A Meandering Path to Wellness
Wellness journeys are never direct. Any wellness journey includes valleys, plateaus, and a peak. Each requires different approaches to navigate. For example, in a valley, you must first find the path that allows you to climb out most efficiently. Immediately leaving the valley is essential before some disaster knocks you downstream. You must start even if your first steps are small.
In contrast, when you are on a plateau, you must keep driving forward while searching for the change that will lift you off it. Once you find that change, you must double down on it to lift yourself off the plateau and ascend upward on your health journey.
When ascending a hill, it is important not to climb it all in one day. Instead, just like a road that climbs up a mountain, you need to take a circuitous route that allows you to climb and not fall back down the hill or step off a cliff. Lastly, once you are at the peak of your health journey, you should stay a while to view how far you have come and prepare for even higher peaks.
What does this meandering path to wellness look like in real life? Let’s examine my experiences with valleys, plateaus, and peaks.
Getting Out of the Valley
The first step when leaving a valley is the most important one. You need to break out of the rut and shake off complacency. Valleys can be comfortable places for a while, but if you stay in them too long, a flood of health problems will surely come.
I was stuck in my valley for over five years. Focusing on work and family and foregoing fitness, I gained over 150 pounds. At first, the weight gain had little impact, and I was comfortable with too little sleep and too much pizza and beer. But the flood of health problems started to come. Sleep apnea, heart problems, and fatigue flooded in, and I had to get out of the valley, or I was sure to drown.
So I decided to take the first step. I joined Weight Watchers and delegated some of my work effort. Next, I used the additional time to find the most effective exercise to complement my improved nutrition. I experimented with walking but could not go that far because of my weight. I soon realized that the most efficient way to get out of the valley was to do low-impact exercises.
In this case, I determined that water aerobics was the most efficient way to get enough exercise to improve my fitness without hurting myself. I could move on to something else once I got myself out of the initial ditch. If you are currently in the valley of despair, read this blog about taking the first steps to health – Put One Foot in Front of the Other.
A Wellness Plateau Can Seem as Endless
The momentum coming out of the valley carried me forward for the next five months of my journey. I consistently lost two pounds a week, walked 10,000 steps daily, and practiced mindfulness and prayer for at least 20 minutes daily. Then, all of a sudden, I hit a plateau and could not get off. One week, I would lose half a pound; the next week, I’d regain it.
This went on for over a month. The problem with a plateau is that it is hard to determine how long it will last. On my wellness plateau, it reminded me of my drive through Kansas on our summer trips to Minnesota. We once took our German exchange student on our yearly trip. After initially excited about taking a trip across the Midwest, she remarked midway through Kansas, “It is very flat here with many cows. When will we see people again?”
Getting off the Plateau: Consistency, Analysis, and Selective Change
A wellness plateau is like that. When you are on it, you never know if you will ever start making progress again. But just like driving through the Kansas plains, you must journey to new health.
First, it is essential to keep going, consistently applying the practices and habits that made you progress. Next, you must also analyze whether you are as consistent as you think. Have you stopped monitoring your portion sizes? Or skipping a day or two of mindfulness?
Lastly, you should consider tweaking your habits to break out of your plateau. Examine one habit at a time while staying consistent in your other routines. If you start making progress again, double down on the change that helped you break out of the plateau.
I used all three of these techniques to break out of my plateau. First, I kept up the habits that propelled me out of the valley. Next, I analyzed my habits and found that I was not monitoring my portion sizes. I also recently changed my sleep routine due to a work push. I redoubled my efforts in both areas.
Lastly, I tweaked my fitness routine. I began jogging one day a week instead of walking and added in weight training. The consistency, analysis, and tweaks did the trick, and I was off the plateau and making progress again! If you are on a plateau and need consistency, you may want to read this blog – Be A Rock of Wellness Like Army Football.
Taking the Peak
Once you get off a plateau, overdoing the routine that got you off it is tempting. You may try to rush to achieve your goal quickly, but you must avoid going too far or too fast. Like a car climbing up a mountain, you want to take a circular road to avoid climbing too fast and burning out the gears. And just like a peak, the last few steps are usually the steepest.
I almost made the mistake of trying to go too far, too fast, on the last climb toward my weight loss goal. Long walks were my secret weapon to get off the last pounds. Five-mile walks became 10-mile walks or longer on the weekend. Finally, I pushed it a bit too far on Veteran’s Day when I walked 50 miles in one day.
That final walk helped me achieve my weight loss goal but with near-disastrous effects. A week later, after a long flight, my right knee buckled due to the strain put on by the walk and the inability to stretch. My fitness gains were at risk if I had to get knee surgery. Luckily, I recovered without it, but I lost two weeks lying up as I recovered. Bottom line – when you see the end line approaching your fitness goal, be patient and do not overdo it. The goal is not only to reach the peak but to stay on it or climb higher!
Achieving New Heights
Reaching a new wellness goal is a cause for celebration, but only for a while. It is hard to stagger out of a valley, trudge along the plateau, and climb to the peak. It is even harder to stay on the peak and reach new heights. You must apply the lessons you learned to keep going on your journey and not fall back.
- Look back upon the valley you scrabbled out of. Remember what happens when you get complacent and comfortable. Also, be thankful that you escaped the flood.
- Keep consistent in your habits while analyzing and tweaking routines to escape another plateau.
- Set your sights on a new wellness goal, keeping patient not going too far or too fast and risking your gains.
