Motivation, Where Are You?
Like most people I know, I have aspirations of perfection each day. I will eat 1400 calories, run for 30 minutes followed by strength training. I will get 9 hours of sleep, shower and do my hair every day, wear eye cream and my retainer. I will not spend any unnecessary money. I will have a clean house, fresh groceries and a scented candle burning. I will have clean, healthy and well behaved children happily playing together in the backyard. I will have dinner ready for my husband when he comes home and we will have nice, stimulating conversation before retiring to our early bedtime. I will be content and happy while simultaneously following my dreams and enjoying the present.
Only the delusional would think that even 80% of these things will happen. So most of our days are spent dealing with the disappointment of failed perfection. One day we beat ourselves up saying "you really could have done more if you had just tried harder," or "haven't you learned how to be an adult yet?" The next day we take the opposite approach, "life is meant to be lived, you don't need to be so strict," or "tomorrow is another day to get some of these things done."
Obviously moderation is what most of us seek, but what does this look like? How do we stay motivated to reach our goals when each day we fail? I have trouble being strictly disciplined on anything. I think its boring. I am also terrible at finishing things to 100%. I am very good at starting things, fairly good at getting them 90% done and not very good at all at finishing them.
There is a lot to cover on the topics of perfection above, but let's start on eating healthy, exercising and staying a healthy weight. When some people, like my husband, decide to diet it's all or nothing. He will eat pizza and soda on Sunday night and then on Monday morning it's only protein shakes and grilled chicken. I cannot do that. I'm better at eating only 1/2 a piece of pizza on Sunday and then grilled chicken, on a salad, with fruit on Monday. My problem is that by Friday it's grilled chicken, on a salad, with cheese, bacon and dressing, with fruit, and a slice of bread.
I've been feeling sorry for myself about not being as healthy as I could be. That means I have been thinking about it but not actually taking much action to change anything. I know how to do it but it's a lot of work and takes discipline and I haven't had the motivation to do it. Since I am terrible at doing a drastic change, here are some of my hacks I've developed through the years to be a little healthier that I am going to implement again. These are all things I've done to trick myself in the past and they do work.
Working Out:
1. Go for mini runs. It can be difficult to find the motivation to go on a 3+ mile run. So, one trick I have is to let myself only run 1 mile. Get your shoes on, get outside and put in 10-12 minutes of effort. You'll run faster if you really want to get it over with. Sometimes, you'll decide to do an extra little loop and you'll go a little longer. Sometimes you'll walk an extra loop at the end. Either way, you were going to do nothing and now you ran a mile at least!
2. Negotiate mini goals before you stop working out. Imagine you are running, and don't want to be. You are about to stop and walk for a little. Look ahead to the next landmark you can see, like a stop sign or a parked car, and run to that before you stop. Another choice is to always go 5 more mailboxes before you stop. You can do the same thing with biking, crunches, push ups, squats and more. When you mentally decide to stop, you have to do 7 more before you can stop.
3. Never shower without sweaty hair. I typically wash my hair every day and a half or so. As all other women know, washing your hair and working out don't always play well together with how we time our days. One trick I have used in the past is that I am not allowed to take a shower unless my hair is sweaty. So, if you know you need to shower tonight, you need to figure out how to work out before you take your shower. This often leads to the mini runs I mentioned as my first trick.
Healthy Eating:
1. No eating after the kids go to bed. It is so tempting to come down from putting everyone to sleep and have a little snack. I have found, however, that this is the easiest time of day for me to skip snacking (still working on 2-4pm). So anything you want to eat, other than dinner, you need to eat before you put the kids to bed (or roughly 7:30pm). This works well for me, because if I wanted to eat anything decent, like ice cream, chocolate, etc, I would have children at my feet begging for some as well, so I don't even bother getting it out.
2. Snack on fruit first. Anytime you want a snack, you must eat fruit or veggies first. If you finish that and still want a snack, you can have it. You can have as many fruits and vegetables as you want. No one got fat from eating that extra peach.
3. Alcohol only 1-2 days a week and only with a group. This one is not very fun, but it does really help cut calories. I do like to sit outside with my husband and have a beer at the end of a long day, or have a glass of wine after dinner, but that gets cut here. You can only have a drink if you are at an event or with other people. If you are at things every night of the week you have to pick one or two nights.
