Building the "Mind Muscle"

FirstCoastLisa

Here is my situation in a nutshell. Forty-seven year old female from a non-athletic background all of her life. Have done the yo-yo thing many times and making it about the number on the scale rather than about losing to keep it off and get to a place of optimal fitness so I am sure I have lost as much if not more lean body mass in the past as I have the fat. I am working with a personal trainer and my goal is to get physically fit and dropping the weight is a happy bonus in the process. I am seeing the trainer 2 x per week for an hour workout and then he directs my at-home efforts on the days I am not meeting with him. Here is where I need your help...

Being from a non-athletic way of life my entire life (I did not play sports as a kid my parents were more about good grades and activities like piano lessons, art, etc. ~ you get the picture that there is not the spirit of an athletic competitor hiding inside me waiting to be found again), not only am I having to learn how to be athletic in a physical sense but I am finding my mind is just as big of an under-developed muscle as the ones in my body. I have learned that emotions and past stress can play into the workout equation since the body processes stress as well. Last week I had an "I feel like I am going to cry moment" during my workout. I felt a flood of tears come on me halfway through my circuit training and I battled the tears for the last half of the workout. MY PT assured me that everyone has moments like that. I did make a forum post (entitled TEARS) and was assured by others on MFP that they have experienced the same so I now I don't feel like such a crazy lady.

My trainer has made the statement that I am going to have to "get tough" in my head a well as my body. He told me there is no switch I can flip that it is a process. Was this a challenge for you? How did you navigate the transition? I would prefer a "switch" because when I start feeling that emotional sensation come on when working out, it can get me really distracted and I start to focusing on both working out and trying to keep the emotions at bay.

The PT told me yesterday that world-class athletes like an Ali or Michael Jordan had train their minds as much if not more than their bodies to get to the level of performance that they were at physically. How do I develop, nurture, grow, get that "tough" mindset? I always feel so good when a workout is done, both physically and mentally, but the heat of the moment I can have some really bad, limiting and self-defeating thoughts. These thoughts then turn to the whys and then I start to see reaching my goals for fitness as next to impossible.

I am not looking for a magic bullet as I know there are none but rather just wanting to give myself every advantage to help me stick with the workout program and not feel so overwhelmed or whatever it is that I a feeling. If you went through something like this how long did it get you to get past that point where your mind muscle was stronger than your work out muscle so therefore the workouts became easier in a sense that you didn't feel like you were battling on two fronts?

Sorry this got a bit long and rambling. This is not a situation that can be expressed in just a few lines. Thank you for taking time to read and respond to my situation.