Tips on how to stay motivated on your fitness journey
On your fitness journey, you will certainly be faced with set backs, struggles and a sudden lack of motivation. No one can be 100% motivated 100% of the time (surely not?), but a constant lack of motivation may lead you to give up entirely, so I have written about the top motivational tools that I use which helps me stay on track.
Remember why you started
What motivated you in the first place to start your fitness journey? Was it to become stronger? To loose weight? To gain size? To become a bodybuilder? To gain confidence? To learn something new? Because of ill health?
People start their fitness journeys for many different reasons, but only you can channel into how you really felt about your body and health. Did you hate yourself? Not accept your body? Feel weak? Feel fat? Cry because you couldn't even look at yourself in the mirror? I have. If they were negative thoughts and feelings, remember how it made you feel, and that you do not ever want to feel that way again, which leads me to my next point...
Look at your progress
It's so ridiculously easy to look at how far you have to go rather than how far you have come, it's only natural, however all that is going to do is make you feel like giving up. Instead, look at what you have achieved - are you able to run a longer distance then you ever have before? Can fit in an old dress again? Lift a weight your never thought you could? Improved your health/habits? Has your progress complimented on? These are the things that you should be focusing on... you've come THIS far, why throw away your achievements? It doesn't make any sense, use your progress and achievements as motivation that you CAN DO THIS, you can go to the gym and do whatever you need to do, you can reach your goal, and you are already on your way.
I went from 'flabby' and lazy, to 'slim' and chasing the thigh gap, and now I'm chasing strength and self acceptance, and no way in hell and I going to let my journey and progress go to waste.
Surround yourself with like-minded people
This can actually be harder than it sounds, trust me I know - I have attended the gym more or less on my own for years. Even if you don't have many close friends who do what you do, find that ONE person with a similar mind. When you have someone there to talk to who will understand your goals, struggles and sacrifices, it makes you feel less like your on this journey alone. Identifying with people who have the same goals/lifestyle as you, definitely encourages you to stay motivated and work towards them goals, rather then being influenced to come off track.
Find your community on social media
Relating to the previous point - follow people on social media who have the similar goals as you, who who you can relate to, who you admire and who you will learn from.
To provide an example, I would say I very much relate to the #flexibledieting and #girlswholift community on Instagram, not because I actually know anyone from Instagram, but because that's how I identify myself, and I will search the hashtags on Instagram and follow the like-minded people who also post with the same #'s as me. I learn from from the people I follow on social media, from what they do, how they struggle, the advice they may give, the food they eat, the workouts they complete, how they stay motivated...
When you realise that there is a whole community out there who do exactly what you do, who go to the gym, work on their body and fitness, and eat towards their goals, you feel so much more motivated knowing there's a whole bunch of you out there.
Don't compare yourself to others
Although it's beneficial to follow other people on their fitness journey, negatively comparing your worst with someone else's best can create a bad body image. As Amanda Bucci demonstrates, it's easy to manipulate a pose/clothes and lighting to present yourself in a certain way which is actually different from reality. Your body has its own unique genetics, metabolism and hormones affecting how it looks and how it progresses, therefore comparing your body with someone else's 'best picture' can just reinforce bad body image and leave you feeling rather crap in all honesty.
Moving onto ability, just because someone else might be able to run for longer, to squat heavier, to gain muscle easier or to drop fat faster, that doesn't mean that you should also be able to do them things. It's so easy to jump ahead of yourself and want to be able to do what someone else is doing, but hold on... that's THEIR fitness journey, not yours. Comparing what someone else can do against what you can do can just end up leaving you feeling down and incapable, so just focus on your progress and capabilities, not someone else's.
Don't punish yourself
Did you have a cheat meal that turned into a cheat weekend? Did you not get back to the gym for 3 weeks after your holiday? Did you drink 3 bottles of wine instead of 1? THAT'S PERFECTLY FINE.
Do not punish yourself over this, you have not failed yourself and you can still reach your goals. The worst thing to do is then over compensate and go crazy on the cardio or restrict your calorie intake, this will just make you feel like you are punishing yourself and make you feel as though you have done wrong by coming off track for a while. Let me tell you, have not done anything wrong and you are not a failure... guess what? YOUR ONLY HUMAN. Punishing yourself can just produce an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise, so just pick up where you left off and focus on reaching your goals in a healthy way.
To conclude, no two peoples fitness journey are identical, we all have our own goals, struggles, achievements, set backs and way of doing things. We all lack motivation at times and come off track, like I said... your only human, but what matters is not how you are knocked down but how you get back up.
I would love you hear what motivates you through your fitness journey
