The day I realized that it’s okay to skip the gym was a point of liberation.

“If you ain’t been a part of it, at least you got to witness” ~ Drake

Since my competition season, this is a concept I have struggled with as I transitioned into my off season.

However, as of recently, my “no days off” mentality has really taken it’s toll on me. I became cranky, irritable, anxious, and down right angry all the time. Plus, I have began losing precious time from things that are equally if not more important in my life right now than my hours spent in the gym on my workouts.

Curretly, I am in the final stretch of my first semester of graduate school, studying Human Performance, Exercise Physiology,  and have a lot of stressful activities coming up and I want to finish strong. So I decided to take a “so what” attitude for a whole week as it relates to going to the gym. “So what if I don’t wake up at 5am, so what if I don’t drive 20 minutes across town everyday, so what if I don’t lift today, so what if I don’t get so wrapped up into my workouts that I spend three hours in the gym, so what if I don’t count my macros, or prep my meals the night before, etc.”

I have to tell myself these things because I have had to come to grips with being ok with taking a break so that I can focus on my studies 150% over the next couple of weeks until the semester break!

Is it an easy choice, yes and no. Yes, because my body is begging for the mental and physical break from the anxiety of keeping up with my training and dieting, and getting behind on my studies, that it has lead  to numerous stress induced binges. No, because the mere act of NOT working out scares me, so to counterbalance that stressor, despite not going to the gym to lift, I will still do regular bouts of lifting, cardio and yoga at home in the interim.

All in all it’s ok to skip the gym,when you need to reevaluate your priorities in life, especially when you’ve done you’re due diligence and worked so hard to reach your goals. You’ve earned that time to relax and regroup, so when you return, you’ll be stronger than ever!

Today marks one week exactly since I went on my Gym Vacation. I feel more rested, creative and productive, but know it’s time to go back soon. Can’t regress my progress.

So until next time. ..eat clean, train dirty, and rest often.

I AM CANDICE MARIA