Hey Injured Athlete,
I’m sure you want to heal as fast as possible, but in the meantime, let me give you a bit of a reminder that you’re NOT ALONE. If you are struggling with body image during injury, can’t find any motivation, or your self talk has turned into a mean old school teacher with a ruler, let me help you out here.
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1. The “I’ll lock in when…” Group
This is basically the equivalent to “diet starts Monday” but typically this pattern is like, “Okay, yes after surgery I feel like absolute crap and I’m not gonna worry about anything for a few weeks and I’ll lock in when I feel better…”
But I see this backfire in a few ways:
- You then try to swing the pendulum way to far the other direction and suddenly “be perfect” and that’s really freaking hard to do, because let me remind you YOU’RE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A VERY CHALLENGE REHAB. There’s a lot going on.
- You then regret and feel guilty and get overwhelmed by this “lost” period. And you get stuck in that thought.
- Because this typically happens right after surgery, you’ve now missed one of the most crucial opportunities of your rehab because those first two weeks are where you will lose the majority of your muscle.
If you’re in this group, I invite you to allow yourself to take baby steps and feel okay with that. Set one small very doable goal, not a laundry list. Just focus on nailing protein at breakfast instead of tracking and nailing every single meal.
The Three Month Panic
This is a pattern I’ve observed after surgery, where around month 3 and 4 people hit the absolute bottom of their self confidence in this journey.
And they come to me saying I need to turn this ship around RIGHT NOW.
My challenge for you is that this is the time where we can REALLY lean into some self work and some body image work.
When we dig a bit deeper, there are bigger things going on, like you’re actually really struggling because you haven’t been able to move in the way you want for 3 months and you’ve lost that piece of you.
Loving and appreciating who you are and your body when it’s not 100% how you want it to look or not moving how you want it to move .. is a big challenge.
But it is LIFE CHANGING. And when we can let that self judgment go and that panic go, your life then becomes so much.. calmer.
(For the record, all of my 3 month panickers have exited this panic around month 6 to 8, but the ones that work on body image during that time have a significantly smoother ride. And they have a skill they get to bring with them for a lifetime.)
The Mean Group
The one that I see most often unfortunately is the “I’m not good enough” group.
The, excuse my language, I’m a huge giant ASSHOLE to myself, but so supportive and loving and caring and empathetic to others group.
I want to be super clear about something. Injuries are hard. Injuries are jolting to your life. Injuries shine a giant spotlight on your daily habits, your routine, your self talk, your self belief and worth. I don’t care if you think others have it worse. I don’t care if you’re “only” a beer league soccer athlete or “only” a D3 athlete or whatever… this is true for every major injury
For some reason, you guys still expect yourself to get through this huge giant life altering thing with zero mistakes and be happy and perfect all the time. And you beat yourself up when you’re not.
It’s so frustrating because some of you guys are SOOO mean to yourself. You’re sooo worried about going up a pant size or your friend got cleared to run at month 5 and youre at month 6 or you’re strength symmetry isn’t 100% symmetrical yet
If this is you, my challenge for you is to learn how to start TALKING BACK to that voice.
You have a little devil on your shoulder that’s trying to convince you that eating more than 2000 calories will make you gain weight and that will suddenly make you a bad person and all the people in your life will text you and say hey we don’t love you anymore bye. That’s not gonna happen, and you need to recognize that’s a devil on your shoulder. I want you to TALK BACK and say, no no… this food is IMPORTANT because my body is working hard right now, even if it doesn’t feel like it because I’m laying on the couch all day.
I am all for discipline. I am all for goals.
My athletes and I work on body composition goals, we work on healthy food choices. We work on the habits that truly do allow food to be a useful tool in this recovery process.
I need you to allow yourself to remember you are human and that perfect is not the goal, nor the expectation.
It’s okay to be kind to yourself.
You will not spontaneously combust and all your friends and family will not text you tell you you’re not good enough. And if you truly think some of them will, well then that is a blog for another day.
Happy Fueling <3
FUEL YOUR COMEBACK
