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Momentum and Motivation
I did not want to do a workout today. I was becoming increasingly comfortable with resigning myself to eating leftover pizza and picking something to binge watch on Netflix. After wrestling with it the through the morning, I knew I needed to get it done, but still didn’t feel any more motivated.
Rewind. It was a very busy May as we navigated the end of my daughter’s 1st grade year and addressed some family challenges. I have had some hiccups in my workout programs, but have always looked forward to getting back on track and getting in the groove. It took me almost 3 weeks to get going in my most recent program, 22 Minute Hard Corps, but I was in week 5. And then the wheels fell off. I lost every ounce of motivation to workout. I went almost 2 weeks without getting anything in, and this past Monday was supposed to be my reset day to start over on 22MHC. And then my daughter wanted a donut. And that meant we were all getting donuts. And who in their right mind has a donut without a Mocha Frappe or Coolata? No big deal. I’ll still kill the workout. Except I didn’t. My stellar nutritional choices caused me to do something I’ve not had to do (except for a select few workouts) in a long time. I had to modify to finish. Scratch that. I had to step out from two exercises to finish. Then I was crazy sore Tuesday, and didn’t workout. Then it was worse Wednesday, and… can you guess? Didn’t workout. Thursday I did a Combat workout, but wasn’t feeling particularly motivated.
Back to today. Fortunately, I did not compromise my nutrition this morning, and grabbed a water and was dialed in with intense focus on finishing every rep in every round of Cardio 1. It wasn’t all pretty, but I made it. And it felt awesome! And then I did the Core 1 addon workout, and felt better! And then was motivated to have something other than pizza, and made my chocolate Shakeology, and felt amazing! I was able to see the power of momentum in action, and was reminded to take things one step at a time. I just did that main workout. I have set the goal of losing 15-20 pounds the summer to see if I can not only shed some lazy pounds I let creep back, but to also get to a new personal best. The tricky part will be finding the motivation to keep going when:
1. I am sore
2. I am tired
3. I am busy
4. I just don’t feel like it
I tell you all of that to invite you to join me on my summer endeavor of getting back into a groove with my fitness. Do you have some weight loss or fitness goals that you know are important, but have just had no motivation in getting them done? I can relate. I can also tell you that if you don’t set the goal and make the effort, you’re guaranteed that nothing will get done. If you would benefit from an accountability group, need some coaching (advice) on how to get started, or just want push yourself to your next level of fitness, comment here or on my facebook page or message me. I will be creating the group, “Momentum and motivation”. Free to join; you need only bring a positive attitude and be willing to take the first step 🙂
Efficiency in exercise
One thing I can’t stand is wasted energy or effort. Tony Horton’s upcoming Hard Corps workout makes sure that will not happen as you seek to invest in your health. I’ve gone through T25 (25 minute workouts) that took my cardio to a whole new level. I did P90X3 which is setup up with all 30 minute workouts, and got great results. Tony is all about the science of the workouts so that you can maximize your calorie burn and muscle gains, which means you drop the unwanted fat more efficiently than anything else out there. Now he has a whole body workout distilled down to 22 minutes. I’ll be checking this out at release. If you want to jump in on this, comment below or shoot me an
email. It’s going to be awesome 🙂
The Need to Be Pushed
I have discovered something about myself over the past year and a half of acclimating to a healthier lifestyle and making fitness a priority: I need to be pushed. It was incredibly challenging to go from 276 to 186 lbs, and without question it pushed my physical limits as well as my mental limits in terms of my will power and deciding to remove negative elements of my nutrition. However, as it turns out, I have found that I thrive when I need to “Dig Deep”, and remain committed to a particular regimen.
Case in point: I completed the Les Mills Pump Program in September, and just thought I would kind of hodge podge some workouts together and not put myself on any official regimen. I have seen excellent results in every Beachbody program I have used, but have pretty well stuck to the prescribed schedule. It turns out that without something to push me to do the hard workouts when I was sore or unmotivated, I didn’t do them. My workouts have become sporadic, and my nutrition followed suit pretty quickly. I haven’t been a slave to the scale in some time, but knew things were going in the wrong direction so I jumped on. The damage? 10 POUNDS! That got my attention.
I need to be pushed again. Yes, the workouts can be hard. Sticking to a good nutritional plan can be hard. But what is even harder is to try to make any progress (or even maintain for that matter) without being pushed. I am super pumped to get into Insanity Max 30. I am making sure I can start it next week! I need the push. How about you?
Check out the preview and email, facebook, or message me if you need to jump in on this! Available today, and at a huge discount through Beachbody coaches. Get committed to a good fitness plan before the next round of holiday festivities are here!
