Pushing yourself when doing well

seantheking87

I'm six weeks in and 11lbs down, with my fortnightly weigh in tomorrow morning. Woke up this morning and just thought "meh, I'm on track to lose another few lbs tomorrow, ill have a day off and not worry about my walk today"

Then I remembered a video I watched when I first started. It was an interview with Will Smith talking about motivation and achieving your goals. He put it like this; Look at your goal as building a big wall. Don't think of the whole wall, but just concentrate on laying one brick as perfectly as it is possible for you to lay that brick. If you do that every day, then eventually you will have built your wall.

Made me realise that I hadn't even made an effort to "may my brick" for that day. My legs and energy levels were perfectly capable of going out to exercise, I just lacked the willpower. Thinking about this made me get off my lazy butt and head out though.

How does everyone else feel, do you ever find yourself just willing to slack off if you have had a particularly good week? What motivates you to keep pushing it, even when you are doing well?

Holly92154

Willpower. I've been at this for a long time, motivation comes and goes. Some days I can't tie my shoes fast enough. Others, picking out clothes can take hours. The one thing that remains the same is that if it is on the schedule it will get done. I've been know to run at 2am because I procrastinated all day but I didn't allow the time to be used as an excuse.

Habit. Go at a scheduled time, get a white board and write out the exercises you will do each day. Lay out your clothes in advance, create a reward system, keep track of mileage and pace, create goals for yourself (5k, taking vitamins, drinking water, etc), pick out favorite quotes, etc

Adding an unscheduled off day isn't the end of the world. In fact, I usually add 1-2 extra off days a month (when my body really needs a break). There is a difference between not feeling like doing something and knowing when you've pushed your body too far.

One thing I've learned- no matter how much I dreaded working out, once I started I never regretted going.

cj94404

One thing I've learned- no matter how much I dreaded working out, once I started I never regretted going.

I find this is mostly true, but I have many days after I exercise when I just feel like crap and I eat a big meal right afterwards just because ...Exercise is always work unless I'm swimming off the coast of Hawaii. Which unfortunately I can't put into my daily schedule.

Holly92154

many days after I exercise when I just feel like crap and I eat a big meal right afterwards just because ...[/quote]

Depending on your work out intensity, not having good pre or post nutrition could be the cause.

jenniferinfl

I've exercised a few times and I'm semi-active though I have my profile set at sedentary. BUT, I'm not doing half hour to an hour a day yet. I know it's going to sound silly, but I lose weight really easy the first couple weeks and thus I'm kind of taking it easy till week 3 when I hit the real weight loss of a lb or two a week.. lol Then I can throw in exercise and surprise my body a bit and still see weight loss. But, that is pretty silly. And I recognize that it is silly and misguided.

seantheking87

Doesn't matter if it sounds silly or misguided...i've always found the most important thing is doing what's comfortable and doable.

As long as the results are coming in and you feel comfortable and able to carry on whatever you are doing, then stick at it.