10 Ways To Find Motivation

Sometimes we lose the drive to keep on a straight path towards reaching our fitness and health goals. Workouts get monotonous, food gets boring, we feel like we don’t have time, we cheat, we decide that skipping one day of eating healthy or working out won’t make a difference, but sometimes it can lead to a snowball of poor decisions that sends us off-roading way off course. Staying passionate about and motivated towards your purpose is an important part of your journey. So, I’m going to give you a list of things you can do to keep you on the right track!

1) Create variety in your workouts!
Working out the same way every week or month can get really boring. Switch up your workouts every month at least. Try new things and get outside (these Minnesota winters don’t always help)! You will have something to look forward to and your body will thank you for giving it something else new to do. You’ll see different (GREAT!) changes in your body because you’ll be working it an alternative way.

2) Find new foods and new recipes!
Get online, find a new cookbook, or browse the grocery store. Open up your mind to new foods and flavors! Food doesn’t have to be boring if you don’t want it to be. In fact, you should be excited about eating and fueling your body in a healthy way! You’ll notice some fun things happen to your body when you fuel it well.

3) Get a workout buddy!
Having someone you can count on to relate to and have fun with will give you a push. You can talk about your results, make goals together, and help each other reach them. You can bounce ideas off of each other as well and open each other up to new workouts, recipes, etc.

4) Subscribe to a magazine!
I LOVE magazines that provide health and fitness tips and advice! They often also have transformation stories that inspire and motivate. They help give me ideas every single month on workouts, lifting moves, targeting certain parts of my body, recipes, EVERYTHING! So you get a push every time your new magazine comes in the mail.

5) Use an event to motivate you!
Do you have a wedding, reunion, or vacation coming up? Do you just want to look swimsuit ready for summer? Use that as motivation! Mark your calendar with a big red circle or put a note up on your refrigerator, bathroom mirror, on your tv where you workout, or on your bedroom door (so it’s the first thing you see every day)! Keep in mind how you want to knock everyone’s socks off because of how great you look!
6) Weigh your options and evaluate the effects!
Is there a brownie staring you up and tempting your tastebuds? Are you having a bad day and want to binge on a giant bag of Doritos? Stop yourself and think before you act! Think about all the work you’ve done to get as far as you have. Then think about how you KNOW you are going to feel when you get done eating that brownie or downing those chips. Tell yourself you’re stronger than your urge and step away from the foods that are tempting you! You’ll be SO glad you did!

7) Just push play!
Even if you don’t feel like working out just do it anyway! Chances are, after you start you’ll end up finishing your entire workout! And if you weren’t in the mood to workout BEFORE your workout, you will be in the mood after 5 minutes of warming up! And afterwards you’ll be so proud you stuck it out! Keep in mind you’ll never regret the workouts you do.

8) Use your imagination!
Start thinking about the results you want and the way you want to look. Find pictures of people that inspire you with results similar to what you’re looking to achieve….imagine how you’d look and how great you’d feel being that fit and energetic. Imagine what you’d do with that energy and what losing those few extra pounds will allow you to do in the future that you can’t do right now.

9) Buy a new pair of kicks!
Remember back in elementary school when you were excited for the new year because you got to use your new lunch box and wear your new clothes? This is kinda the same deal, but fitness style. Get yourself a new pair of kicks and a new outfit to create a little excitement for your workouts! Looking cute and testing out new gear is fun!

10) Hire a Personal Trainer!

Having a personal trainer takes some of the guesswork out of a fitness program for yourself. Additionally, personal trainers are a great way to get ideas for exercises/routine, add extra accountability, or help you push yourself further than if you worked out on your own. Another great reason is safety. If you’re not working out safely, then you risk not being able to workout at all. It’s nice to have someone spotting you and correcting form. 

Yours in Health, 

Tanya

5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Eating THAT

As a health and fitness professional, I see and hear more often than anything else that nutrition is the toughest part of developing a health and fitness lifestyle. I can certainly attest to and agree with my clients on this one.

There are times when I even make impulsive decisions that cause me to feel terrible about my moment of weakness. These decisions don’t leave a huge immediate physical impact on my body, but they often mess with my head, make me feel a little mental fog, and lose some of my energy. Then what happens? Sometimes I end up falling off the wagon completely because I feel like I’ve already failed, so what’s the point? I don’t think I have to ask for a show of hands for how many of us have experienced this situation, do I?

The reality of the matter is that it really doesn’t matter how others see us or what they think, it’s how WE FEEL about ourselves. We are the ones who suffer the consequences of our actions and impulsive decisions in moments of weakness.

So how do we fix this? The first thing we really need to do is learn to be less impulsive about the things that could interfere with what is truly important to us. Take these next few steps:

STEP 1: Grab a couple pieces of paper and a pencil (ancient, I know) and sit down with your thoughts.

STEP 2: Write down and clarify your goals and what’s important to you.

STEP 3: Determine and write down all the things that could possibly get in the way of you and your goals. 

STEP 4: Go through each of the scenarios you’ve come up with and create a solid plan of action.

I find that a lot of people are impulsive simply because they aren’t clear enough with themselves about what it is they truly desire. So when the moment of derail approaches, they are more likely to cave in because they haven’t thoroughly thought everything through. Without a clear idea of where you want to end up, you can’t create a good roadmap for how to get there.

So now that you have your roadmap and directions for your destination, when you encounter those moments where you have the opportunity to go off-roading, hopefully you’ll check back with your directions and stay on course. If you still find it difficult in that moment of weakness, ask yourself these additional five questions:

QUESTION 1: How will the decision to eat this make me feel physically tomorrow?

QUESTION 2: How will the decision to eat this make me feel mentally tomorrow?

QUESTION 3: How hard or long am I going to have to workout to burn this off?

QUESTION 4: Am I WILLING to workout that hard/long to burn this off?

QUESTION 5: Is eating this RIGHT NOW going to feel better than how I will feel when I hit the goals I want to achieve LATER?

If the roadmap doesn’t sway you from off-roading, hopefully the answers to these 5 questions will put a bitter taste in your mouth and cause you to push that (fill in the blank) away and stay on course.

Yours in Health,

Tanya