Fitness How To’s: Three Essentials in Exercise
First, let me say that if you are working out and have some form of regular exercise incorporated into your life, congratulations! It is one of the easiest things to NOT do and make excuses as to why we don’t. I know, because for nearly a decade that was me. I came to abhor anything that would make me sweat, and it became easier and easier to not workout. As I got my workout legs back under me, I found three F’s that have served me well at age 40 in keeping up with the demands of some challenging workouts.
Essential #1 – Flexibility
I am not a particularly flexible person by nature. However, flexibility is a HUGE part of making sure that you not only have a good workout, but is critical in making sure that you can continue to workout. Be sure to have some light warmup stretches to ease into your workout. Be sure to engage in active stretching over the course of your workout, and post workout do some focused stretching on the muscle groups you worked that day. Don’t worry if you can’t stretch to the floor or discover you have as little flexibility as I do. Stretch to where you’re comfortable and don’t push into positions your body isn’t ready for.
Essential #2 – Focus
Once you begin your workout, ensure that you are giving focus to proper form. If you fail to keep the form and focus intended in your workout, you are wasting your time. This is not to say that your form has to be perfect. However, there is a marked difference in the results one will achieve by doing moves “similar” to the trainers and duplicating moves you are shown. Solid focus in your workout means you will have to give greater effort in your workouts, but that translates into some phenomenal results. You’ll be happy you did 🙂
Essential #3 – Ferocity
Have a ferocious mindset when you enter your workout. This does not mean that you push your body to the breaking point and beyond; what it means is that even when you have to modify your workouts, you want to make it to the end. Some days will be a breeze and you will be excited to “push play” (as we say in TBB) or just jump into your run or whatever workout you do. There are other days, though, when it is a severe act of will to just show up. When you enter your workout “zone” so to speak, be ready to bring it, and do not waiver in your commitment and determination. Final note: guard yourself against overtraining. After speaking to Focus and Ferocity, I know it can seem even counterintuitive to not go all out, but remember that you are in this for the long haul. Your endurance will increase as will your strength, but you must have the patience to allow your body to acclimate to the demands of a workout regime again. Thanks for reading, and stop by tomorrow as we’ll talk about two huge landmines to avoid so that your efforts are not derailed and your results stay on track!
How Necessary is Nutrition?
When I first planned to lose weight, I figured I would simply apply the formula I knew would work. I would simply ensure that I burned more calories than I took in. The problem with that is I gave no attention to where the calories I received would be coming from, and worse yet my body would not necessarily feel “full” because it was not receiving the nutrients it craved. The led to some really bad cycles, and wondering how I could make so little progress in weight loss. I used workouts as an excuse to treat myself to whatever I wanted to eat. It did not take long to discover that I was easily able to “undo” whatever benefits I benefits I would get from my workouts.
When I joined my first challenge group, I learned that 70% – 80% of my visible results would be directly related to my nutrition. What was the question again? How important is nutrition? About 3 to 4 times as important as your workout. The good news is that if you have coupled Shakeology together with your workout program, you are poised for tremendous success in your fitness goals!
I welcome your comments below, or you can shoot me an
email 🙂
Welcome to Second Chance Fitness!
Much thanks for stopping by! However you got to this page, something health or fitness related drove you here. What do those words truly mean? What is it to be healthy? To be fit? I thought I had an idea of what fitness was, same as I believed if I could simply lose weight it would automatically equate to being “healthy”.
Fortunately, I had a friend who understood my desire to lose weight and was willing to work with me and coach me to set goals that would not only help me reach my weight loss goals, but also learn about true health and real fitness. It was incredibly effective. Over the course of a 60 day challenge, I lost over 20 lbs., and even better dropped from a size 42 to a size 36.
Listen in on my video blog (coming soon!) for the full rundown, but the short version is that I used fad diets to try to regulate my weight and played the yo-yo game we are all so familiar with until I had ballooned up to 276 lbs. I thought I was doing well when I decided to track calories. However, I rarely exercised and had no consistency in my eating habits. I experienced some weight loss, but was still eating garbage and had no real fitness to speak of.
I entered my 60 day challenge with a fair degree of skepticism, but was committed to giving it my all and seeing if I could get results. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Having a comprehensive fitness plan enabled me to get the exercise my body needed as well as get the nutrition I was sorely lacking. Having chocolate Shakeology as my ally, I saw my junk food cravings virtually disappear, and I was motivated to do more and more clean eating. At the end of my challenge, I clocked in at 214 lbs, and was back to a size 36 pants (from 42) for the first time since college. Best of all, I was feeling great, and knew I had found a sustainable and viable lifestyle that I was excited to maintain.
My journey has just begun, but I am so excited for what is yet to come. Where are you right now? How are you doing with your efforts in fitness? Need a second chance at this whole fitness thing? I would very much love to hear your story and pass along (pay forward, if you will) what was presented to me. Drop me a line and let me know what I can do for you!
Second Chance Fitness 