Where do I find the motivation?

slumberbug
slumberbug Posts: 45 Member
edited September 20 in Motivation and Support
UGH!

I am so frustrated!! When I joined MFP I was in a good place mentally. I was motivated, was running at least 5 times a week and watching, for the most part, what I was eating.

My daughter, who is my running buddy, is not at home for a few weeks. I hate walking/running by myself, and simply stopped. I do have equipment at home but can't manage to get my butt motivated. I only put back on a pound of what I lost, which wasn't much to start with.

When I was in my late teens and early 20's, I was a bodybuilder. Why can I not find the motivation now that I had then?? What does everyone do to keep themselves motivated??? I simply can't find anything that works.

Replies

  • savvystephy
    savvystephy Posts: 4,151 Member
    You can do it girl! Think of how better you will feel after your work out. :] Maybe try to do it in the morning. One pre-request to working out is putting on your work out clothes, so maybe just try to get enough motivation to put on your work out clothes.. then when you're in them you may feel more inclined to work out (a little psychology). :wink:

    You can also use a dry erase board or a piece of poster board in a very public place [one would be the fridge] and start tracking/graphing your workouts , and that could be motivation to work out since you see it is blank for the day you're in.
  • tammietifanie
    tammietifanie Posts: 1,496 Member
    I stand in front of the mirror naked :blushing: and then i picture myself toned , skinny and no more jiggles..:happy:
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
    I love the feeling I get from exercise. I always feel amazing after a work out or a long quick paced walk. My achievements and my changing body keep me going. I like that I am able to do so much more now and I want to keep at it. Every week, I see changes or things that I can do that I couldn't before and it makes me want to try harder.
  • leavinglasvegas
    leavinglasvegas Posts: 1,495
    I can relate to the lack of motivation. I feel like climbing back into bed everyday and giving up. I'm sure we both have different reasons. I hate when people say, if you really want it you will do it. They don't understand what goes on in my head.

    I started seeing a Social Worker. (My major is Social Work so I am not ashamed to admit that I see someone.) Talking about stuff with someone who is not a part of your daily life helps alot. I have found things that bother me and affect me that have nothing to do with my current problems, but at the same time have everything to do with everything. I realized that my lack of motivation is not laziness, but has alot to do with things that have happened to me over the past few years that I thought I dealt with.

    I recommend talking it out with a social worker (not a psychologist). They look at the Whole perspective and the treatment is simply talking it out. I find it very helpful to talk to someone who is not telling you what you want to hear or criticizing you. You learn more about yourself and when you are faced with the same situation in the future, you have knowlege about yourself to keep you from reverting to bad habits.
  • Shanta1983
    Shanta1983 Posts: 1,228 Member
    I stand in front of the mirror naked :blushing: and then i picture myself toned , skinny and no more jiggles..:happy:
    I know right:happy: :laugh:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    I still have no motivation, but it is a habit to exercise now.

    In the beginning I would write up a post it with exactly how I felt upon my return after exercising.

    1. Healthy
    2. Energized
    3. Sweaty
    4. Accomplished


    Then when the next day came, I read my feelings and hoped to recreate the moment.

    Good luck to you:flowerforyou:
  • kellch
    kellch Posts: 7,849 Member
    I'm still not motivated either :embarassed:

    I just make myself do it whether I like it or not. I don't give myself a choice anymore. I treat it the same way I treat work. I don't wanna work. But I have to. Or a dr appt or dentist appt. It's just something I have to do. :flowerforyou:


    :grumble:

    :laugh: :wink:
  • showmorgan79
    showmorgan79 Posts: 8
    I can sympathize.....I find it really hard to pull my butt up off the couch, put on my riding clothes and haul my lazy *kitten* up to the barn....and my barn is only 20 feet from my house!! But then I think about my goals, about how, if I don't work Q then he'll fall behind his schedule and all the time I spent building him into an athlete is wasted. He's an athlete just as I'm (trying to be an) athlete and we both need at least 30 minutes of work a day to keep on track so that in the end we achieve our goals to becoming a really great dressage team next year.

    It's hard........and some days I need a good ol' kick in the *kitten*, but I do it and after all the work, all the time I spend grooming and riding I feel accomplished and proud..........it's good for your soul.
  • sleepl8s
    sleepl8s Posts: 37
    YOU WERE A BODY BUILDER!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You've already proven that you have the drive and dedication to go the distance. You're a badass and maybe you've just forgotten it too easily. Remember how aweseome you used to look? Remember that your brain is engineered to achieve. This is like my 8th time trying to be a gym bunny. I have trouble with discipline. You've already proven you have discipline. Get back in there and kick some *kitten*. As a body builder, yoiu know that although you've only regained one pound, it's a slippery slope to not get back on that horse. With me, I think of short term events to keep me motivated. What got me started at gym was a wedding i needed to attend, now, I want to look fly for halloween, once halloween is over, I need to look awesome for a trip to Cozymel. I also remember that in my 20's I weighted 105 lbs. and I want to look juicy like I used to. I'm sure you can get that motivation back.
  • slumberbug
    slumberbug Posts: 45 Member
    I absolutely love how I feel after running. No doubt about it.

