{"id":29392,"date":"2017-08-04T10:06:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T14:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/?p=29392"},"modified":"2020-04-09T14:21:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T18:21:31","slug":"not-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomeatathlete.com\/not-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Do When It Just Isn’t For You"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it hits you, it hits you.<\/p>\n

That moment when everything you’ve worked toward…<\/p>\n

or dreamed about…<\/p>\n

or projected onto yourself…<\/p>\n

comes crashing down.<\/p>\n

And you realize, this just isn’t for you.<\/p>\n

Take my first 100 mile ultramarathon<\/a>, when sometime around mile 80\u2014at 5:00 in the morning\u2014my race turned sour.<\/p>\n

I was bitter cold, wet, shivering, and stumbling my way down the trail at a speed of about 2 miles per hour. I was at my wit’s end, and that’s when it hit me:<\/p>\n

“This just isn’t for me.”<\/p>\n

The same thing happened three or four weeks into going vegetarian<\/a>\u00a0when, while I was out with some friends, they wanted to stop by a Bar-B-Que joint.<\/p>\n

“Oh come on,” one friend said. “You know you’re just doing this to impress a girl.” He was maybe a little right (it worked, BTW), but being vegetarian was something I really wanted.<\/p>\n

As I stood in line looking at the menu, mouth salivating for a sandwich, I couldn’t help but think that going vegetarian wasn’t for me.<\/p>\n

I really<\/em> wanted to run 100 miles<\/a>. I really<\/em> wanted to become a vegetarian. But there I was, in both situations, ready to call it quits.<\/p>\n

The Mistake We All Make When Going Big<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Dreaming big<\/a> is fun.<\/p>\n

“I want to run a marathon<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I want to start my own business.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I want to quit my job and live the #vanlife.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I want to follow a strict whole foods plant-based diet<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Just thinking about your dream, whatever it may be, gets the heart and mind pumping like the grooves at a Tay-Swift concert. You get visions of the person you’ll become, the doors it will open, and the things you’ll do.<\/p>\n

It’s one of my absolute favorite feelings. But it’s here that most of us make a crucial<\/em> mistake:<\/p>\n

We’re unrealistic.<\/p>\n

I don’t mean unrealistic as in, “that’s never going to happen,” because I’m here to tell you that you can and should go after the big goals. No, I mean unrealistic in that everything is going to be all unicorns and rainbows the entire time.<\/p>\n

Take that van life dream many of us have. I can’t say for certain, but I bet it’s hard to find someone living in a van full-time that doesn’t get tired of the small space, constant dirt, and lack of comforts. And I don’t know many vegans who can say that when transitioning they didn’t at least once wish they could have a slice of cheese pizza or a bite of burger everyone else was enjoying.<\/p>\n

Dreaming big is fun, but our big dreams\u2014the beautiful, wonderful, adventurous things and people we want to do or become…<\/p>\n

They’re going to be hard<\/a>. And at some point you’ll almost certainly sit down in defeat, ready to call it quits.<\/p>\n

When it Gets Hard, Don’t Do This<\/h3>\n

It’s no secret I love running<\/a>. But a few months ago, while training for the UROC 100K, things weren’t clicking.<\/p>\n

I began to dread each run, skipped miles for no good reason. After the race, unmotivated and tired, I told myself I needed a month off, and told friends (and podcast listeners) it was a scheduled break to allow my body to rest.<\/p>\n

But the truth was, I just didn’t want to run. So after the four weeks passed (when I felt obligated start up again), I pulled out all the quick fixes and hacks<\/a> I could think of:<\/p>\n