Making Peace With Rest Days

Photo Credit: Parker Deen
Silver Moon Photography

Rest days and I do not mix, I pretty much detest them and wish that they were not necessary for the “greater good.”

I feel a large portion of my disliking the necessary rest day are-

1. It's  a challenge for me to admit that not doing physical exercise to the degree I do on an almost daily basis is “okay.”
2. I still have residual mental/emotional feelings that are eating disorder based.

I struggle with the concept of having to “earn” my ability to eat throughout the day.

Exercise “earns” my food and tasty treats. Not exercising means that I should eat bare minimum because there is no feasible way that my body will burn any calories. Zero, zilch, nada.

I know my mentality is wrong; I will burn calories throughout the day and my muscles need time to recover. More so as I rode mountain bike trails the past few days for a couple hours at a time. Climbing hills, walking up hills and maneuvering my bike.

To top it off I have my period, so I’m already fatigued; I made myself ride longer than originally intended for two days due to upcoming rain.

How does one develop a healthy relationship with rest days? It’s not like I sit around on the couch eating chocolate covered potato chips and drinking a gallon of beer. Either way, it’s difficult for me to sit and accept that I will not balloon out into a baby whale if I’m not biking for more than 30 minutes for one day.

It goes against my nature and it’s something that’s a hard thing for me to accept and recognize as positive and necessary. I'm sure with time and patience, acceptance will occur.