Have You Lost Your Workout Motivation?
In all of my years as a personal trainer in Austin, and a gym owner as well, I’ve noticed that there are several pitfalls that people succumb to when falling off the workout wagon. It’s as if they all of a sudden lose their workout motivation, but there’s nothing abrupt and dramatic, rather it’s a slow unwinding of workout motivation that is unfolding.
When people enter what I refer to as the checking out phase, they slowly stop coming into the gym as often, and when they, they do less and less working out. What happens is that they rearranged their priorities. All of a sudden working out and proper nutrition are taking a backseat to a manicure or hair appointment. I just can’t find time to workout they will say, but as I wrote about in a previous entry, they most likely have plenty of time, just like all of the rest of us, it’s a matter of prioritization. They simply have lost their workout motivation.
A lot of people simply justify a return to their poor eating habits with the rationalization that it’s ok now because they workout. That logic is akin to the commercials we see in every football game of the guy who eats 5 plates of nachos and 16 chili dogs and then complains of heartburn, only to be rescued by some over the counter remedy. He may not have heartburn anymore, but a heart attack isn’t out of the question. It’s a whole lot harder to resist a temptation then to rationalize an excuse to indulge in it.
Working out, as the name implies, is work. Like any other endeavor worth pursuing, it’s hard consistent work if you really expect to see any results from it. That can be another stumbling block for some people. The may sign up for the gym, hire a personal trainer perhaps, buy a whole new workout wardrobe, and then before you know it, results aren’t taking place overnight, it’s just too much effort they quietly say to themselves, and the next thing you know, they’re paying for a gym membership they haven’t used in months and the clothes are hanging on a rack at Goodwill. All because they lost their workout motivation.
Anytime we set a goal, be it for fitness or anything else, for that matter, we need to clearly outline a plan. If you don’t have something of a blueprint with realistic goals as parameters, you will find yourself not only unsuccessful, but frustrated and jaded. To be successful in anything requires consistent effort. You won’t jump into a new pair of sweatpants, hire a trainer, join a gym, and then 10 days later look like you did back in high school. All the drugs in the world can’t even do that for you. There simply are no shortcuts for hard, consistent work.
Making a goal is one thing, however, mapping out a detailed plan as to how you are going to accomplish that goal, is quite another. Even more difficult, is following through with the required effort in order to achieve that goal. If you start slowly, with a good plan, and keep your expectations realistic, you will start to see results. Results breed more results as when we can quantify success in the gym, it’s rare that we lose our workout motivation.
Ready to Get Started?
Andy
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