Staying Motivated

Some people have asked me how I stay motivated to work out every day.  I recently read on AllTheWeigh.com some of her reader questions with her answers.  I was especially impressed with her answer to this question (read it here).  She hit everything right on the nose.  I especially liked how she said it wasn’t staying motivated that was the problem, it was about how high her *willingness* to work out every day was.  So true.  I completely agree.

Now I’d like to give my answer to the same question…and another question…here.  How do I stay motivated every day to work out?  Well, it’s not easy.  Some days I simply do not want to get out of bed.  I’m not going to say that I don’t want to run or lift weights, because that’s not true.  What I will say is that I just don’t want to get out of bed.  I don’t know why exactly.  Maybe I need a little bump in my antidepressant medication dose.  I should talk to my doctor about that when I see him again in July if it doesn’t get any better.

Anyway, on one hand it’s easy because I am goal oriented and I really do enjoy my workouts.  But, on the other hand, it can be very difficult because I’m struggling with myself and, as I’m sure some of you know, we can be our own worst enemy.  We’re the ones that criticize ourselves the most and the harshest.  When we disappoint ourselves and don’t reach our goals, we can be vicious to ourselves.  We call ourselves fat and disgusting when no one else would.  We see the worst in ourselves but only see the best in others.  Why can’t we be nice to ourselves?  It’s the strong person who can ignore this horrible inner voice and strive to stay on their path of health.  I try every day to be that strong person.  I don’t always succeed.  But, when I do “fail” I try to not get down on myself and stress about it because I know that will only make it worse.  I’ve learned to tell myself that the weak moments are only temporary and one or two of those moments here or there aren’t going to make much of a difference in the big picture of my weight loss and fitness journey.

The other question I wanted to address today is how have I done it…how have I lost the weight…what have I been doing.  And all the other versions of this question.  My go to answer to these questions is that I eat clean and healthy at least 80% of the time and I work out most days.  This is completely true, but some people don’t believe me that that is all I have done.  They think I’ve used diet pills or fat burners or some other kind of dietary supplement that isn’t regulated by the FDA.  Nope.  There were times in the distant past when I would use these things, but I know better now.  I don’t touch the stuff and when I find out someone is using one of them, I do my best to dissuade them and try to steer them in the direction of just working out most days and eating healthier.  These things can be very dangerous and people don’t realize this.  Another thing they don’t realize is that some of the ingredients in these products have been banned by other countries because they KILL PEOPLE.  I’ll say that again, these products can KILL YOU.  Don’t use them.   If you can’t figure out how to eat healthier on your own, ask me…or, consult a dietician or nutritionist.

I will close this by saying that if you have ANY questions regarding working out, eating right or anything related to health and fitness, please don’t be afraid to ask.  If I don’t personally know the answer, I will find it.