“A vice is a moral failing or a bad habit. Traditional examples of vice include drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and gambling in card games. But anything can be a vice, as long as there’s someone out there who views it as bad behaviour or a moral weakness.”

The COVID Challenge

Motherfucking COVID-19 has been a real pain in all of our asses for the better part of the last 15 months. I’m sick of social distancing, I’m tired of wearing a damn face mask, and I’m fed up with hearing about all the deadly variants that are already out there along with some of the new ones that are on the way. This entire year has felt like a really long drawn out horror movie that continues to make shitty sequels and crappy trequels.

With that said, I still practice social distancing, I still wear my mask without hesitation, and I continue to educate myself daily with regards to what’s going on around the world so that I don’t fall victim to ignorance on the facts or the science that surrounds this Global Pandemic.

Like many of you, I’ve battled my own internal demons this year while living through lockdowns and trying to keep my business alive. I’m not one that becomes overly stressed easily, however I can honestly say that these past 15 months have been without a doubt the most frustrating, taxing, and nerve-racking months of my entire life. Oddly enough though, while many people panicked, became agitated and/or anxious when the Coronavirus flipped the world upside down, I actually became relatively calm and relaxed. My business slowed down at first (which looking back now was probably a good thing for me mentally and physically), but soon enough, with the help and support of many of our clients, we were able to flip the script on COVID-19 and reinvent both ourselves and our business as a whole.

I personally started to enjoy the challenge of steering our business through uncharted waters. I figured that if we could survive this Pandemic, than we could survive any other obstacles and hardships that came our way now or in the future. And we will. But as I mentioned in one of my Facebook Posts the other day, we’re nowhere near close to being out of the woods just yet. And I feel that there are still a few more battles that need to be won.

The problem that I’m facing now though is wondering if I can continue to go head to head with these battles without continuing to rely on some of my own vices that I’ve picked up during this Pandemic, in order to help me get through to the bitter end……

Breaking Bad Habits

We all have bad habits and most if not all of us have a few vices in which we rely on and use as cruches in order to help get us through difficult times. Some of us binge eat. While others abuse alcohol and/or drugs to escape reality. Plenty of people become addicted to activities such as exercise and/or sex due to multiply reasons. I’m not a psychiatrist so I’m not going to understand or even try to explain the psychology that causes these behaviours to occur. However I do believe that COVID-19 has made it much easier for these behaviours to thrive in such a distressing and dismal environment for the past year.

Staying Real 

Ask most if not all of our clients and they will tell you that I’m brutally honest and open when it comes to exposing my own weaknesses and limitations. Hell, I’ve documented all of my thoughts and feelings over the last 10+years in my weekly blogs. I’ve spoken about losing my best friend to skin cancer. I wrote an entire blog dedicated to a client/friend that passed away immediately in front of my own eyes after one of our training sessions. And just recently I wrote about how scared and worried I felt as I awaited for my results from my CT Scans, MRIs and EEGs, after I had my Grand Mal Seizure back in March of this year.

Yes, for the most part I keep my personal life personal and off social media. But when it comes to major events (both good and bad) that occur within my life, I’ve always used my blogs to help me articulate my thoughts and my feelings regardless of how weak and vulnerable they may make me feel.

With that said, I wouldn’t be staying true to form if I didn’t confess or at least acknowledge my own personal vice in which I have been using and relying on for the past 15+ months to help me get through this Pandemic. And the reason I think it’s important to share this with you now, is to let you know that none of us (yes even your Personal Trainers) are  NOT always perfect and perhaps have some of their own bad habits/vices/crutches that they themselves rely on in order to get through those tough times.

So What’s Been My Vice These Past 15 Months?

Find out next week, when I release part 2 of my 2-part blog “What’s Your Vice?”

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance