Question: How do you stay motivated to keep exercising?
Focus on fitness. Sounds simple, right? When I think of the people I know who have successfully built exercise into their lives (ie they’ve made the “lifestyle change” and exercise consistently), they don’t focus on weight – they focus on fitness. Sure, many people who are regular exercisers with a permanent seat “on the wagon” started off with a weight or size goal as a target. For some, it was a reunion or wedding or dream vacation with bathing suit required that lit the initial exercise spark. At some point, they took a turn in a very good direction. With less aches and pains, less or no medications and with the awareness of being capable of doing so much more than before, exercise started to mean more than just a way to drop some dress sizes.
What improvements/benefits have you experienced with exercise?
You might not always lose weight as fast as you want. You might realize that you aren’t meant to be a size 6. What happens then? Do you pack up and go home, never to be seen exercising again? Absolutely not! Stay focused on fitness – remember how it felt when you couldn’t do a single push up and you can now do 23 of them. Remember when your knees used to ache going up the stairs and that now they don’t. Remember that, even though high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity or diabetes may run in your family, they won’t be running you!
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” ~ Dr. Seuss
You know that to lose weight and get in shape you need to eat healthy, natural foods and get regular daily exercise. It does take effort. Everything that is worth having in life will take effort. You are truly worth every single drop of sweat that runs down your face! No diet gimmick, magic pill or new piece of fitness equipment will do it for you. There is no effortless solution, but putting an effort will be very rewarding in all aspects of your life.
Since we’re focusing on fitness… I want you to do a little “test” today! Grab your phone or your food journal… something that will give you a record you can keep.
YOUR EXERCISE CHALLENGE FOR DAY 16 IS….
… not even going to take you 10 minutes! It won’t take long, BUT I want the BEST you have to offer! I want you to MAX OUT on a few fitness challenges and record your results as your current Personal Best (PB). A month from now, 3 months and 6 months from now, we’ll repeat our tests and see where we are! You don’t have to do them all today, but here is your list of options:
Personal Best Tests:
Push ups – from your knees or toes, the most you can do in 30 seconds (with your arms bending to a 90-degree angle)
Wall squat – the maximum amount of time you can hold the position (with knees bent as close to 90-degrees as possible)
Plank – the maximum time you can hold the knee- or toe-based plank with proper alignment
1-mile walk or run – record the time it takes you to complete the distance and also record your heart rate immediately after you finish
Workout Challenges – complete your favourite workout from the MCC blog and simply record your reps or the time it takes you to complete it. Doing this is a simple way to see and feel your progress and remind you that “this is working!”
When you come to classes at MCC, you see improvements in your abilities. You’re going stronger, longer, faster… and don’t you forget it! Your trainers know it and will keep on challenging you to do better. Keep focused on that, and the rest will fall into place.
You deserve to be happy and healthy. Believe in yourself and own it! “I am going to GET FIT!”
This I can relate to…you’ll notice I actually have avoided responding to the “reward” and “goal” challenges as, for me, I want my “goal” (and “reward”) to be that I exercise everyday without even thinking about it (even to feel that something is missing if I don’t exercise). For me, the thought of a marathon is not realistic, but being able to challenge myself is something I can do. It’s certainly true that I can do things now that I laughed at 6 months ago. And while the weight isn’t coming off fast, I feel that the lbs that have been lost won’t rebound back because exercise has been incorporated.
So tonight I will log my best in the test, and will look again at Christmas to see how much further along I am.
Thanks Kelly!
Thanks for your reply Kathryn – you are a wise woman! My goal for this challenge was to open up the possibility that exercise can literally become a habit – something you do every day that is just part of the fabric of who you are – something you do automatically. For some of us, specific goals are very motivating and provide a bit of a road map to keep us on track as we try to build the habit. For others, the reverse is true. I find myself somewhere in the middle. At times, I’ve had very specific goals and a program that I followed in reverse – meaning that I designed my own exercise program by starting with the goal achievement and working backwards a few months to guarantee I’d get there (this was my half marathon program). Other times, I don’t focus on specific results or goals at all but rather focus on EFFORT – as you mentioned. In this way, we’re always getting positive reinforcement to keep exercising because our “goal” was to keep challenging ourselves and perform better! It’s not just about the numbers….
Day 16th covered and best marks written on my cell. Would love to see the improvement within 3 months.