Dear Luv Doc,
I started a New Year’s resolution this year of going to the gym every day after work and in the mornings on the weekends. Last year I gained some weight after a breakup and spent most of the year depressed. I knew something had to change and it felt like the gym was a good place to start. The first few weeks went well. I only missed one out of 14 days. The one I missed was the last Sunday when my mom came to visit and she wanted to go to brunch. I felt like I couldn’t deny her. Then the next week I missed two days because of car problems and now I am finding it really hard to get motivated to even go on the weekends. I will end up going out on a Friday night and then want to sleep in on Saturday and then I think of all the errands I need to do and going to the gym falls off the list. The same thing has been happening on Sundays. It’s almost March and I have missed going to the gym the last two weekends. I have at least been sticking to my weekday schedule, but I just can’t get motivated for the weekends. I feel guilty that I have let myself down – especially since going to the gym makes me feel a lot better during the day. Please tell me what I can do to stay motivated.
– Signed, A Saturday Sloth
Seven days a week? Even the tiny little 8 lb. 6 oz. newborn baby Jesus took a siesta on the shabbat – and not just because he was Jewish. It’s because his dad was the OG worker’s rights advocate. Apparently the Almighty has his limits. He negotiated himself a day of rest and He put it on the weekend because he knew that’s when all the big NASCAR races happen. Even the most treacherous celestial slave driver would probably agree that six days of hard labor cooking up creation deserves one day of R&R. I imagine most omnipotent deities would be plum tuckered after digging out the Grand Canyon or dreaming up something as wackadoodle as a duck-billed platypus. A mammal? That lays eggs? That’s some out-of-the-box creationism right there. Somebody get Jehovah a PBR.
Look, I am not trying to say that you need to honor the Sabbath … or circumcise yourself and convert to Judaism … I’m saying that you need to cut yourself some slack. I know the preceding doesn’t make a lot of contextual sense because the whole point of circumcision is to get rid of the slack, isn’t it? Also, in His infinite wisdom, Yahweh scheduled circumcision for the eighth day, which in hindsight is a clever move because who wants a pair of overworked, trembling hands making that cut – especially back in the days when mohels used a flint knife? Bruh. Lastly, all the preceding assumes you’re a dude, which, like the existence of the aforementioned deity, I have no direct proof of. You might well be a female gym rat who goes to brunch with her mom when she comes to town. That’s not just a dude thing … I bet. I would call my mom and ask, but I would have to get Jesus on the main line. Also, we never went to brunch, so … there’s that.
I think it’s glaringly obvious I’m not the best at staying on task, but in my old age I find it helpful to not be such a hardass with myself about exercise. That way I don’t live in a mentality where one missed day at the gym sends me into some sort of guilt/shame spiral. It’s OK to play hooky now and then, and to be totally honest, life throws a monkeywrench into my routine more often than I would like, but them’s the breaks. Like, literally. For me, the key to resolve is to know I am going to occasionally backslide and have unavoidable interruptions – some of which interrupt my fitness schedule so much that it takes weeks to work back up to the condition I was in – and I almost always do. I try to be gentle with myself. I try not to be the screaming, Bobby Knight, chair-throwing asshole self-coach and more of the Phil Jackson, power of positivity, self-nurturer. I tell myself, “You’re the kind of person who perseveres.” I think that beats the alternative, right? So, in my opinion, taking a few days off to rest on the weekend if you choose is no problem. The problem is having anxiety about it. When you’re on a long path, you’re going to need to rest along the way.
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This article appears in March 6 • 2026.