How to Keep Going When You Lack Motivation

Why is staying motivated so hard?

Because starting your fitness program is usually easier than sticking with it over time.

Staying Motivated

How do you stay motivated with health and fitness?

It comes down to your mental game and discipline. You will not always be motivated, but discipline takes over and provides the drive to keep going.

Motivation involves a feeling whereas discipline is all about action. You will not want to eat right or exercise all the time and you may even dread it. You are not alone. This happens to all of us at every fitness level.

Hang in There!

The important thing is not to quit, or base your fitness program on a fleeting feeling. Discipline is what gets you to the workout and motivation kicks in once you get started. Being around other people who are working towards a similar goal can be very motivating.

The same goes for eating healthy and meal prep. You may be tempted to order a pizza instead of getting out the pots and pans to cook healthy food and clean a big kitchen mess afterward. However, once you get in there and start chopping, grilling, and slow-cooking it becomes an enjoyable experience.

You are gaining control of what you're eating and feel good about the accomplishment. This is called sticking to the program and has nothing to do with motivation. Although, feeling better about your choices can be very motivating. Again, it starts with discipline and the actions to motivate the process.

Staying motivated takes daily choices and a positive attitude. It's more about discipline and wanting to succeed than feelings. Once you grasp that it's absolutely normal to feel unmotivated sometimes is when you actually gain motivation. You understand actions speak louder than feelings and will keep you going when motivation is lacking.

Helpful Tips and Ideas

The following tips may help during those times when motivation needs a boost:

• Realize motivation is a feeling that changes daily.
• Discipline carries you when motivation is lacking.
• Do your workout anyway - you will feel better afterward.
• Stay positive and surround yourself with like-minded people with similar goals.
• Reach out to a friend or significant other to help keep you accountable.
• Hire a personal trainer.
• You are not too busy (excuses are unacceptable).
• Whatever is going on in your life, you can succeed.
• Place post-it notes with positive affirmations all over the place.
• You have come too far to only come this far. Keep going!
• The struggle is real and the best reason to keep going.
• You can do it!
• Join a gym and take fitness classes.
• Sign up for a healthy cooking class.

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6 Strategies You Need to Succeed at Getting Fit

Getting fit is one of the most important life decisions you will make. Doing it the right way with a positive mindset is vital.

Are you struggling in this area?

Working on personal fitness goals will come with questions and even concerns. Besides cleaning up your diet and exercise, there are other important factors to consider.

The following strategies will get you moving in the right direction:

6 Strategies You Need to Succeed

Positive mindset - let's start with what you're thinking. Are you a positive person? Do you bash yourself? In order to succeed with your fitness program, it will take a positive attitude. Regardless of how hopeless you may think your life is right now, you need to stay positive about yourself and your efforts. You have the power to change and that is done by choice. Being positive is a daily decision and essential to a healthy body and mind. 

Realistic mindset - are you a dreamer? Do you fall for quick-fix gimmicks and fad diets? Halt the unrealistic mindset and time to get your head out of the clouds. You're not going to drop 20lbs or get muscular in a week. Getting fit requires realistic thinking. Results happen slowly and by repeating healthy habits over time. Staying realistic is what will keep you going without frustration. You develop a patient side and appreciate what you're doing. You realize that regardless of the time it takes, your efforts are making a positive difference. A realistic mindset will take you beyond reaching your fitness goals and into a healthy lifestyle. 

Consistency - this is huge! Starting your fitness program is great but consistency is what keeps it going full-time. You understand the importance of your efforts and don't want to let yourself down. Consistency is what develops those healthy habits that are so important to getting fit and healthy. 

Discipline - can't say enough about this! Do you find yourself lacking motivation and giving up sometimes? This is normal and when you need to turn to discipline to carry you through. Getting fit and even life doesn't promise an easy road. Being a disciplined person helps you get in that early morning workout, resist unhealthy foods, and stay true to the promise you made to yourself. You will need to become a disciplined person if you want to get fit. True story!

Balance - are you over busy and stressed out? This will require an assessment of your life to bring in some balance. Not having time for your health can no longer be the acceptable norm. This is all a matter of better time management and priorities. Getting fit requires a healthy, balanced life. Time to re-arrange your priorities and add in some fun while you're at it!

Self-acceptance - so important! So many of us struggle with a lack of self-acceptance. When you can't find anything good to think or say about yourself, body, and life, this is a problem. Getting fit requires you to love yourself right where you are while working towards the body and life you want. It requires being happy while you're getting healthy. You are awesome and can achieve your goals. Believe it!

