I’m getting married in two weeks and I was so busy that I started slacking on my diet and my exercise. And once you go back to eating foods that you cut out and skipping workouts, it’s so easy to fall back into your old routine and completely lose motivation. There are five things that worked to get me back on track and I wanted to share them with you!
1. Remember why you’re on this fitness journey.
Are you trying to change your lifestyle or lose weight for a particular event? Are you having health problems or were your clothes no longer fitting? Take time to remind yourself why you’re eating right and going to the gym. And don’t just let the reason pop in and out of your head, really think about it. Sometimes your goals have changed and you didn’t even notice. Maybe your current routine was a little too ambitious. Maybe you just need to shake things up. Once you remember why you’re on this fitness journey you can change some things to get you back on track.
2. Take it one step at a time.
For those times when you just don’t want to go to the gym, but you know you really should, commit yourself to one step at a time. If at any time you want to give up tell yourself you can. Put on some music that you regularly exercise to. Your pulse will automatically increase because it equates these songs with cardio. Next get dressed. If you’ve got cute workout clothes, your mood will elevate itself and your confidence will increase. Drive/walk yourself to the gym under the promise that once you’re there if you’re still not feeling it, you’ll go home. I doubt this will happen. Once in the gym tell yourself you’ll do just 10 minutes of your workout and after that you can go home if you don’t want to be there. Exercise makes you feel great and you’ll probably finish your whole workout and then some!
3. Look at how far you’ve come.
Take our your food/workout journal/app and look at your progress. Look at old photos of yourself. Put on an item of clothing that doesn’t fit anymore because it’s too big. Sometimes when we have a very large goal, what we still need to do overshadows what we’ve already accomplished. It’s very important not to let that happen. We have to remind ourselves that we are running a marathon not a sprint and we have to keep moving if we want to reach the finish line.
4. Read for knowledge, read for inspiration and read for success stories.
We have a great pinterest board full of motivational quotes. Read these and fire yourself up. Read your favorite health magazines or blogs. Read about the benefits of running/lifting weights/eating healthy. They say knowledge is power and sometimes we need all the help we can get. Read up on something new you’d like to try. Whether it’s juicing or a tabata class, learning something new will get you excited all over again. Go on Facebook and Twitter and look at the profiles of people you know are hard at work on their fitness. Sometimes we just need a little inspiration to keep going.
5. Schedule Exercise Into Your Life
Often we feel like we’re giving up things to exercise: less time with friends, less time watching TV, less time catching up on housework. But exercise is not really an option. It’s a necessity and we need to remember that. It is one of the 7 things all living animals have in common along with breathing, eating, drinking, excreting, reproducing and growing. Erika from the Black Girls Guide To Weight Loss said it best. “I wouldn’t go a day without eating or brushing my teeth and I don’t go a day without exercising.”
