Motivational Tip #4

Let's call this Kathy Smith week. I really like her advice on motivation, which is why I'm sharing it with you. See below for my comments in italics.
Melissa

Make it a Priority

Working with clients who wanted to lose weight or get in shape, I've noticed over the years that certain people can take the information and make it work for them, while others have huge stumbling blocks and excuses. I've heard them all: no time, lack of energy, sore back or knee, don't know what to do, confused, etc. (No excuses. This is your health, your life. If you aren't healthy, then you are not making your life a priority).

What's your excuse? Why don't you take better care of your health?

My experience has been that some people are able to make up their minds to lose weight and exercise. (I know a few people who are great role models in this category). They just do it. And some people can't. I don't think it's a lack of willpower. It's just that some people either fail to see the importance of getting healthy or they feel that life has conspired against them.

The truth, though, is that people who've succeeded don't have more time or fewer problems. It's just that they've chosen to make good health a high enough priority. They've discovered ways of adjusting their schedules and lives in order to exercise and eat right.

There are plenty of days when I don't feel like putting in time on the treadmill or working out. But when I experience these thoughts, I immediately say "STOP" or "LET IT GO!" - meaning stop the thought or let that thought go. Then, I think about how I'll feel after exercising. Next, I'll think about something a little different I could do that day to add variety to the workout, like putting on an old CD, say, Elton John or U2, which helps to shift my mind-set. Then I go into the ritual of putting on my shoes and workout clothes. Often, this is enough to stop the chatter in my mind. Instead of listening to "Oh, I'm tired, I don't feel like doing this," I shift to "I'm going to feel so great after this workout." I wonder if the weather will be nice tomorrow so we can go for a long hike." Or, "I wonder what I can do with the kids this weekend." Once you set your body in motion, you've won more than half the battle. (Sometimes I feel too tired to go to my Tae Kwon Do class, but I'm never tired once I get there. You just have to motivate yourself to go. That's the biggest challenge).

What also helps is to review all your reasons for wanting and needing to work out in the first place. When people come to me personally for weight-loss help, I insist that they set some goals. For example: "I need to lose fifty pounds."

Why? I ask.

Usually a woman's first answer is, "well, I want to look better." But there are surface goals and inner-personal goals. The first is usually about wishes, the other about priorities. Surface goals tend to stand isolated from the bigger picture of life, so they're not as powerful when it comes to keeping you motivated. The woman who answers, "I want to look better" won't be as motivated - and therefore stands a lesser chance of success.

On the other hand, the inner personal goals reflect real priorities. If you can get to the reasons behind wanting to look better, then there is a much greater chance of success. For instance, "Okay, I admit it. Every day when my kids come home I snap at them, because I'm so tired and short-tempered. My husband and I don't make love anymore because I don't feel good about myself. I look in the mirror every day and don't like the way my eyes look; they're saggy and make me look older than I am. I don't seem to have the confidence I used to have."

These words often carry the weight of a commandment. Your goal now isn't just thinner thighs or flatter abs. It's improving your entire life, and the way you feel about yourself.

If you really want something, and your reasons for it are strong enough, they will motivate you to make it a priority. They will be stronger than your inertia or your laziness.

Motivational Tip

I've been reading Kathy Smith's book called "Lift Weights to Lose Weight." It's a good book with a lot of images and ready-to-use tips. I wanted to share what I learned from her, and I found her website, so I'm sharing what she says about motivation (it's easier to copy & paste). I am also inserting my own italicized comments along the way, as well as bolding key ideas. Please feel free to share other helpful ideas for keeping people motivated with fitness & health.
Melissa

Be Consistent

What's the secret to health and fitness success? That's the question I'm asked far more than any other.

The answer: Be consistent. Be consistent. Be consistent.

For more than twenty years, I've exercised every day (I'm only at 11, but I'm younger than Kathy Smith). Now, does that mean a full, hour-long workout? No. Some days, in fact, I only have time for ten minutes; other days, only thirty; still others, a strenuous, two-hour hike. There are periods when I'm traveling for a week or so and only able to get in a few minutes of exercise between meetings (yea, vacations are tough for exercise, unless you stay at a hotel with a gym). But whether it's ten minutes, thirty, or a long sixty, I make sure I work up as much of a sweat as possible. Not only because I'm trying to burn off last night's dinner or because I think it'll improve my cardiovascular capacity, but because I don't want to fall out of practice. That's what I mean by consistency - if you fall out of the habit, get right back on track. I agree - don't stop exercising. It's better to half-way do it than not at all. Partial exercise helps you maintain the momentum.

Often when I talk to people who aren't exercising on a consistent basis, I get the feeling that they have the best intentions, but allow one excuse after the next to interfere with their workouts (No excuses! I even exercised when I was crippled. A lot of people exercise when they are pregnant. Make exercise a priority, and you'll soon be addicted). Then, they lose momentum. "I was exercising and then all of a sudden I just stopped," is a common lament. "I don't know what happened; I just sort of quit. I haven't really done it for six months, but I plan on starting again right after my birthday." (You can maintain a level of consistency for anything, be it a foreign language, paying your bills on time, or spending time with loved ones).

But exercise and self-care is not an on-and-off proposition. It's a daily one. If you don't have time to do your regular workout in its entirety you don't abandon the whole thing. That's not the way to approach exercise.

Try thinking of it this way. You have a goal - an ideal, if you will. The ideal is to work out five times a week for at least thirty minutes. But if you can't get in all thirty, then you take what you can. That's the way life works. Just because you fall short of an ideal doesn't mean that you abandon its pursuit. Telling a single lie wouldn't compel you to give up honesty as an ideal any more than accidentally running a red light causes you to break every other rule of the road.

The hardest aspect of exercise is starting again after not doing it for a while. That's why I try not to lose my momentum - so I don't have to start all over again.

Just accept that you'll devote at least ten minutes a day to exercising, the same as you accept that you're going to have to eat, bathe, and dress. Now, those ten minutes may not necessarily be at the gym or on the track. They may be that walk you take by parking a little father away from the office. Or those stairs you climb instead of pushing the elevator buttons. (When you only have a few moments to exercise, find a handful of ones that you can do on the go or at home).

Once you choose to make exercise a daily part of your life, you start to see opportunities for it where before you saw only barriers. That viewpoint begins to create lifestyle changes, and produces a healthier attitude toward life in general.