Some tough love for you today. Excuses are going to get you nowhere. No one can do the work for you, you have to do this yourself, for yourself. At the end of the day, it’s just you inside your own head. Do you want to look back on the day with satisfaction, or regret that you could have done better but didn’t? That cute outfit you want doesn’t care about your excuses, it’s not going to just magically look good on you. Your kids don’t understand your excuses when they want you to play with them but you can’t keep up. While we can all wish that people didn’t make snap decisions, first impressions DO matter, and excuses won’t help you catch a date with that cute someone you’ve had your eye on. So cast off your excuses and take steps toward reaching your goal today!
Motivational Monday
Sweat is Magic
Confession time: I am a total HGTV home renovation show junkie. It is amazing to watch as they take this dilapidated house, rip it apart, and rebuild it into the buyers’ dream home. It takes a LOT of work though. And they often run into some problems along the way. But in the end, it’s always worth it.
The same can be said for building our dream bodies. It would be nice if a genie would appear and just grant us our wishes. Until that happens though, we’ll need to supply the magic of hard work ourselves to achieve our goals. It doesn’t matter if your goals are fitness, relationship, or financially oriented, the greatest indicator of success is your willingness to put in the effort required. That “sweat equity” you put in makes your success all that much sweeter.
Eat Better, Look Better, Feel Better
I’ve been taking horseback riding lessons for a while now. A few years back, my usual instructor was out sick, so we had a substitute. The sub had us take our horses over some poles that were laying on the ground at the trot. The point is to get the horses to pick their feet up a bit more instead of dragging them along. It was an exercise I’d done with no problems previously. The only issue was that the horse I normally rode, Murphy, was half blind, and because of this, we normally would go over the poles at a walk first so she could see them and know what was coming. We trotted around the arena, made the turn to go over the poles, got to the poles… and Murphy spooked at the poles and bolted right. I, however, continued to go straight. With a horse no longer under me, I had an abrupt meeting with the ground.
The point of the tale is this: inertia is a bitch.
However, we can get inertia to work FOR us. While objects at rest (including ourselves) tend to stay at rest, objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Momentum can absolutely work in our favor. It is HARD to get up and go to the gym in the morning. But that feeling of accomplishment you get from doing more before breakfast than some people do all day sticks with you. You’ll find yourself feeling better. I personally have a much easier time choosing healthier options on days I go to the gym before work, because I don’t want to undo all that hard work I just did.
It can be tough to overcome any initial inaction, but once you get over that hump, you can get momentum to work for you rather than against you, so start today!
Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.
As much as you might wish it, you can’t reach your goal weight without some effort. You will need to work for it. Whether that means getting up early to hit the gym, or making time on the weekends for grocery shopping and meal prep. Sitting in the same place won’t get you there. No amount of dreaming about it will get you there. No amount of pinning to motivational boards (guilty!) will get you there. Reaching your destination takes some work, but it’s worth it, so take action today!
How Bad Do You Want It?
How badly do you want to feel comfortable in your own skin again? How badly do you want to lose the weight? How badly do you want to look in the mirror and truly love what you see? Do you want it more than sleeping in? Do you want it more than watching another episode of that show? Do you want it more than a handful of chips or chocolate?
You absolutely can do this. Reaching your goals is 100% possible and within your control. You just have to want it. Bad.
The gym is one of the very few relationships you will ever have where you get exactly what you give. Don’t pass that up.
Your kids aren’t always going to appreciate you. Your husband is going to inevitably forget an anniversary or birthday. Your dog will love you more than you will ever deserve (because dogs are amazing like that).
But the gym? Gym understands. Gym will only ever give you back exactly what you put into it. If you half-ass things, you’ll get half-ass results. If you bust your ass, you can bet that it will look amazing in no time.
Be sure to make some time for the gym (or whatever your preferred method of exercise is) today!