Motivation.

Michelle has a little video on being motivated and Craig Harper has something similar in a post on his website which basically say to forget about being motivated. It's all about consistency and just getting on with it and doing it. While I do agree with this I also would prefer to want to go exercise than have to drag myself to do it!! Getting up and going straight to the gym is always helpful. I still remember one day in particular I was feeling very unmotivated to exercise. But because that is what I have been doing I got up put my clothes on and went to the gym. I still remember saying to one of the PT's there in the change rooms.. "Not quite sure what I am doing here today - but I am here!!" Then I just went and did stuff on the machines and an hour later had burnt 500 cal!! :-) Thanks goodness for habit when there is no motivation! Something I found particularly helpful in the beginning was just focusing on what I needed to do each day and each week to loose 1kg. I think I spent the first few months just doing that. Now that so much of it is habit - it is heaps easier.

Personally, I have found that SO much energy goes into staying motivated... Who would have thought it actually takes energy to create energy!?!?! I have pretty much grabbed at anything and everything I could possibly use over the last 6-7 months!!

- Looking forward to the group fitness classes where the instructor is fun and motivating. The step class, fat burner class and boxing class' I love going too for this reason!! The step instructor is always especially encouraging and I LOVE her for this!! She is always telling me I am doing well, I look freaking awesome, and she said she is proud of me... Means a lot and goes a long way to keep the motivation up!! (Love you Mel!!)

- Dragging any of my friends that will come to exercise with me. In the beginning I would arrange to walk anywhere and everywhere with people, I even went swimming with one friend. (Unfortunately I discovered I can't swim anymore and gave the lifeguard a heart attack - he stayed next to where I was for the rest of the time I was there!!). Nowadays, I either try and drag people to the gym with me or I meet people at the gym and then drag them to the classes I like!! :-)

- Somewhere along the line I met Anne and we started doing workouts together. As in planning them and writing up our own program for the day - we joke about pretending that we are PT's and we make each other work!! This has been the ABSOLUTE best motivation!! Anne is heaps fitter than me so I am pushed both to keep up with her and also to challenge her!!

- So, I started out with no PT, bumped it up to one session a week and somewhere along the way it turned into two sessions a week!! Extra PT sessions are great for motivation. I remember one session I was just feeling tired. I told my PT and the response was, "Well, we're going to do it anyway!" (Love her - MWAH!) She also helped me think about what my next fitness goal was going to be when I was feeling a little lost. I have always envied those people that just step out of their house and go for a jog around the streets. So - she told me I was going to do a "fun" run. I started training at least a month ago now, but it wasn't until last week I actually believed that I might be able to do it!!

- Hours goggling everything from motivational speakers and quotes, running technique and programs, reading different blogs and forums, and just finding different exercises to do to keep things interesting. Variety in workouts is good to keep the motivation up.

- Downloading new music and making new playlists. (Told you I grabbed at anything!! I went through I funny phase where I made this really ironic playlist and had songs like; "Dancing with myself", "Funhouse", "Jump"... etc. That worked for a week. :-))

- The Heart Rate Monitor is good to see how hard I'm working. Some days I feel like I am working hard and I then check the watch.. DOH!! Not actually working THAT hard!!! On other days it's very motivating to see the calories clock up quickly.

- Measuring myself was good too. I didn't do this till I got to the gym - but it would have been great to do from the start!! Very cool watching the measurements go down, having to get smaller clothes and after a couple of months people started to notice and comment. When I had lost 30kg my friend Jo gave me the coolest loosing weight present. It was SO thoughtful and generous!! (Thanks Jo!!) It does take a couple of months for this particular motivation to really kick in though - the first couple of months really are the hardest!!

- Weigh day have been motivating for me too. I have never had a week where I put on weight. If I lost a lot than obviously I was happy and this was a motivation to keep going. If I lost only a little than I was motivated to do better!

- Gym challenges / BLC challenges have also kept the motivation up. There was a gym challenge to do 30 classes in 30 days; and then one where there was a stupid amount of kilometres to do on all the cardio equipment which I finished (does that make me stupider for actually doing it!!). BLC (biggest looser club) forums have also had some good ones around exercising for a certain amount of days for a particular reward etc..

Running out of idea's right about now though!! :-) Next blog is going to be on tips for getting a non-runner to run..