Hello,

Well, this week definitely hasn’t gone to plan.

At the weekend I went to the Tarr Steps in Dulverton. When I sat down for lunch (choosing something inline with my principles), I got bit by an insect on my thigh.

What seemed like nothing at the time developed into cellulitis by Monday morning. My thigh became swollen, hot, red and painful, the redness started spreading up my leg, and I’ve ended up on strong antibiotics and feeling pretty run down.

So exercise has basically been off the table this week. Initially, that was frustrating. I’d started building some momentum with my training and wanted to continue it.

But I noticed something interesting about how I responded. My thinking was basically:

I can’t control this. It’s happened. I need to recover.

But what can I control?

There’s a concept in psychology called locus of control. Someone with a stronger internal locus of control tends to focus on how their own choices and actions can influence outcomes, rather than an external locus of control, where we’re more likely to see outcomes as being determined by things outside our control.

I couldn’t control getting bitten. I couldn’t control developing cellulitis. And right now, I can’t really control the fact that exercise needs to take a back seat in the middle of my 6 week health reset.

But I can control what I do next.

And rather than thinking, “Well, this week is ruined,” and allowing everything else to slide, I’ve almost doubled down on the parts of my health that I can control. I’ve continued eating according to the nutrition principles I set myself and I am focusing on rest and sleep. Also what foods I need to eat to help repair my gut after this course of antibiotics!

And that got me thinking about consistency.

I think we often mistake consistency for sticking to a perfect plan. But that’s not what sustainable consistency looks like. Because life isn’t consistent.

We get ill. Work gets busy. Children need us. Holidays happen. Motivation fluctuates. And occasionally you go for a nice day out in Dulverton and come home with cellulitis.

Maybe consistency isn’t about sticking rigidly to the plan. Maybe it’s about sticking to the direction.

When circumstances change, the behaviours might need to change too. This week I can’t train. But I can still eat well. I can take my medication, recover properly and continue making choices that are consistent with someone who looks after their health.

That also links back to something I’ve been exploring throughout this reset: identity-based behaviour change. Every action is a small piece of evidence for the person we’re becoming.

Previously, a disrupted week could easily have become:

“I can’t exercise, so I’ll start again next week.”

And once that happens, nutrition can go with it.

Instead, I’m trying to maintain the identity even when I can’t maintain all of the behaviours.

There’s probably some psychological flexibility involved here too. Psychological flexibility is essentially our ability to adapt to changing circumstances while continuing to act in ways that align with what matters to us.

Rather than fighting reality or giving up because the original plan is no longer possible, we adjust. The question changes from:

“Can I still follow my plan?”

to:

“Given the situation I’m in right now, what can I still do?”

There has been some encouraging news this week too. I managed to do another body composition scan.

My weight is down, body fat is down, visceral fat is down and muscle mass has stayed the same. I’m also noticing changes that aren’t measured by a scanner.

My energy feels noticeably higher and more stable throughout the day, and my concentration seems better. It’s still early days but they’re useful signals that the things I’m doing appear to be moving me in the right direction.

And perhaps this unexpected week has actually taught me something more useful than another perfect week would have.

It’s easy to follow a health plan when circumstances cooperate. The real test is what happens when they don’t.

Do we see the disruption as evidence that we’ve failed? Do we wait for Monday and start again?

Or do we simply ask:

What can I still control?

This week, for me, that’s been recovering and continuing to eat well. Next week, hopefully, exercise can gradually come back into the picture.

But I’m not starting again.

I’m continuing.

Week 3 lesson:
You can’t always control what happens. You can control what you do next.

And maybe consistency isn’t sticking perfectly to the plan.

Maybe it’s sticking to the direction.

Catch up in a few days.

Dan