One of the most common questions I get from people is, “How do you stay motivated to stick with your fitness and diet plans?”
I can understand why this is puzzling to people.
After all, finding an hour to work out 5 or 6 days a week, and eating mostly vegan, which is so different from the way most people eat — and the way most restaurants serve — well, those things present challenges. So what is it that keeps me from caving in when presented with a difficult situation?
There are several factors that motivate me.
There are people who look use me as an role model. This statement is not based in hubris. I write this blog to help others and I have clients via my Beachbody business, so I have to walk the walk, right? I have friends who often tell me that they wish they could eat better or work out more, so I like to set an example for them. (I also have other friends who make fun of the way I eat, which is cool — it’s done without malice — and, actually, I would agree that I do go overboard with some stuff.)
Perhaps you have people who look to you as a role model. Children or grandchildren? A spouse or significant other? Students?
I have personal pride in sticking with it. It’s a thing for me. Once I determine I am going to do something, and it turns out to be a good idea, I stick with it. I have been lucky — Â unlike my brother –Â not to have been injured so badly that my workouts had to be put aside for a while. I don’t know how well I’d come back from that.
I think I’d be okay, because I know that diet is 80% of the battle, so not being able to work out for an extended period of time should not be an insurmountable obstacle, but I don’t want to test it.
As for eating right, that’s just a choice I make. However I am eating, whatever kind of diet is my current lifestyle — vegan, vegetarian, low-carb, paleo — that’s what I do. I don’t consider this difficult. I just do it, because I feel a certain pride in being able to stick with it.
How about you? Do you resolve to lose 15 pounds in 3 months, and then quit after a week or two? How does that make you feel? Probably not proud.
I don’t want to have to buy new clothes again. This is a big one for me. I’ve even resisted buying smaller clothes. I’ll wait until I need them, until I am sure I am staying at that size. It’s not all about the money, either. I simply dislike shopping for clothes. I am not sure why this is, but that’s probably a subject for deeper evaluation in a more private forum.
If you are like I was, as you get older, you keep buying bigger clothes. This seems natural. After all, as we age, hormones and activity levels change, and we fatten up. At a certain point, though, I reached my limit — I knew I had to do something. I mean, even if a certain amount of extra fat is part of getting older, certainly not this much fat, right?
Or, maybe for you, if you need nice clothes, it would be great not to have to spend thousands on a new wardrobe every year or two.
I’d like to stay off pharmaceuticals. This is really a great motivator for me. When my wife and I were on our Mediterranean cruise back in 2007, I had to take blood pressure meds with me, and pop them on a regular schedule. I truly felt like a little old man, and it was ridiculous to me.
Was this going to be my existence, living my life around my pill schedule?
Plus, my high-blood pressure is controllable with diet and exercise. Why take a medication when I can fix myself naturally.
(Btw, this is not to even mention how my doctors had tried to kill me with cholesterol medication.)
A 2006 study by the Institute of Medicine found that medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people every year.
Are you taking any medications that you wish you didn’t have to take? Wouldn’t you like to save that money, not make so many trips to the doctor, and just be free from those pills?
I enjoy not going to the hospital? Man, that place will kill you. Literally. 180,000 patients die every year because of errors in hospitals of one kind or another. 90,000 people die from infections they contracted while in hospitals. Every year!Â
I personally received an infection from a hospital many years ago. I didn’t come close to dying from it, but I wonder how much worse it would have been, if I had not made it to my follow-up appointment, when the doctor asked me, “How long has that been infected?” (Gory details are available only by request.)
Has this ever happened to you or someone you know? Avoiding hospitals can lengthen your life.
I truly enjoy working out … now. I like the idea of taking control of my own fitness. I miss it when I don’t work out. Sometimes when I go three days without a workout, by that fourth day, I am really itching to go. Working out is part of my lifestyle, and I love it.
This is probably a tough one for many people, enjoying a workout. But, the thing is, once we get past a certain point, fitness becomes a habit. That point differs for everyone and how we get past it differs, too.
For me, it started with P90X. It’s a 90-day program, and I would not quit. The fact is, my results were so good I did not want to quit, but about halfway through, I started to wonder about what I was going to do once the program was over. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t do another round of P90X, because I’d been there, done that, and I get bored easily, so I really didn’t want to repeat the program. Fortunately, there are a lot of other workout DVDs available in this world, so I was able to keep things interesting and keep myself in the fitness game.
I thought that by writing this section of the article, it would hit me when it was that working out became a habit for me, but I really don’t know when it happened. I just know it happened.
If you don’t enjoy working out, maybe you are doing the wrong workout. Maybe you just need to pick a program and stick with it.
I understand how we get discouraged when starting a workout program. We are out of shape, the people on the tv are in super shape. They can do all the moves, while we can’t do any of the moves. It can be a bit disheartening. The bottom line is DO WHAT YOU CAN! Take a break while the DVD continues to run. You will be surprised how fast you find yourself able to — almost — keep up with those fitness fanatics.
Okay, so that’s how I stay motivated. How about you? What’s your motivation? Find it and focus on it, because your motivation is what will keep you chasing fitness and health for the rest of your life.