Fit to Ride: Because there are no blue ribbons at the bottom of that bag of potato chips

But that didn’t stop Biz Stamm from looking. Now she’s pulling herself back up on the fit wagon.

From Biz:

Hey there, Horse Nation.  I have a confession to make.  Last week I fell off the fit and healthy wagon.  I’m a total “stress eater,” and last week I let the stress of life get to me.  As a result, I went on a bit of a potato chip binge. OK… OK.  I ate three family size bags over the course of three days.  It was bad.  I physically and mentally felt awful, but I’m not here to cry about failing.  I’m here to tell you that after those three days I came to terms with my mistakes, picked myself up, dusted myself off, and hopped back on that wagon.

As riders, we face failure quite regularly.  How many times have you gotten bucked off, done poorly at a show, or had months of hard work washed away by lameness or injury.  Ninety-nine percent of riders, when faced with such adversity, will resiliently pick up the pieces and then power on.  For some reason, we’re often unwilling to apply this same grit and determination to other aspects of our life, especially when it comes to our eating habits.  We know it’s in our best interest to eat healthily, but have a million excuses as to why we can’t. I know all the excuses because I’ve made them all at some point another.  There’s the “I have no will power” and the “it’s too difficult to cook healthy food,” and the zillions of ways you can justify eating junk food “just this one time.” If we made as many excuses about riding, we probably wouldn’t be riders.

I’m rambling a bit, but I guess my take home message here is that failure doesn’t have to equal giving up.  It’s merely just a bump in the road on the way to success. Keep that in mind next time you fall off your horse or “fall off the wagon.”

Go riding.

It’s OK, Biz. My horse has a potato chip problem, too.