The other day I was reading Holly's blog I Dream of Skinny and found that her post was quite fitting for my thoughts and mindset lately. Plus this particular post had me laughing as I thought of her and her fiance jumping up and down repeatedly to get their engagement shot. Holly asked "How do you hold onto your motivation?"
I think motivation is the number 1 reason why I have not succeeded in past attempts at fitness. I thought I had motivation, and I'm sure I did for short periods of time, but I never held onto my motivation long enough to make fitness a habit. Chris often tells me that once I get over that infamous hump it won't be a matter of "Oh, I need to go to the gym today", but more a statement of "I go to the gym today because that is what I do. I'm a gym goer."
For the past week I have been lacking motivation. I don't know what had me fall off the fitness bandwagon, but I think it had to do with a change of work schedule and a hatred of having to shower multiple times a day, everyday. I started getting re-motivated when Chris and I went out cycling together and it actually felt like we were biking together. I even planned and went on an 18km bike ride out to Lakefield so I met one of my goals for next summer before this year even ended. That was pretty motivating.
Then I took almost a week off the gym. I was gaining weight at my weigh-ins and that was not helping me be motivated because I had done the work and it wasn't showing on the scale. So, to get re-motivated I booked an assessment at the gym. I have found this extremely helpful. When the numbers on the scale stop moving, but I'm still putting in the work I need to assess my progress differently. Although I did not drop more in weight since my last assessment I found that I did lose inches. It seems my body has shifted. All that swimming has tightened up my back and my hips, but I've put on a little around the waist. Now I know what I need to work on so I can create a plan - new motivation!
When my motivation is lacking I also find a change in program helps. I love swimming so I will continue to swim. Swimming is becoming easy so I need to make it a challenge without making it too hard to prevent me from going. Hence today I upped my swim from 20 to 30 minutes doing a full 10 laps of legs only without stopping. After that I figured it wasn't too bad and the pool experience was nice today so I did 10 more laps. That's a grand total of 1000 metres or 1km! I didn't think that was going to be possible so soon. I'm also going to add in two gym days a week - one for arms and one for legs with some cardio on the bike. This will help me build muscle to burn fat faster and help me tighten everything up.
What else keeps me motivated? My husband's encouragement, my friends' interest in my fitness journey, new food recipes, my love of chocolate (ie I need to burn 300 calories to eat a chocolate bar), new fitness activities, my desire to blog about my experiences, seeing my weight go down or the inches come off, new wardrobes, and feeling better. I also get motivated from negatives like getting sweaty after teaching a dance class at school makes me want to get in better shape.
How do you get out of a funk when your motivation drops off?
Thank you for the shout out, Amber! I don't know about that energetic husband of yours. I fear that he's super human. I asked him awhile ago whether he was always like that or if it was from his new found physical fitness level. Yes, for him, it just started to click after he got moving. One motivating event rolled into another and before you know it, he's a miracle in motion. I've lost 50 pounds and I'm still with you struggling to keep hold of that motivation. I love the title of your blog because it's just how I feel about weight loss sometimes. I'm trying to learn to prefer a different way of living but there's a reason I got into trouble in the first place, I love lounging about eating peanut butter! :)
ReplyDeletePeanut butter M&Ms are the death of me right now. And yes I know my husband is superhuman. He is batman after all.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one with lack of motivation! Darn life keeps getting in the way and now that it's fall - I have to fight the lure of cider & donuts. AND I found out that a nearby orchard offers.......bacon donuts !!!! OMG. I will resist. If I give in to try just one, I'll probably be lost.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with all your swimming & gym days!
I'm gonna have to make a confession: I haven't been to a gym in two months. Literally, my last entry in my log book was two months ago. While I don't feel terrible about myself, I do feel disappointed. Like, really? you work so hard to get to a point, and then you just stop? So that's my funk. I've still been running, but I just haven't been loving the gym. I don't know if it's the people or the environment but I just don't feel like I belong there. Like the goals I have, when compared to the way people are being coached around me, are two different planets.
ReplyDeleteBut that's not why I wanted to respond. I wanted to point a funny factoid: I run, I run a fair bit, and I'm proud of where I am with running. But put me in a pool, and my cardio doesn't mean crap, because I do 25 meters, and I will gasp and pant and I need to stop for some air after that. I know part of it is that I'm not a very efficient swimmer, but that you're doing 1000m just boggles my mind. I can't imagine doing that!
Thanks Jelly! I'm working on my running now as well. Glad to hear you're keeping it up apart from the gym. Sometimes the gym is just not the right place to be.
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