Hi there,
Motivation – we all know what it is yet often struggle to find it, so here’s some helpful hints to get you going:)
Motivation plays a big role in getting us to take those first steps towards the gym, let alone doing the actual workout. Imagine going to the gym, feeling tired and unmotivated – how do you think that session is going to go?
It’s not…
Below are 5 ways to ensure you keep focused and motivated toward reaching your goals.
1) Social Support
Believe it or not, your friends do care about you and want to help you along your journey. When you decide to start a new training program/meal plan the first thing you want to do is tell your family and friends.
There are going to be days while on your program where you just don’t want to do anything and would much prefer to eat something you know you shouldn’t, this is where the social support kicks in. Instead of reaching for a piece of cake you reach for the phone and call one of your friends and tell them what’s going through your head. They will remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and keep you on track so when you get off the phone you’ll be glad you called them because you now want to go and do some exercise or cook a healthy meal.
Insider tip: If out at a dinner party, tell everyone what you’re up to so they can all make sure you don’t have too much food on your plate or go back for sneaky seconds.
2) The Competitive Mindset
What sounds more fun to you, doing a program all by yourself with no one really to talk to about it because they aren’t going through it themselves.
Or
Having a friend, partner, family member do it with you so you can compare notes on how your both doing and have a little competition between the two of you to see who can get the best results?
You chose the latter, right?
We all have a little competitive streak in us even if we don’t want to admit it. Doing a program with a friend (or group) is also a fantastic way to keep each other accountable for eating the right foods, doing the exercise each day and just generally keeping on track. It can become a lot more fun that way, the more people you get involved in your competition the more fun you’ll be having, it won’t even feel like hard work.
3) Once You Realize How Hard It Is To Lose Fat, it’s Easy!
You read that a couple of times before it clicked didn’t you?
Let me explain…
I’ve seen it too many times where people say ‘Oh, it’s too hard I’m just not going to try’ or something along those lines. The biggest problem here is they aren’t actually assessing the situation and how they can go about it. Once you commit and accept it’s going to take time and dedication on your behalf to lose the body fat and understand it is hard to do so – that’s when it becomes easy.
That’s when you have the right mindset that you’re not just going to go and try and go to the gym two or three times per week and you’re going to try not to eat any pizza at the football party this weekend.
If you think you can cheat and not pay attention to your diet, and just “wing it” at the gym, then you have no hope. But if you have the mindset that, “Well, this is going to be tough, and I’m going to have to change some habits, and I won’t get to eat fast food every day, and I have to get up early to get to the gym”, then you will succeed.
You must understand and accept that there will be sacrifices. If you don’t, you won’t be moving anywhere fast.
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” Anthony Robbins
If you accept the difficulty, and embrace the challenges, competition and recruit a team of social support, then you will succeed.
Do better than last week
No matter how fit or fat you are, ALWAYS try to be better than last week. Be better than yesterday. And if you have a bad day, no big deal, kick it to the curb and say to yourself, “Okay, tomorrow is going to be better. And the day after that is going to be better than tomorrow”. That’s how you build life-long healthy fat-burning habits.
4) Set a Personal Best in Each Week
Setting a personal best for each week is great because while you have your major goal, setting little milestones along the way is also a great motivator. Reaching your PB’s each week means you’re improving your performance, improving your body shape and yes you guessed it, losing
Those inches!
If your PB for lunges was 12 last week, aim for 13 this week. Obviously you want to train safely as you don’t want to cause any injuries, but you also want to step outside your comfort zone and push yourself as it’s in those last few reps of each exercise that will get you those results you’re after.
Stay tuned for part 2 next week.
To a fitter and healthier you
Andrew Z