Finding The Motivation!
Finding The Motivation to eat well and exercise can be tough….. 
I recently was the Keynote speaker for the “Dream Big” program which is an organization that helps kids create dreams, determine action steps to achieve those dreams and directs them towards resources that will help them make those dreams a reality. Working in the fitness industry for 25 years, I’ve noticed that there are certain things that those who are successful at achieving their goals do on a regular basis. I’ve narrowed it down to 10 Top Tips and shared these at my presentation. Over the next number of weeks, I will share these tips with you and help you you launch into the holidays and into the New Year with some serious motivation! There is nothing that brings me more joy than knowing I’ve helped someone achieve their personal best and live their life to the fullest. To start, I wanted to share this quote with you…
“When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn’t matter. Am I tired? That doesn’t matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem.” Emil Zatopek
You know I’m in the fitness industry so you gotta know that one of my Top 10 Tips is to take care of your physical being. I’m a firm believer that it’s hard to do great things if you don’t feel great. It’s hard to live your dream life if you aren’t striving for your personal best. Taking the time to take care of yourself positively impacts and trickles into every aspect of your life. So as you start to plan your health and fitness plan for 2014, what will you do to challenge yourself and see what you’re made of? Consider how much discipline it takes to workout three to five days a week. Think about how hard it is to keep stretching beyond our comfort zones and how challenging it is to exercise at a high intensity. Consider the self-resolve required to eat healthy foods and drink lots of water every day when temptations surround us everywhere we go.
But if you have the courage to respect your body – the temple that houses your mind and spirit –achieving your goals will not be far away.
It says a lot about who you are as a person when you invest the time to take care of yourself. It says you respect and love yourself enough to do the things necessary for you to be at your personal best.
- Each time you get into the gym for a workout on a day when you just don’t feel like exercising, you grow a little stronger as a human being.
- Each time you go for a run or walk on a cold winter’s day when you just feel like staying under the warm, cozy covers, you strengthen your character.
- When you endure a tough workout, it enables you to persevere through any other challenge in your life.
Working on improving your physical conditioning will not only enrich your life and make you a better person, you’ll also become a better parent, a better spouse, a better and more productive worker, and a better friend.
Exercise gives us a lot more than just a great set of abs!
Exercising regularly, eating well and taking the time to relax and nourish your body will make you feel happier.
- It will provide you with more energy than you have ever known.
- It will give you greater stamina, mental toughness and make you a clearer, stronger thinker.
- It will make you more patient and loving.
There are 168 hours in a week. Surely each and every one of us regardless of our hectic schedules can carve out four or five of them to care for our bodies and work on mastering our physical state. And you must remember that……
…… a missed workout is much more than just a missed workout (or not doing something that you committed to doing)!
When you miss a workout, you don’t just stay at the same level you were at – you actually take a few steps back. Every time you miss a workout, you have done something to strengthen the habit of not working out. When you’ve made the promise to yourself to exercise so many times per week and then you break that promise, you start to lose trust in yourself. With each missed workout, you start to lose self-confidence and begin to question whether you can actually stick with it at all. A missed workout fuels self-doubt and makes that negative habit stronger. Miss enough workouts, and eventually that negative habit of not working out will replace the positive habit of exercising that you have worked so hard to cultivate. Every time you fail to do the right thing, you fuel the habit of doing the wrong thing. So the next time you’re trying to justify pressing the snooze button and skipping your workout, or working through lunch instead of taking a walk break or heading right home after work instead of stopping at the gym, just don’t do it. Don’t even think about it. Don’t even allow yourself the opportunity to talk yourself out of doing what you know you need to do to be at your best. Just remember that you’ll feel like a million bucks once you’re done. The real challenge for most people is not the workout itself, but actually overcoming the negative thoughts that try to sabotage your very good intentions. Remember results are not guaranteed, they are earned! Stay tuned next week when I begin to share my Top 10 Tips for Achieving your Dream Life. Yours in Health & Fitness, Sherri McMillan
Sherri McMillan, M.Sc. has been inspiring the world to adopt a fitness lifestyle for over 20 years and has received numerous industry awards including International Personal Trainer and Fitness Presenter of the Year. She is the author of five books including “Go For Fit – the Winning Way to Fat Loss” and “Fit over Forty” and is the featured presenter in various fitness DVDs. She is the owner of Northwest Personal Training in downtown Vancouver and can be seen running, hiking or cycling with her two children, Brianna and Jackson. She can be reached at www.nwPersonalTraining.com or www.ShapeupwithSherri.com Note: As an avid Columbian reader, you can redeem a 2 week pass at her world-class training studio to help get you started. Contact 360.574.7292 for more details.
