When your motivation fades, your habits remain. This is something that my Personal Trainer has spoken to me about a lot. Because, let’s face it, we are not ALWAYS going to be motivated. No matter how hard we try, or how much we want it, there are always going to be days when our motivation fades.
But even when our motivation is lacking, the good habits we have built up will still make us get up and train, go for a walk, stick to a calorie deficit, do that extra bit of work. You just have to build up those habits first. I’m still working on that bit, sometimes…
Saying that, my habits have definitely changed over the past few months. Such as, the habit of going for a walk every night when I get in from work. Or the habit of going to train at the gym, or cooking wonderful food while still sticking in a calorie deficit. So I’m definitely at the point of sticking to this most of the time, even when I’m lacking motivation.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s easy to build up those habits. But when I first started out on my fitness journey, I was full of motivation. I was able to build up my habits while still motivated. But it takes time, you can’t just build a habit over night.
But now, when I have days like I did last week, when I was tired from work, had lots of extra things to do and was just generally feeling a bit rubbish, I still got up and trained. I still stuck to my calorie goal. I still got my steps done.
It’s not always the case, and I definitely still have days where I think, “screw it, I just don’t care” and I sit around doing nothing and eating everything in sight. However, this is definitely a less regular occurrence, and even when it happens I refuse to feel guilty. It’s just one day. But most of the time, I just get it done, whatever it is, and I feel a hell of a lot better afterwards.
A friend asked me the other day how I fit in walking, cooking and going to the gym, on top of all the other work we have to do. My answer was simple, I make it a priority. So I fit it in. Even when my motivation has long gone!
Another Gym Girl 