Have you ever had a thought that has flashed through my head numerous times and then all of a sudden it decides to stick? As if some huge mystery of life has been revealed… but in reality its practically a basic survival skills. This past week I had an "a-ha moment" that helped me get through a rough patch…. and I am hoping that this idea might inspire some of you too.
The past couple weeks have been rather hectic. Between some added emotional stresses and a crazy schedule I found myself returning to my old desires of carelessly eating and not taking time to plan ahead for success. I have an inside joke (with myself) and now call eating bread/pasta/chips "carb loading" - but it's no joke when you let a nibble become a meal. I just felt like laying around rather than moving and going to the gym... I even skipped my bootcamp class because I just felt too tired to get up. It was like my motivation had withered away. In just a few weeks I get to celebrate keeping 50 lbs off for an entire year... so you'd think would be motivation - but it wasn't. I was just plain old tired and wanted a vacation from life.
Thankfully during this time of self-frustration I saw this meme and it really spoke to me and got me thinking about this health journey. In general, losing the weight and keeping it off hasn't been that hard for me - so losing motivation has been a wakeup call. Even without the gym and poor choices I didn't gain any weight - but I know that the road to a sloppy mindset only leads to disaster.
So what do you do when you lose site of your goal... when you lose motivation? What choices do you have?
Well, you can chose to keep going down the rocky road or head back uphill to the top of the mountain.
One of the many things that this health journey has taught me is that while I do not have control of all of the potential things that can happen to my body and my health, I do get to make the choices of what goes in my mouth and if I go to the gym. So basically I have learned the importance of taking responsibility for own my decisions when it comes to food. As with most responsibilities, it is discipline and consistency that lead to success. Discipline is based on making calculated decisions - not just waiting for the wind to blow results my way.
Faced with not having much motivation I had to turn on the power of discipline. This may sounds like a ridiculous "a-ha moment” but for whatever reason, in that moment I realized that motivation can only go so far… and continued success would require discipline. That night I was chatting with a new client that was planning to start the program the next morning. The last statement she made was “Well, I know this works… it’s up to me to just do it and work it.”
Yes!
Just do it!
Suddenly the message Nike has been implanting in my brain my entire life finally clicked.
The next morning I got up early and went to bootcamp. I still wasn’t necessarily motivated or feeling a deep desire to go sweat… but it sure felt great when I had finished. And thankfully it only took that 1 time and my new frame of mind to get back on track and refocused on continuing down this lifelong path of health.
So this is my new mantra... the voice I'm planting in my head (and I challenge you to too) = "I may not always be motivated, but I can be disciplined!”
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