The Bottom Line

While eating right, exercise, drinking plenty of water, and rest are essential to getting fit, the above strategies are required first and foremost. What you think, and feel ultimately determines if you will eat right, exercise, and be a healthy person. 

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Why Comparing Yourself to Others Can Hinder Your Progress

Competition is an important part of any sport. If you want to be the best, you have to see what those around you are doing and strive to work even harder than them. When done in excess, however, comparing yourself to other individuals may be counterproductive.

Social media has made it easier to track the accomplishments of others. People constantly post videos from their training sessions, their PRs, and even their failures. These posts allow athletes to get insight into the routines of their competition. The unfortunate part, however, is that it is very easy to see what others are doing and feel as though your own performance is inadequate. I know many people (myself included) find themselves comparing their own progress to that of a friend or athlete over the internet.

Your fitness journey is your own! Here's why you shouldn't compare yourself to others:

1. You don't know their athletic background. Even though someone just started lifting, he/she may have been a competitive dancer. He may have been a Division I athlete in another sport. All of these factors contribute to a stronger, more coordinated lifter. If you were completely sedentary, or have never previously worked out at the level you do now, it's impossible to compare yourself to someone else who has trained at a higher intensity.
2. You have no idea how they're training. Perhaps this person is a full-time athlete. They may not have a family to support or a 9-5 desk job. Maybe they have time to train several times-a-day, whereas you can only train once. You don't know what kind of coach this person has. There are so many factors that go into programming that can positively or negatively influence the end result. You need to tweak your training to cater more towards your own needs and limitations.
3. You have a completely different body type. Weight classes in sport exist for a reason. It's really impossible for me to compare myself to girls who compete in higher or lower weight classes than I do. They're lighter, and they move completely differently. Genetics also play a big role. Someone who has shorter limbs, or smaller levers, is generally going to be able to produce more force than her lankier counterpart, because a.) the bar has a shorter distance to travel, and b.) her muscles will be more compact. Unfortunately, some people are also just gonna have more of a genetic inclination towards certain activities.
4. Everyone progresses at a different rate. We all have different strengths and difficulties. Some movements will come really easily to you, whereas you'll struggle through others.  Your strengths will be someone else's weaknesses. If you don't pick something up as quickly as a friend, that's completely okay.

Yes, when it's game time, you absolutely need to try to outdo your opponents--that's the point of competition. However, for training purposes, I think it's more beneficial to be absolutely laser-focused and self-centered. You need to concentrate on your own improvement, rather than invalidating yourself because you don't stack up to someone else. If you got a bench press PR, and you see someone else who's doing reps with your max, don't let that phase you. In time, you will get there.

Never miss a chance to quote "Office Space..."

Instead of consistently comparing your progress to that of others, compare your progress to where you were at this time last month, or even last year. Focus on what your weaknesses are, and train as hard as you can to improve upon those areas. Ultimately, this fitness journey, wherever you may fall on the spectrum, is about bettering yourself, however that may be. There should not be an "end destination," but rather a constant stride towards health. Every workout is going to make you stronger, mentally and physically. One of my favorite quotes, which is painted on the walls of my gym, is, "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." This quote serves a daily reminder for me to push through every workout, no matter how tired I may feel or how difficult it might be. Someone can have more of a natural ability for something, but if you get in the gym and bust your ass everyday, your efforts will pay off in the long run. You might not see a change today, or even next month, but when you reflect in the years to come, you will be amazed with your progress. Trust the process, and sweat now, so you can gloat in that success later.

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Five Body Weight Exercises For Success

As you know by now, I am a firm believer in body weight exercises, or what I like to call "REAL" exercises.

What does this mean?

Well, based on my experience, I find that too many people tend to take the easy way out when it comes to the exercise they do to try and lose their unwanted body fat.

A perfect example is that mystery machine that seems to be so popular, called the "Elliptical Trainer." Body weight exercises can beat this type of exercise hands down in many ways. For example, it's been proven that the movement that is replicated by one of these elliptical trainers is unique unto itself, and doesn't mirror any natural movement that the human body performs on a regular basis. In other words, doing a regular workout on one of these machines is like practicing your golf swing for hours upon hours and then going out and playing a game of soccer, hoping that those practice sessions will help your game!

Plus, let's face it, once you get on the machine and get it moving, you're pretty much just "going through the motions" and letting inertia and momentum do the work for you, right? And, while some fat burning does occur while using machines like this, as soon as you step off, that tends to stop because you haven't given your body and your muscles anything substantial, like body weight exercises do to keep them engaged and burning off fat for several more hours after your session is over.