Well, clearly I am not qualified to write a health and fitness blog since these are pretty pathetic little tips, but they do help turn me in the right direction. Obviously the real advice is to count calories, get a mixture of healthy foods and exercise five times a week. But for those of us who think that is so boring and difficult to stick to every week, maybe these little hacks will help!
Thoughts for the day....
Only the delusional would think that even 80% of these things will happen. So most of our days are spent dealing with the disappointment of failed perfection. One day we beat ourselves up saying "you really could have done more if you had just tried harder," or "haven't you learned how to be an adult yet?" The next day we take the opposite approach, "life is meant to be lived, you don't need to be so strict," or "tomorrow is another day to get some of these things done."
Obviously moderation is what most of us seek, but what does this look like? How do we stay motivated to reach our goals when each day we fail? I have trouble being strictly disciplined on anything. I think its boring. I am also terrible at finishing things to 100%. I am very good at starting things, fairly good at getting them 90% done and not very good at all at finishing them.
There is a lot to cover on the topics of perfection above, but let's start on eating healthy, exercising and staying a healthy weight. When some people, like my husband, decide to diet it's all or nothing. He will eat pizza and soda on Sunday night and then on Monday morning it's only protein shakes and grilled chicken. I cannot do that. I'm better at eating only 1/2 a piece of pizza on Sunday and then grilled chicken, on a salad, with fruit on Monday. My problem is that by Friday it's grilled chicken, on a salad, with cheese, bacon and dressing, with fruit, and a slice of bread.
I've been feeling sorry for myself about not being as healthy as I could be. That means I have been thinking about it but not actually taking much action to change anything. I know how to do it but it's a lot of work and takes discipline and I haven't had the motivation to do it. Since I am terrible at doing a drastic change, here are some of my hacks I've developed through the years to be a little healthier that I am going to implement again. These are all things I've done to trick myself in the past and they do work.
Working Out:
1. Go for mini runs. It can be difficult to find the motivation to go on a 3+ mile run. So, one trick I have is to let myself only run 1 mile. Get your shoes on, get outside and put in 10-12 minutes of effort. You'll run faster if you really want to get it over with. Sometimes, you'll decide to do an extra little loop and you'll go a little longer. Sometimes you'll walk an extra loop at the end. Either way, you were going to do nothing and now you ran a mile at least!
2. Negotiate mini goals before you stop working out. Imagine you are running, and don't want to be. You are about to stop and walk for a little. Look ahead to the next landmark you can see, like a stop sign or a parked car, and run to that before you stop. Another choice is to always go 5 more mailboxes before you stop. You can do the same thing with biking, crunches, push ups, squats and more. When you mentally decide to stop, you have to do 7 more before you can stop.
3. Never shower without sweaty hair. I typically wash my hair every day and a half or so. As all other women know, washing your hair and working out don't always play well together with how we time our days. One trick I have used in the past is that I am not allowed to take a shower unless my hair is sweaty. So, if you know you need to shower tonight, you need to figure out how to work out before you take your shower. This often leads to the mini runs I mentioned as my first trick.
Healthy Eating:
1. No eating after the kids go to bed. It is so tempting to come down from putting everyone to sleep and have a little snack. I have found, however, that this is the easiest time of day for me to skip snacking (still working on 2-4pm). So anything you want to eat, other than dinner, you need to eat before you put the kids to bed (or roughly 7:30pm). This works well for me, because if I wanted to eat anything decent, like ice cream, chocolate, etc, I would have children at my feet begging for some as well, so I don't even bother getting it out.
2. Snack on fruit first. Anytime you want a snack, you must eat fruit or veggies first. If you finish that and still want a snack, you can have it. You can have as many fruits and vegetables as you want. No one got fat from eating that extra peach.
3. Alcohol only 1-2 days a week and only with a group. This one is not very fun, but it does really help cut calories. I do like to sit outside with my husband and have a beer at the end of a long day, or have a glass of wine after dinner, but that gets cut here. You can only have a drink if you are at an event or with other people. If you are at things every night of the week you have to pick one or two nights.
Well, clearly I am not qualified to write a health and fitness blog since these are pretty pathetic little tips, but they do help turn me in the right direction. Obviously the real advice is to count calories, get a mixture of healthy foods and exercise five times a week. But for those of us who think that is so boring and difficult to stick to every week, maybe these little hacks will help!
Thoughts for the day....
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