Running out of motivation

I suggest a time of self-reflection. Do you get bored? I do. I play any trick in the book to keep me moving. To keep running, I register for runs a couple months in advance. I gotta train to get across that finish line, so it keeps me going.

I have to fundamentally enjoy the activity to keep doing it.

Find a sustainable plan.

Maybe stop running and start walking; advice from a turtle.

what exactly are you doing? do you generally enjoy the activities you've chosen to do for exercise? are you trying to do too much too soon?

motivation is an overrated and fleeting emotion. we all do numerous things every single day for which we are not particularly motivated to do...exercise is no different...you're never going to be 100% motivated all of the time to train...thinking you will is a completely unrealistic expectation.

ultimately what is needed is discipline. discipline leads to consistency and consistency is what ultimately wins the day. when you are disciplined, you just do regardless of whether you're or not your getting warm and fuzzies about doing it. I'm hitting the weight room tonight for example...I'm pretty tired as I had a non stop weekend and didn't sleep very well...it's also been kind of a crapper of a day at work...believe me, I don't have the good feelz right now about hitting the weight room...but I take the feelz out of it and just do....because it's Monday and I lift on Monday and when I'm done I will ultimately feel better about having done it.

i would also add that in my experience, people tend to have a pretty narrow view of what constitutes a good workout or whatever...people end up trying to force themselves to do things for which they have no real interest in doing. discipline can be enough of a struggle when you actually enjoy what you're doing for the most part...staying disciplined with something you loath is an exercise in futility.

find an activity that you genuinely enjoy for the most part, and do it. you still won't be 100% motivated all of the time, but you will have a much easier time staying disciplined. i love being out on my bike, but i'd be a liar if i said that i love it all of the time and am 100% motivated to be out there all of the time...that's just not the way it works.

I'd also suggest establishing some fitness goals...when you're working towards a more specific goal than just, "I need to lose weight" or "I need to get fit" it helps in the discipline arena. when i trained for my first 1/2 century a couple of years ago, that's when it really clicked for me..."i have to train for this or i'm going to be in a world of pain." since then it has just been a matter of improving on the last ride...being a little faster and going a little further, etc...set goals and then go do things that will help you achieve them.

take the emotion and the feelz out of it and be disciplined and just do.

So many of the trendy, typical, over-promoted, over-sensationalized programs and "lifestyles" get people to make massive amounts of changes quickly to see quick results, which is what everyone wants. Fact is, VERY, very few people who are overweight got that way in a matter of months, or a year, but the mental expectation (and again, the promotion of all those gimmicky programs is) to 'get back' to healthy with boot camp like diligence and mentality. In the end, it is never sustainable because the motivation is wrong and people only look at the changes as temporary - like you reach this weight number destination and everything is perfect after that.

What works is making small tweaks consistently that you want to do for the rest of your life. That is the mindset you take. You do things that you enjoy and not that just look cool at sound really healthy. It really doesn't take much to be healthy, if you have the right picture of health in your mind and you enjoy the process of getting there.

Do whatever you are motivated to do and enjoy it!

You can lose weight when you're motivated to do that.

Sounds like you're making this too hard on yourself. Perfectionism one of your traits?

Motivation gets you started, habit keeps you going. Jillian Michaels

Set up a regular time to do the exercise. See if you can find a buddy to go with you. Maybe there is someone at the gym who is also struggling with exercising regularly. If you get together, you can motivate each other to get there

Read up on all-or-nothing thinking. I suggest you develop an 80/20 plan where eighty percent of the time you eat "clean" and then twenty percent of the time you eat whatever you want. That may be more sustainable for you.

What's happening is that you are locking down your inner hedonist in solitary, and about every fourteen days he breaks free. Then you try and stuff your hedonist back inside. The trick, I swear, is to make peace with your inner hellion. Let him TP City Hall if that's his thing. As long as he's in by ten, you'll call it good.