I have a somewhat unique strategy when it comes to using body weight exercises to burn fat, and it's called Dynamic Body Weight Training (DBT for short). In its very basic form, DBT consists of 5 main exercises, each one focused on delivering an "exercise shock" to different parts of the body, and forcing it to try and adapt to those movements. You see, that's the key to getting results from ANY fat loss program: you have to continually force the body and the muscles to adapt to the stress being delivered via exercise. Unless that happens, your fat loss will stall and come to a halt, like repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

With all that being said, today I want to reinforce my DBT body weight exercises strategy with you by introducing you to what I call my "FAB-5″ exercises. I promise you that if you can incorporate examples of each of these 5 categories of exercises into your regular workouts, and truly give an honest effort, you will have the success you desire when it comes to your fat loss goals.

The first exercise in your arsenal of fat loss is the Lower Body Exercise. This can be any of the body weight exercises which primarily focus on the legs. For example, the body weight squat is a perfect way to begin a FAB-5 workout. This exercise affects the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and the glutes in one fell swoop! The legs are typically larger and also more often used than the upper body, and are therefore a natural starting point for your DBT workout. If you're using the body weight squat, remember not to allow your knees to come past your toes when you lower down into the squat position.

After your lower body has had a go, it's time to move to the upper body for your second exercise, which is a Pushing Exercise. Any form of the classic push-up works great here, as long as you are using your arms, chest and shoulders to move your body away from something in front of you, in this case, that would be the floor. There are so many variations to the push-up that you would be hard pressed to need to repeat a version of it during a typical 4-week DBT workout session!

Number 3 on the list works as an opposing exercise to the push. That is, of course a Pulling Exercise. In this case, your arms and shoulders are still coming into the equation, but the main focus of a pull is the upper back. There are lots of terrific body weight exercises for the back, not the least of which is the chin-up or the pull-up. Some others include wall stick-ups or prone stick-ups. Body weight exercises like these are perfect for engaging difficult areas like the upper back, and giving you the results you want. Who wants their "sexy back?"

We're getting near the end of our FAB-5 exercises, and next on the agenda is that central part of our body, called the Core. This is where the entire body gets its balance and strength from, and is made up of the lower back and abdominals. So your fourth exercise should be a Dynamic Body Weight Core Exercise. Again, the possibilities are almost endless here. The one word of caution that I will give you is this...please, at all cost, stay away from sit-ups or crunches! These do a real number on your lower back, and for a lot of people, their neck too. Instead, do some body weight exercises that will engage your core fully, and also give you the benefit of working other muscles at the same time. For example, something like a spider-man climb, or even a simple exercise like a cross crawl will give you this effect quite nicely.

Finally, we want to be sure to get a bit of cardiovascular exercise into our FAB-5 circuit, so you are going to finish off with a Dynamic Full Body Cardio Exercise. Quite simply, this exercise is something that you can do which will engage the entire body and increase your heart rate, breathing, and, as a result your cardio conditioning all at the same time. The most basic form of this exercise is running in place. If this is your choice, make sure that you are moving your arms vigorously, and bringing your knees up as high as you possibly can. This is the one that will show you just how "lame" that elliptical trainer machine really is when it comes to getting results fast!

There you go. My FAB-5 body weight exercises that you can perform almost anywhere because they don't require any equipment, and will give you better results than any expensive cardio machine since they are combining both strength and cardio into one workout! In my opinion, the best way to do a FAB-5 workout is as a circuit. You perform each of the 5 body weight exercises one after the other with no rest between them, either for a pre determined number of reps, or for a period of time, then give yourself a 1 minute rest at the end of the 5th exercise. You should aim for repeating the circuit at least 4 to 6 times before you cool down.

What are you waiting for?

Choose your body weight exercises for your FAB-5 workout, and then go and get it done! You'll absolutely love this type of workout, and you won't get bored out of your mind by looking at the console of one of those elliptical machines where it shows you how many calories you've burned in the last 2 minutes!

REAL EXERCISE leads to REAL RESULTS!

My Name is Dale Bateman. For over 10 years, I've been helping ordinary people (like you and me) achieve their fat loss goals with my common sense approach to health and wellness. I truly believe that long term fat loss can only be mastered by incorporating what I call my three components of fat loss.

These are Fitness, Nutrition and Motivation. Without all three components, you are setting yourself up for failure. Each week, my blog features a brand new, original post dealing with one of these three components. Also, you can sign up for my free weekly newsletter and free 5 week e-course, "5 S.T.E.P.S. to Losing Your First 5 Pounds."

So if you're looking for common sense strategies for losing fat and achieving optimal health and wellness, please visit my blog today: http://losethefatforlife.com

Thank you.

Dale Bateman

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