Re-kindle your drive!

If you’ve been through periods of time when your health and fitness has taken a back seat, you’re only human, and absolutely not alone. You can be going along quite nicely, and then all of a sudden without even realising it, you’re making very little effort (if any) to care for yourself. You’re feeling flat, possibly emotionally eating, and feeling a little like you’re never going to get yourself back on track and in a good place. Fortunately for myself, this hasn’t happened to me for years and years, but I do see it all the time and it makes me feel sad to see clients kicking huge goals one minute, and then regressing back to square one the next. Shame to see all that hard work come undone, but it does happen quite a lot.

I’m here to try and help those of you who have lost your motivation, and also anyone who is testing the health and fitness waters for the first time.

Fitness Is About YOU

One of the mistakes I often see is people trying to stay fit and in shape for everyone else, but not themselves. These days, a lot of my motivation comes from wanting to keep strong and in shape to hopefully inspire others to live a healthy lifestyle, but even before I was a personal trainer and worked in office jobs, I worked out and kept fit purely for myself and how that lifestyle made me feel. To be truly successful long term, you have to get it out of your head that health and fitness is all about looking great on the outside or pleasing others, and realise that fitness is an inner happiness that only you can control and be a part of.

You need to understand that you are the owner of your body and mind, and that nobody else’s opinions of you matters – once you get your head around that you’ll be well on your way to being healthy and fit, long term.

It’s you against you, and that’s the way it should be. Outside pressures from family, friends, or society can cause insecurities and usually leads to loss of motivation and giving up. Striving to be better for you and you only, is what it’s all about!

It Only Takes One Small Change

Another common health and fitness mistake is when people try to make too many changes all at once. This usually becomes all too hard and again we’re back to square one. You’ve probably all heard that small changes can make a big difference. Just set little goals, make small changes, and go from there.

We are creatures of habit, and destructive behaviours can very easily become part of our daily lifestyles. Sometimes it seems impossible to see the end goal through the many negative feelings. The good news is that you don’t need to see the end, you only have to take that first step.

Creating change and breaking old habits is a difficult thing to do for the majority of us. The key is to start doing something different, anything that’s outside of your normal routine that will take you one small step closer to your goal. Even just one thing to begin with. You might just be surprised at how big of an impact these small changes can make. A new thought or positive habit can start to make a huge difference to your mind and body and hopefully will have a snowball effect.

Write to Yourself!

A little trick I read about a while ago, is to sit down after your workouts and write a letter to yourself about how you feel (or even a diary entry). Take note of your stress levels, energy levels, mental state, and you can even give yourself a pat on the back while you’re at it! This can help re-enforce in your mind how great working out makes you feel both physically and mentally. You could also do the same thing when you’ve eaten really well, at the end of the day write down how it’s made you feel – a great reminder for the following day!!

You never know what’s going to be that driving force that changes your life, but I can assure you that if you do nothing, nothing will ever change. Take your positive thoughts, make it an action and then go with the flow. You never know how it might change your life, forever. Wouldn’t it be nice to get on track and STAY on track this time?!

Have a great day!

Paula