Doing What You Can, When You Can
Years ago, I was very inspired by Roni Noone, who was a weight-loss workout blogger and media creator. She still is a blogger. I started following her around 2008 or so. Then she grew her platform enormously through books, videos, conferences, and more. I even met her a couple of times at her “Fit Bloggin'” conferences in Maryland. She is still very active online, but I haven’t kept up with her.
One of the concepts she created and repeated often was “WYCWYC.” It means “Do What You Can When You Can.” It means to simply stop stressing so much about whatever you need to do that you can’t get it done and instead do what you can, when you can. It’s a practical approach to working out. She talked about it quite a bit in her vlogs (video blogs), and it really resonated with me.
Can’t make your regular gym routine because you’re out of town? Take a walk in a nearby park and do something that challenges you (like 10 squats after every half-mile). If that doesn’t seem challenging to you, then substitute another exercise that does.
My mind often wants to turn everything into an all-or-nothing choice.
Like writing an article for the Becoming Elli website. I haven’t written in months, and I used to write weekly or even more. Now I feel like I have to have some wonderful topic with profound insights in order to publish something.
Today I decided WYCWYC fits the bill. So here it is!
Overcoming Procrastination
I think WYCWYC breaks through my procrastination. I’ve heard that procrastination is a by-product of perfectionism. You know, if you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all. Something about it makes sense, although I’m the very first to say I am by no means a perfectionist. But maybe I feel like what I’m doing isn’t enough or isn’t good enough.
I think about when I really started exercising again when I turned 50 years old in 2007. Now you probably know, I tend to sweat a lot, even on a cold day. Back then, going to the gym while weighing more than 60 pounds more than I do right now, I felt like everyone was looking at me and judging me. At least I was severely judging myself. And doing even a little workout had me sweating… a lot.
It took me five years to lose the weight. Then I started working on getting stronger and doing more. Being consistent and finding things I loved really helped.
Years ago, I would take my dog for long walks on Saturdays, for miles and miles. Then that habit changed to riding my bike for miles and miles. I started running races.
Over the years, my life has changed, and so have my habits.
Now I try to walk a short walk every day. When I was walking my dog for miles and miles, I had a young dog. Now Peanut is 14½ and struggles to do a half-mile in 30 minutes.
I love to catch a line dancing class when I can. It’s not so much for the exercise but for the mental focus.
I have my favorite instructors for strength classes. They are the ones who go hard, but offer modifications for each of their exercises so I can continue to work out during the class even if I’m not able to do the main exercise.
It’s not all just about exercise. The WYCWYC principle works for eating right too. Prepping food a little bit at a time helps me. And I’ve learned that it doesn’t have to be fresh vegetables—even buying chopped frozen vegetables isn’t cheating. (Jill told me it is okay!)
WYCWYC works with all kinds of things: food swaps, weeding, laundry, vacuuming, getting rid of clutter, staying in touch with friends, and downsizing Christmas (and Halloween, Easter, etc.) decorations. It’s really help me to get through a mountain of paperwork that has a lot of baggage or bad feelings about.
Getting started is usually the hardest part of those “big” tasks. I have found that embracing WYCWYC takes the pressure off of starting and allows me to just do five-minute sessions and not feel bad or like a slacker. And it’s amazing how quickly those five-minute sessions can make a difference. It definitely adds up.
So I’m back writing a blog/article today. It’s just a short one, but that’s okay. I’m doing what I can when I can.
PS. Weird thing. In researching this article, I noticed that Roni just turned 50 (Happy Birthday!) This past Wednesday. Is that a sign? Maybe it’s time that I ask her on the Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast as a guest. Let me know what you think.
