Just curious, but what motivates all of you to hit the gym, eat healthy, and make the sometimes hard decision to do what's best for you physically?
I used to be a gym rat until I shattered my foot in a motorcycle accident and now I'm finding it hard to get up and get going. I'm struggling to find things to drive me and my schedule is different so I can't workout when I used to (I work an 8-5 job). I used to be in fantastic shape but getting back is proving to be harder than I expected. I know how to do it all. I know what food to eat and exercises to do to get the results... it's just finding the motivation to do it.
I find that football motivates me. At the start of the season I weighed 95kilos and couldn't even last 30 minutes. Now I weigh 89 and easily last 90 minutes.
As for weight training, I find that watching videos on YouTube motivates me, and also friends. It's a lot easier to stay motivated when you have one or two training partners keeping you in line!
Put some banging tunes on your phone, and get to it! Don't think about it, just do it. You'll feel better afterwards!
Good luck mate. Feel free to message me anytime, I'm more than happy to share routines, music, vids etc. I could do with the motivation too :D
'Force yourself' until you see progress/changes in your body, its easy after that...
i find it hard to get motivated I dont even go to the gym every week
Honestly I recently took some time to really think about this after I was watching a video about preparing for a ultra marathon by one of the more successful ultra marathon runners/trainers and he mentioned briefly that its not about motivation, because we all have motivational tools at our disposal and yet not everyone becomes successful, he said that the difference between someone who continuously stands out and doesn't in a event is the person who is religiously persistent in training to reach there goal as if they had no choice to. So my thought (right or wrong), is to mentally give yourself no other choice than to be persistent as if your life depended on it. As childish as it sounds, we are all easily influenced and manipulated by the things around us and the greatest source of manipulation comes straight from our minds - so use it to create healthy habits that you have no choice over. those are my thoughts of the day.
Team sports do it for me, really. I applied to a basketball team and ever since I find myself more motivated to go to practice, unless something else comes up, of course. Just doing that motivates me to do more exercise in general - like running some laps to train endurance or doing weight so my shoulders don't cramp up after an hour of shooting balls.
Let me preface this by saying, I never understood working out before, and never did it (I would go on hikes, or mountain bike, etc, but never ever did I jog or hit the gym). When I DID on rare occasions decide to work out, I would push myself too hard (just a little longer, just a little more), and then I'd feel crappy and sore afterwards. I started going about 6 weeks ago (for the reasons below), and this time around, I said "**** it". I don't care if the old man next to me uses heavier weights on this machine than I just did. I don't care if the middle aged woman next to me is running way faster for way longer than me on the treadmill. I'm doing this for me - not for anyone else (besides my kids) - I'm going to do what feels good, and feels right - when I feel like I can't do more reps - **** pushing through it, I stop, or I lower the weight amount! When I feel like I need to slow down, **** pushing through it, I slow down. Improvement will come with time, I don't need to rush anything. With this attitude - I've found, I actually enjoy it.
Reasons:
1) I want to be healthy for my kids. My motivation here is not to have "sick gains" or reach any particular goal - I just want to not pull my back when trying to carry my daughter around or some crap.
2) We were (are) going through a tough time with my 2 year old son not sleeping, which then snowballed into me having insomnia, and my wife being grumpy all the time, on top of a 2 year that won't sleep. I found exercise helps with the following:
a) It gives me peaceful "me" time
b) I believe it helps me sleep better (this is work in progress)
c) It takes my thoughts away from whatever is bothering me (recently, my sleep) while I'm doing it, and makes me feel less anxious/depressed about those things afterwards
d) Counter-intuitively enough, when I am fatigued from lack of sleep (all the time recently), working out makes me feel more awake and energetic afterwards.
I love this! And can totally relate. Working out helps me with other things in my life, and I've learnt to leave my ego out of it. I don't believe in no pain, no gain. I believe gradual efforts bring long term benefits. I'm in it for the long haul.
Good work taking care of yourself and staying healthy to be around longer for your kids as well.
Since posting this I've had an unexpected motivation pop up. My better half started putting more effort into eating right and working out because he saw that I was trying. This motivated me to keep up with him. Simply by having another person doing it as well pushes me to succeed as well.
i dont have motivation....i have discipline! way better if you ask me *lol*
My best friend will travel back to her home country for summer. And as there is standard there to be really thin she hits the gym every day and counts her calories. My motivation is her XD So best is to get a health freak friend that regularly calls you fat and out of shape (Not in an overly bad way though!) Even when I told her my goal of staying 54kg she thought I would still be too chubby >.
Even though I have her as motivation I live very far away from town so the opportunity for me going to the gym don't come often. I would say do what you can. If you feel too unmotivated to go to the gym try something at home. It's better than nothing.
My motivation is the group of friends i usually go with, and remembering the great feeling you have after a great workout
I stay disciplined so I never have to be motivated. I educated and taught myself to like nutritious foods and to dislike like sugar, chemicals, processed food, oil and grease ie. junk.
I train everyday because I enjoy it, learn to enjoy it.
Try the StrongFirst method, stop "working out" and beating yourself up, start practising, energising and progressing.