Recently, I participated in my high school’s Alumni Soccer game. I was so pumped to be there, ready to play the sport I had enjoyed my whole life with people I hadn’t seen in ages. I had just gotten back into working out, using Kayla Itsine’s BBG program, and was excited about my progress and knew I was in shape to play the game. Unfortunately for me, very early on I twisted my foot. Thinking, or perhaps wanting to think, that it was just sore, I played the entire game… on a sprained foot. I’ll save you the long, painful journey of discovering that my foot was indeed sprained and I would need to ice, wrap, and heat it for weeks to come.
Staying motivated and positive during this injury was tough. I’ve struggled with body image for the last few years, and with the program I was doing I was excited to finally be back on track again. This injury put a halt to those workouts, not allowing me to put much weight on my foot at all. I didn’t need crutches, but I knew the treadmill and squats were not going to help the healing process. I was frustrated and feeling down. I was so worried about losing all the progress I had made and gaining weight.
This injury and all the things that came with it threw me into an unhealthy mentality. I had to keep modifying workouts, and was eating unhealthily due to stress from work, school, and now the injury to top it all off. Then finally I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I found a Youtube channel that focused on hurt foot workouts (Caroline Jordan Hurt Foot). As soon as I got back into working out I felt tremendously better. The workouts allowed me to feel strong and accomplished while not further injuring my foot. I began to eat healthy again and asked my boyfriend and a few of my friends if we could help keep each other accountable for healthy habits.
It is not easy to stay motivated during an injury, but the last thing you want to do is stop your healthy habits altogether. The last thing you need to worry about is letting go of things that make you feel better and positive when you are trying to heal, and that is the most important part! Let yourself heal! Don’t push yourself to do workouts that will hurt you further, because the longer you put off that healing process the worse it will be. Find workouts and habits that work for you and your healing and go with them. You will feel so much better when you push through the disappointment of not being able to do everything, I know I did.