## <center>Today it came. That down feeling. That feeling of disappointment.</center>
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<center>![6F562D3E-CAD9-4D90-85A4-BCE300D6C870.jpeg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmURmprBoXguX6B2sXdPD59mJVy6a6SzECzEKPLrtReRJq/6F562D3E-CAD9-4D90-85A4-BCE300D6C870.jpeg)</center>
<center>[Source](https://pixabay.com/en/emotions-fatigue-people-work-sofa-2180352/)</center>
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**When I woke up, I felt uncharacteristically hungry. I also felt thoroughly drained and mentally fatigued. These feelings continued unabated through thirty minutes of shoveling snow. They followed me back inside the house and into the shower where I looked down and got the impression that my stomach had gotten a little smaller in size. *Hmm…* I thought, *I wonder if I’ve lost any weight. I wonder if I’ve finally cleared 81 kg.* I got a little excited at the thought.**
 
Two days earlier, during my daily weigh-in, the numbers on my digital scale teetered back and forth between 80.9 kg and 81 kg before settling on 81 kg. It was the first time that I had seen the number 80 in a while and I felt thrilled by the sight of that zero. It seemed like a confirmation to me, like a recognition of and reward for all the short but intense workouts I have been doing for the past month to lose weight.
 
*After getting out of the shower, I climbed onto the scale and looked down past my only slightly protruding stomach with expectations of seeing an eight followed by a zero. What I saw instead was the number 81.5.*
 
**It came as a complete shock. Here I was feeling hungry, feeling smaller than usual, feeling exhausted, and yet I hadn’t even lost a full kilogram yet. After four weeks of regular exercise, all I had to show for my efforts was a possible loss of 500 grams. How could that be? It seemed ridiculous.**
 
At that moment, that stupid little number seemed like the most important thing in the world, more important even than the benefits that I have been seeing in myself since I started doing this 9-minute exercise routine, benefits which include increased flexibility, increased energy levels, increased strength, a perceived reduction in stomach size, and strangely enough, improvements in my memory (Lately, as I move through the day, more and more I am finding myself catching things that I have repeatedly missed in the past. My second and third trips up the stairs to get things or do things that I forgot to get/do the first time around have largely disappeared.).
 
*This is an example of a bad morning. They happen. And it’s all right to have them.*
 
*In fact, it’s probably impossible not to have them.*

**Sometimes bad mornings develop into bad days and, if we’re not careful, bad days mount into bad weeks, which then become bad months. Once you lose your rhythm and/or the motivation that you generally get when you feel that your efforts have value, it can be hard to pick yourself back up and once again get yourself moving steadily down the path that you were racing down not too long ago.**
 
Is there an answer to bad days? I don’t know. I wish I could say that there was a surefire way to stop bad days in there tracks and keep us all moving steadily toward our goals, but my instinct tells me that there aren’t any definite ways to counter the havoc that even one bad day can sometimes have on our attempt to change ourselves and our routines.
 
*That’s why it’s very important to have a support group, a number of people who either know about your goals and efforts and to whom you communicate your ups and downs with, or a number of people who are pursuing similar goals along with you.*
 
**While awareness and accountability are also very good tools to help you overcome bad mornings, bad days, bad weeks, and more. They are fallible.**

On bad days, it can be difficult to practice awareness. Looking past negative distractions to see the positive points isn’t always easy. 

*Accountability can be avoided or even run from.*

**People, though, real people who care about you and support you, they have a special power. They can call you up or show up at your door. They can redirect your attention away from the negatives. They can make you laugh. They can hold you accountable. They can BE THERE for you. And sometimes, that’s all that we need, someone to JUST BE THERE.**

That, and maybe a little rest too.