    It's just so hard to fit it in my schedule. I'm hoping when it isn't 95 outside anymore I can run right after work instead of waiting until after 7 pm. I refuse to cook dinner until I have run, or else I will eat before and blow my chances of a productive run. I've tried even setting reminders on my blackberry in order to schedule my exercise, but that just irritates me because of all the reminders I already get. LOL I would love to run in the morning, but am so not a morning person. I have even set my alarm earlier before work to go and run, but when I wake up I just reset it. Time to stop making excuses, huh? :-p

    I think I'm just in a funk and I need to kick myself seriously in the behind. LOL Thanks for all the replies. It does help to know that others struggle as well and find ways to cope.
  • slumberbug
    slumberbug Posts: 45 Member
    YOU WERE A BODY BUILDER!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You've already proven that you have the drive and dedication to go the distance. You're a badass and maybe you've just forgotten it too easily. Remember how aweseome you used to look? Remember that your brain is engineered to achieve. This is like my 8th time trying to be a gym bunny. I have trouble with discipline. You've already proven you have discipline. Get back in there and kick some *kitten*. As a body builder, yoiu know that although you've only regained one pound, it's a slippery slope to not get back on that horse. With me, I think of short term events to keep me motivated. What got me started at gym was a wedding i needed to attend, now, I want to look fly for halloween, once halloween is over, I need to look awesome for a trip to Cozymel. I also remember that in my 20's I weighted 105 lbs. and I want to look juicy like I used to. I'm sure you can get that motivation back.

    Oh, I know and that is what is so frustrating. I know what I can accomplish, I've just gotten so darn lazy. I always weighed between 105 and 120 until I hit 30. Wow, then the pounds hit. Of course I also moved back to the US where I started going everywhere in a car, eating fastfood, not getting out as much. In Europe for ten years I hardly ever took a car and rode a bicycle or walked everywhere. I like your "look juicy" comment. I will have to remember that one. LOL
  • sleepl8s
    sleepl8s Posts: 37
    That's kinda what happened to me. I didn't live in Europe but I was a cocktail waitress for years in Las Vegas and walking around in heels, 8 hours a day with a 15 lb tray definitely helped keep me in shape. Then I turned 30, moved here to ORlando and started work at an office job, and all of a sudden, my aweseome metabolism was gone. I put on 20 lbs. thinking that at any moment, my old metabolism would kick back on, I could hit the gym, and lose 5 bls. a week doing that.. WRONG. Now, I've just come to terms with the fact that I have to work hard at it, I ain't in my 20's anymore and I promise myself that once I get back there again, I'm gonna do my best to keep it. It's tough but I know you'll get back in there.
  • slumberbug
    slumberbug Posts: 45 Member
    Oh yessssss, the realization that we aren't 20 anymore. LOL I also sit at a desk most of the day.
  • DeeDeeLHF
    DeeDeeLHF Posts: 2,301 Member
    I just camehome from a 20 day vacation and I am sooo in an excercise slump. We all have this sore throat/congestion thing. I am also a homeschooling mother and I included our exercise right into our day. Nothing like the thrill of waking up a bunch of kids at 6;45 because we are all going to the YMCA! (thick sarcasm!) but I know it is good for them too.

    I like the advice of just doing it!

    I think the fact that you know how much work it takes is part of the "de-motivation". When I was younger I ate really really healthy...then our situation changed and my diet with it. After several years it took double the motivation to start up again. I already knew the sacrifices that it takes to live that way and I didn't want to give up the things that I liked.

    So, it comes down to choices. For every thing you say "yes" to you are saying "no" to something else.

    Best of luck! Good thing we have each other and MFP to help us through the tougher times.

    DeeDee
  • kokonutmama
    kokonutmama Posts: 100
    I like doing challenges that take a while to work up to and switching them up. Like... couch to 5k, then Richard Hittleman's 28 day yoga plan, then working up to 10s doing the prison workout, then Bikram yoga for a while, etc.

    Just telling yourself that you'll put your running shoes on and step out the door and then walk back in if that's really what you want to do always works when I don't think I feel like working out, too.

    oh, and eating enough. I save my workouts for right before dinner, when I'm logging my afternoon snack and see I have precious few calories left for dinner, that's motivation to get on the elliptical and earn my dessert :) I hate working out before breakfast. I'll do it, but it's much harder to get motivated.
  • slumberbug
    slumberbug Posts: 45 Member
    I can't run after dinner, even two hours after. I am so full and feel like i have a weight in my stomach. Luckily it's getting cooler now and I can run earlier before dinner.

    This is a great site and the support is amazing. Do any of you know where you find the original thread for the couch to 5k plan? I see a lot of threads on it but not the original one that lays out the program.
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