I have been struggling big time with staying motivated to continue my journey the last 6 weeks. If my trainer cancels a weekly session with me, which he’s done quite a bit these last few weeks due to personal reasons, I tend to only make it to the gym up to 2 times that week. That means 1 upper body day and 1 lower body day, which wouldn’t be a big deal if I was hitting all muscle groups those days but I’m not. My progress is starting to halt, understandably so, and I’m almost at the point where I don’t care. I’m hoping it has something to do with winter and the lack of daylight hours, and having busy evenings with kids extracurricular activities (hockey mom here!) Although the summer months are busier during the weekdays, especially with two active children (soccer mom too!) I’m just lacking the desire to hit the gym, and its my happy place.
I have come too far in my journey to quit now, so it’s time to think about what I can do to get back into my journey and stick with it. Do I have my trainer revamp my workout program? I didn’t think I was board of my program but maybe subconsciously I am? I am challenged in every workout I perform still, I’m not increasing weights on upper body days but that’s mostly mental and me thinking I can’t lift more, my trainer will help with that once we have the opportunity to do another upper body workout day together. Do I rearrange my schedule and start going into work an hour earlier 1-2 days a week so I can get to the gym for 5:45am the latest. My best workout days, aside from the days I train with my trainer, are the early ones. Do I skip dinner with the family 1-2 days a week and hit the gym right after work so I don’t have the opportunity to get comfortable after dinner and not make it to the gym? Do I invest in more dumbbells at home and do lunch time workouts on the days I work at home and actually be active at lunchtime instead of watching TV or worse working through my lunch break?
I don’t have the answers, but these are the questions I’m asking myself. With my PT away on vacation next week, I’m going to try option 3 next week and see if I successfully make it to the gym 4 days a week for weightlifting workouts. I’ve planned it into my calendar for next week, hopefully now that it’s in my calendar and me attempting to keep myself organized and accountable by using my calendar I get back into my routine and start seeing results again. The last thing I want to do is give up and revert back to my old habits/ways and undo all the work I’ve accomplished over the last year. I love the changes I’ve been seeing in my body and in my strength. As I type this out, I think I need to discuss my upper body workouts with my trainer and get them, at least one of them, to become more challenging for me. My leg day 1 (anterior) is, according to my trainer, a very intense and challenging workout. It’s 90% quad focused and it’s my favorite workout day of the week because it’s challenging, and I’m slowly progressing in increasing weights in the 3rd quad weighted workout I complete in the program (this after being stuck at the same weight for months because my quads were exhausted from pushing in the other workouts I’ve increased weights in). In any case, its become apparent to myself I need to have the conversation with my trainer when I see him next.
To sum this post up, my point is it’s ok to lack motivation and want to give up, it’s however, not ok to actually give up. Take the steps I did above and come up with the cause for the lack of motivation and ways to solve the cause. Think back to what you looked like before you started and how did you feel then vs how do you feel now? That should be motivation enough for you to keep going down your path, but, if it’s not, do new progress photos to see the physical change in your body. My weight is up from October when I started working out, my measurements are showing that they have gone up (I don’t believe it) but looking at progress photos from then to now, I can see my legs are smaller, the lose skin in my belly has gotten tighter. I finally feel sexy in my own skin and this is what’s pushing me to keep going. Once I get back to regularly weight training 4 days a week I will start incorporating daily walks for 30 minutes, it will help with my heart health and also help with fat loss.
