Category: Motivation

Motivation to Continue! – Your Lifestyle Choice

How are you doing?  Are there any bumps along your road?  Learning to accept that others are on a different path than you, can be difficult.  Your initial motivation to continue your Lifestyle Choice can be challenging for various reasons.  Your family still isn’t on board.  Work distractions are many, or you’re just plain bored!  It’s time to smooth out those bumps!  It’s time to reaffirm your goals! 

Common Pitfalls That Can Hamper Your Motivation to Continue On Your Subtract the Years Journey!

Progress Is Slow

That’s ok!  Perhaps you set your goal to lose 30 pounds in six months and you’ve lost only 10 pounds in five months and the past three weeks it’s been ZERO weight loss!  Don’t give up!  Just recalibrate your schedule! That’s what I’ve had to do this past month.  Here’s what I did:

  1.  Extended my weight loss goal date.  (Not a big deal.  I WILL get there!)
  2. Confided in my peeps who are on this journey with me.  They’re struggling too and are very supportive.  We ALL need encouragement from time to time.
  3. Re-read my WHY I’m on this journey.  I want to look and feel more youthful. I want to have MORE ENERGY to do the things I love!  Better never late but, better late than never! 😃

Exercise Routine Slowed Down – There’s Just NOT ENOUGH TIME!

It happens!  Life can get in the way.  So, every once in a while it’s good to look at what you do all day long.  Are there ways to simplify what’s in your daily activities?  Keep track of how much time you actually spend browsing the internet.  Or, keep a log of how much TV you’re watching.  You might find that extra time you’re looking for! 😃. Here’s what I did:

  1. Re-evaluated my exercise routine.  I realized that my walking has decreased.  So, I RE–committed to KEEPING my walking routine regular.
  2. Cut back on playing word-app games. (my guilty little pleasure!) 😌

Eating Habits Need Modified

Ok, you’re STILL not eating fast food.  You’re eating your veggies and lean meats BUT, if you’re being honest,  is there a food that you particularly crave that you might eat too much of that’s sabotaging your results? Let’s look at one example.  An article at Health.com explains the correlation of weight gain and sugar. In part it says, ‘extra blood glucose signals to your pancreas: “Make more insulin!” But the more you churn out, the easier weight piles on because insulin also encourages your body to store the extra sugar as fat.”‘ BUT, I’m Not eating PROCESSED SUGARS, you say.  That’s good!  But, there are many different types of sugars that could result in the same reaction.  Here’s what I did:

  1.  Looked at my sugar intake honestly.  True, I don’t eat processed sugars, but I was heavy into bananas and dried fruit.  😬
  2. So, I limited my bananas and deleted the dried fruit.  Then I upped (a little) the fresh blueberries and raspberries) Berries are low on the glycemic index.

Today was weigh-in day at WW.  I lost 1.8 lbs. this week, when the scale hadn’t moved in THREE WEEKS!!!  WHOOT!!! 🥳. RE-evaluation of these top 3 common pitfalls really seemed to help me out.  There are other common pitfalls that need to be evaluated, as well.  My next blog will feature those.

We all need to look at ourselves honestly and without judgment.  The Motivation to Continue Making Progress is based on making the needed adjustments in our life based on loving ourself.  Loving ourself helps us to love others.

WE can do this! 🧡🧡🧡

Motivation to Continue! – Family Isn’t Supportive?

So, you’ve written out your plan for the beginning of the year.  You’ve set out a couple of motivational quotes where you like to hang out.  That’s a great start!  But, are you going to have that motivation to continue when your family isn’t supportive?  They SAY they support you, but then they bring home all the processed foods that they’ve always eaten and that you REALLY find tempting. The frozen pizzas, the Fig Newton cookies left on the counter after they’ve had a couple at dinner, the half a bag of chips left out after lunch.  It’s like those foods are TALKING to you!  Saying, “Come on!  Just have ONE slice, it won’t kill you!” Or, “You can have ONE Fig Newton bar.  It’s not the end of the world!”  Or is it???

