Some thoughts on how to stay motivated when it comes to fitness

We live in a world where we want something to happen in the blink of an eye. Everything in our lives is fast: if the computer takes too long we freak, if the line at the drive thru Starbucks is backed up we freak, if we don’t lose pounds upon pounds fast enough – we give up?! We beat ourselves up and get down on ourselves? Well that is just silly. If you are feeling this way today, realize that there is so much more to come and you just have to grin and bear it and get back at it tomorrow – with more energy and more fierceness.

Nothing good comes easy – I’m sure you’ve heard that one before. 

If it was easy it wouldn’t be called WORKing out – a motto I love and live by.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Your body takes time to adapt and adjust. If you haven’t be the kindest to your body over a length of time, here’s the truth: it’s going to take a long time to get back to the body you want. We all have fat, let’s just put it out there. We, as humans, need some amount of fat covering our bones and muscles to keep us warm. Back in the beginning, humans needed to store fat to stay warm in the cold winters. Now, I’m not saying any of us are cavemen, but some amount of fat is essential to health and body function. Only the most extreme athletes and bodybuilding competitors should be dropping down to minimum body fat. And trust me, that takes A LOT of dedication, restriction and training.

So back to the fat, yes we have it. The % of it you have is what needs to be addressed. It takes a good amount of proper diet and exercise to remove fat from our bodies. It might seem like it got on our thighs, hips and butt pretty quick, but it was a gradual thing. Poor diet, lack of activity, hormones, illness – all of that adds up over time and got us to where we are today. So to think that with one week of a super restrictive diet and a few cardio classes is NOT going to drop you 15 pounds in one week. It’s just not safe, healthy or something you can maintain.

Losing weight takes time, changing your physique, takes time. The healthy average is to lose 1-2 pounds per week – that’s it! Stop thinking that everyone can or SHOULD lose drastic amounts of weight in short periods of time like on “The Biggest Loser”. Which by the way I think is a grotesque and awful show that portrays people with weight concerns as lazy, uneducated and unmotivated. Putting them on a show, mocking them and then putting them through 8-9 hour a day workouts on minimal calories, all to tell the world “Look you can do it too” – NO, no, no – you shouldn’t do that too. You shouldn’t try to drop weight overnight because it won’t last, it will do terrible harm to your body and organs and it is not addressing the main issues.

I see many women get derailed because they weigh themselves on the scale every day. Stop that, stop it from today on. Personally I wish I never bought a scale during my strength training because I actually was going up in weight for the first few months, and was so confused. But the truth was, I was putting on muscle – lean, healthy, good for me muscle weight. But on the scale it freaked me out, and I almost put my hands in the air and said “screw this weight lifting thing, I’m getting heavier.” When you look at a scale everyday you are putting yourself under this body image microscope that can be crushing to your self esteem. I recommend picking one day a week to do a weigh in, and not only measure the pounds but also measure the body fat percentage, that for me was the best indicator that while I may fluctuate in pounds I was going down in body fat due to the right diet and weight training.

What I want readers to understand is that it won’t happen over night. It won’t happen in a few short weeks, it will take months. You will look back six months from now at a “before” photo and then think “wow, NOW I see the progress.” It’s so hard to see results when you look at something every single day. You pinch and pull and nit pick at yourself. You get mad that your jeans feel tighter when you assume they should fit looser, but darling that is because you are growing leg muscle and firming up your butt and who would be mad at that?! Bring on the lifted bootay and the firm quads – I’ll take it, but I have to admit it took getting used to.

We have to stop looking at television shows and magazines that talk about “10 ways to drop 20 pounds in 2 weeks” because that IS NOT the healthy way to lose weight and keep it off. It is not the way to live a healthy “LIFESTYLE” and that is what your goal should be. Diets are short term, lifestyle changes are for life. Deciding to dedicate five days to your health and fitness to go to the gym and workout is a life long commitment, not just a “spring break, need to look good in a bikini but then I don’t care after” commitment. Giving up McDonald’s is not a New Year’s resolution thing, it should be something you give up long term. And when you slowly start to look at this journey as just that, a journey to a goal for life….then you will stop beating yourself up that you aren’t down by X pounds yet. The scale is not the indicator of your success or of your determination. Look in the mirror, look very hard at your body and realize that it will happen. Over time, with enough patience, it will happen. Don’t get down on yourself just yet, stick to it and stay motivated – helk it took me 3 years to feel good in my own skin 🙂

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