from- http://suchalovelylittlelife.wordpress.com/
I’ve found that my energy and
motivation to workout fluctuates by the day.
Some days I feel like I am ready to take on the world with the sassy
lyrics from the French singer,Yelle blasting through my ears. But other
days I move slow and painfully, feeling as though I am moving through quick
sand.
Yesterday by the time it was 5:00 pm
I knew it was time for me to workout. I had been sitting in front of a computer
screen the whole day. If I didn’t break a sweat in the next hour
I would start feeling really sluggish.
The only problem was that I had absolutely no desire to workout. Right
as I was about to reach for the remote to the television, I saw my mother
dressed in her Lululemons running gear heading out the door.
Don’t ask how this happened, but
15 minutes later I ended up outside in the rain, running next to my mother. “Mom can we please make this a short run?” I
begged.
Who
was I kidding? As we got to our
originally designated end point, my mom energetically forged ahead, plowing through
the heavy wind and the rain drops that fell upon her dirty blond pony tail. My mom’s unending supply of energy never
failed to astound me. “How do you always
have the energy to workout?” I asked.
“Well,”
she replied “ I don’t always have the
energy to workout. After working 8 hours today the last thing I wanted to do was go on a run.”
“Than
why did you do it?” I asked somewhat puzzled.
“For
you," she replied as though my question was completely obvious.
"For me??" I repeated.
She continued,"If I let
myself be a coach potato I would be at much greater health risks and I wouldn’t
be able to be take care of you and your sister. ”
“And
because you want to be a Mamacita…” I added.
My
mom laughed and said: “You have to have a good reason for working out. If you don’t understand why you want to work
out than your always going to give the voice that says, 'let’s
just be a coach potato today' way more power than it deserves.”
As we
finally arrived at the house, my quad
and calf muscles burned with lactic acid.
But I didn’t feel tired, I felt
energized. I had exerted myself both mentally and
physically and overcome the little voice inside of me telling me to stay at
home.
I
realized that the reason I workout is because of this euphoric feeling that I
get every time I push past my limits and allow myself to be uncomfortable. I workout because moving my body faster and
harder than I think I can makes me feel alive.
The conversation with my mom reminded me that its hard to find the
motivation to work out if you are doing so because its what you think you should be doing. In
my personal experience, its much more effective to approach working out with a clear
understanding of why you want to workout. Ask yourself the following
questions:
Why is working out important to me?
How do I feel after I workout versus when I don’t work out?
How does working out affect my l ifestyle and relationships with others?
Now I’ve realized that working out in theory seems to be a
nice idea, but actually doing it can be a different story. So remember the reasons why you really want
to workout and then go out and do it!
Labels: motivation to work out, sustainable and healthy lifestyle, work out plan
