I reached out to my now close friend and mentor, Jill Coleman. I shared with Jill that I had a secret desire to do a figure competition. Jill being Jill, said “ok, we will start training on Monday.” J Little did I know at the time how drastically my life would change over the next year.

Part of the questionnaire she sent asked for a typical week of workouts. This is from the exact email I sent to her with my schedule at the time:

My old workout schedule:

MONDAY

3:00am or so: Wake-up

4:00am: Tempo or goal-pace run – 5 to 7 miles

5:00am: have been doing a strength circuit of push-ups, pull-ups, dips, hanging leg raises – 5x

5:30am: Teach 60 min Cycle class

5:15pm: Teach 60 min Cycle class

6:15pm: Teach 60 min PowerPump (Barbell) class

TUESDAY

4:30am: Wake-up

5:30am: Teach 60 min PowerPump

5:30pm: Teach 1.5 hour Cycle/Sculpt (45 mins Cycle/45 mins upper-lower Sculpt); or 1.5 “Triple Threat” (30 mins Cycle, 30 mins running, 30 mins upper body sculpt)

WEDNESDAY
3:00am: Wake-up

4:00am: Speed work – 5 to 10 x 800’s with slow jog in between – 5 to 7 miles total

5:10am: Push-up circuit – if time

5:30am: Teach 60 min Cycle

5:30pm: Teach 60 min PowerPump class

6:30pm: Teach 20-30min “Ab Blast” class

THURSDAY

4:30am: Wake-up

5:30am: Teach 60 min PowerPump class

REST

FRIDAY

3:00am: Wake-up (these 3 am days get OLD!)

4:00am: Hill work on treadmill – 6 miles total

5:00am: Strength circuit – push-ups, dips, pull-ups, hanging leg raises

5:30am: Teach 60 min “Butts n Guts” OR Triple Threat

SATURDAY

8:30am: Teach 60 min Bootcamp class

9:30am: Teach 60 – 120 min Cycle class, depending on day

SUNDAY

LONG RUN DAY – “REALLY” LONG RUNS EVERY 3^RD WEEK;

WEEKS 1 – 2: 10 TO 15 MILES

WEEK 3 LONG RUN: 20-27 MILES (LONGEST RUN FOR MARATHON IN FEB WILL ONLY BE 23 MILES)

Are you as exhausted as I am after reading that? 🙂

The sad part is I didn’t see anything wrong with what I was doing at the time. As a matter of fact, I prided myself on how much activity I could squeeze into a day. So what if I only got 4 hours of sleep a night and ate popcorn for dinner?  I taught a gazillion classes and ran a gazillion miles this week…I rock!

The kicker is that while I felt like I needed to do more, more, more to obtain the results I desired, I never could get there. Instead, I was skinny, run down, sick and injured much of the time. No real way to live. I was, quite frankly, an addict.

And getting really raw and real here – I felt that if I STOPPED all the exercise, I would gain weight. That I would balloon up and that thought terrified me. And judging from all the folks I’ve heard from about this, I was not alone in that way of thinking.

But something Jill said to me at the time really hit home: “Trust the process. Your old way will always be there waiting for you if this doesn’t work.” Meaning, if by some oddball chance my new way of doing things caused changes that I didn’t like, I could always go back to my old crazy schedule that had served me so well…not.

But having that option there made me feel safe, and it did indeed help me trust the process.

I won’t lie, it was tough to break the Cardio Queen mindset. It was a very gradual process. I started by cutting back on teaching group exercise classes. This was admittedly super tough, as it was something I really enjoyed, but it was also wearing me out.

Over the course of about a year, I got my teaching schedule down to just two or three Metabolic Effect classes per week. Then, I started doing Personal Training, and stopped teaching altogether.

My workouts changed drastically, but again, it was gradual. I did not quit long duration cardio cold turkey, but eased away from it to shorter, more intense sprint workouts. And of course, I started lifting heavier weights, which is what contributed most to the changes in my physique. I started with full body Metabolic Effect-style workouts which made me feel like I had worked out for an hour, when in reality it was only 20 to 30 minutes. I was blown away that I started seeing results so quickly, literally within just a few weeks.

But exercise addiction is clearly that…an addiction…and I certainly wasn’t immune to relapses. I would sometimes “sneak” and do more than my schedule called for. BUT the more I saw great results with doing LESS, coupled with feeling soooo much better, the easier it became.

I’m at a point now that balance is what I strive more the most. I still love to workout hard and heavy, but I no longer feel guilty about relaxing and taking rest days – in fact, I look forward to it. Yay for sleeping in and leisure walks! I am more concerned about being functional and mobile as I get older than how many hours per week I work out. To say I am grateful to Jill for helping me along this journey would be an understatement!

For anyone who asks me for help for breaking the exercise addiction cycle, I always tell them what Jill told me all those years ago: “Trust the process. Your old way will always be there if the new one doesn’t work.” And trust me, the new way WILL work if you are ready and willing for it to. 🙂

If you want to hear more about my journey, check out this Periscope I did with Jill a few months back.

Xoxo,

Tara