Some very powerful and motivational tips to remember…

Make this Journey about YOU!

  • These are YOUR goals.  Make this about you and not others.  If it’s about YOU, you’re more apt to succeed.  Trying to impose your new and adjusted lifestyle choices on family members will more than likely just backfire.  If you forge ahead with YOUR goals, you become a Leader By Example.  You become the INFLUENCER not the imposer.  After some time goes by, you’ll be surprised how others can be more open to following your example!

Your New Permanent Lifestyle Choice is NOT a DIET!

  • Diets come and go.  But, A Lifestyle Choice is permanent!  Once you accept that and then meditate on that, a whole new world opens up to you.  It gives you no other options other than success! Once your family sees that, they more than likely will have greater respect for you.  But always remember… this is still about YOU and not others!

Find new PEEPS who have similar goals as yourself!

  • You can’t choose your family but you CAN choose your Motivational Support group!  It’s always more fun and encouraging to go on a Journey with friends who actually WANT to go with you!  😃  In today’s world there are so many options to choose from.  My personal choice is Weight Watchers. They have a “Connect” Social Media on their app which is ALWAYS supportive.  I’ve never experienced anyone (to date) that was discouraging at all.  There are other sites as well to check out such as Nutrisystem, Noom, Southbeach, and others.

Remember WHY you’re on this Journey!

  • So, you’ve written down WHAT you want to accomplish on your journey.  But, have you written down WHY?  There could be many reasons such as:
      • I want to feel good when I look in the mirror.
      • I want to have more energy to do the things I’ve always wanted to do.
      • I want to be more successful in my career
      • I want to improve my mental health
      • All of the above and MORE!

If you don’t have a clear WHY, you will find it a lot more challenging to stay Motivated, Determined, and Excited to continue on your new Lifestyle Choice.  Even if you’ve “fallen off the wagon” numerous times before, this year can and will be the start of a NEW YOU.

WE CAN DO THIS!

Writing in this blog is giving me encouragement to continue on MY journey.  I hope that those of you who read this post and all the ones to follow, will find a “mutual interchange of encouragement” here!  It is my goal to help motivate as many people as possible to reach their goals as well.

Stay tuned and LET’S DO THIS TOGETHER!

Motivation to Continue

Motivation to Continue

It’s a New Year. A time to rejuvenate my spirit, but where can I find the Motivation to Continue?  Have you fallen out of sync with your previous goals? How can you “get back on the wagon” with determination, incentive, and excitement? Let’s face it, 2020 was pretty tough for most of us.  2021, though, can and WILL be the rebirth of that spirit.  

There’s an old saying, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.”

So, to find that motivation what we need to do is, sit down and start writing down what we’d like to accomplish this year.  Separate the areas in your life that matter most to you.  My areas are:

Spiritual

Health

Work

Hobby

What are your areas in life that matter most to you?  

Try writing down no more than three things for each category to keep it simple and easy to remember.  Once that is completed.  Write down under each goal what you need to do to accomplish your goals.  Example:

Health

1.  Goal weight is…….

a. lose 5 pounds per month

b. use the WW app to keep track of what I eat and to stay focused

c. focus on skin and joint foods

2.  Walk 10,000 steps 5 days a week

a. walk 500 steps around the house when I first get up

b. set my alarm on my phone to remind me to start walking schedule (one or two alarms as needed per day)

Just the act of writing out a plan, in itself, will be a great start and can help give you the Motivation to Continue!

What is another area that can help KEEP you motivated??

Motivational quotes (one or two of your favorites) either hand written out or in poster form in your home office, bathroom, kitchen, really wherever you hang out; can be just the gentle reminder you need to keep those goals in focus and active!

There are many other ways to help keep that motivation moving.  Next week I will be posting additional ways to keep that motivational spirit strong and unbreakable!  Until then, get a jump start on the two items just mentioned above!

The Sky’s the Limit!

It’s Not Whether You Get Knocked Down, It’s Whether You Get Up!

Inspirational Quote By Vince Lombardi