Well it’s been a good May bank holiday weekend for me with plenty of exercise, sauna and eating well. But that’s also been easy to do because I feel ‘on it’ at the moment and have a goal of a week in the sun (whilst doing some study!) in Spain to look forward to that is spurning me to get some marginal gains on the fitness and physique as well as prepare me for some slack in the healthy eating too (and some prosecco and sangria that I am really looking forward to!)
It’s hard work!
However let’s be honest it’s REALLY hard being always 100% motivated and I’m the first to admit that this year I’ve probably only felt this driven about half of the time. Why? Because life gets in the way- things and events happen that mean you don’t always have the energy to stay on track with the nutrition. And for me whilst I can stay pretty consistent with the fitness and workouts it is the healthy eating that is the hardest to maintain. Especially so when it does require a lot of food prepping and forward thinking, declining of beige buffets at events and the continuous having to explain to people why you don’t eat certain things.
So acknowledging that continuous motivation isn’t always possible (unless you are superhuman) how have I found it best to stay as motivated as possible?
Here are some tips from what I’ve learnt along the way:
1 Build a community of like-minded individuals around you
This could be fellow gym goers or others that you work or interact with who share similar values when it comes to having a positive mindset and understand what you are trying to achieve from a healthy lifestyle, mainly because they too are trying to do the same. Choose to spend more time with them than others who may be unable (or unwilling!) to comprehend why you don’t want to share a bottle of wine and why you’d find being in the gym a great way to spend a bank holiday. Often I find that these people are unhappy with themselves but aren’t willing to make changes to their own lives so would rather try to cajole you into indulging with them so they feel less guilty about it as a result.
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Try to always have a goal
By setting up goals to achieve that are personal and meaningful to you then you have a focus and I’ve found this much easier to keep the motivation going. Whether it’s a number of reps of an exercise, a target size of a part of my body, a set period of super cleaning eating when you have short term goals that feed into your long term aim of living a healthy lifestyle then it becomes much easier.
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If you slip, get back on it asap
This will happen. Whether it’s some overindulgence, too much booze or a couple of weeks out of the gym then there will be times when you feel disappointed in your actions (or lack of action!) what is important here is not to just then give in and then have some of the bad stuff, booze or stay away from the exercise but to recognise that you’ve slipped but it’s not the end of the world and there is tomorrow to start again. But make sure you do- if it’s a Saturday then don’t think well I’ll start over on Monday- do it on Sunday! The sooner you can get on track (whatever that means for you) the better you will feel and can get closer to your goals that you’ve set.
So how do you stay motivated with your healthy lifestyle?
Any additional tips or advice then please comment and share!
Have a great shorter week ahead,
Victoria x
Victoria Boldison 