finding it hard to get back on track

[mgruce]

This is my 14th week of my journey to be healthy. I lost 8 pounds and after fighting an upper respiratory issue and running around with my sons ski racing, I am finding hard to get back on track.

I am eating as best as I can but not getting in the exercise that I need. That I know helped me to lose the 8 pounds to begin with. The scale shows me up 3 pounds since friday! WHAT?? I went off track this weekend, pizza, some drinks.. arghhh

I havent seen my treadmill in about a month. I was on it every day. I feel like my motivation isnt there. My son & husband went skiing tonight. I had 2 hours to myself. Instead of going on the treadmill, I caught up on emails and wanted to get back on the forum. This was a huge motivation for me and I loved the interaction... I wanted some me time and that didnt include exercising.

How do you get that motivation back? Racing ends in 3 weeks.. there will be more time for me and less running 6 days/week. But I feel I will gain more and be back at the start.

[Sunshine73]

For me it's about just getting up and doing it. Like going to work. I don't always feel motivated to go and I'd just as soon do a zillion other things but if I want to earn money to pay bills I just have to haul myself out of bed and go.

Same thing for exercising. Most of the time I don't want to do it but I *have* to (in order to meet my goals of being healthy and those are just as important as paying the electric bill) so I just get up and get on with it.

You can do this!

[ShanIAm]

Another 3FC member had made a recommendation to someone once about how to get motivated to work out and when I tried it, it really worked. When I don't feel like working out I'll still put on my workout clothes and sneakers. Just walking around in them for a little while eventually leads me out the door to the gym or it gets me on the elliptical I have set up at home. I plop it in front of the TV and I watch my favorite shows for an hour. Passes the time right away. So when I watch TV and exercise I get in a good work out AND "me time".

But yeah, just having my work out clothes on motivates me to take that next step.

Keep coming here every day, read and stay motivated! I have no idea what I would do without this place sometimes.

[JudgeDread]

I completely understand the part about NOT wanting to exercise. Working and then life's other activities makes you want to have YOU time!

My bf and I are P90xing every night now..for the last 2 1/2 weeks. We are already getting burned out with the mundane routine. It sucks because we want to do other things during the week after work, but with this it is workout...shower...eat...bed! BLAH!

Routine is important for exercise, unfortunately!

[andrew80k]

What motivated you to get started to begin with? You had to have something in mind when you got on the treadmill. Is 8 pounds in 14 weeks enough to make you stop reaching for your goal? Life gets in the way. Failing is not falling down, it's not getting back up. Get back up.

[Munchy]

It's so easy for me to get side-tracked with the day, so if I get up extra early, I'm able to workout first thing in the morning to get my day started. Then when my workday is long, my child needs something, dinner takes a while, etc, I can just deal with those knowing that my workout already happened and I don't lose motivation.

[mgruce]

Thanks for the comments. I am going to get up earlier and get on the treadmill before work. I am running 6 days/wk with my son for ski race training and races. Life has been hectic for the last month.

I am tired of being fat. I want to be healthy. Thats what got me going in the first place. I am tired from all the running and when we finally get home, I crash.

I already feel terrible body wise without the exercise. I miss it, just tired...

[Petite Powerhouse]

It honestly never gets "easy." I've been working out for years and years and I still have days that I don't want to do it. But I do—because I have to.

My boyfriend and I have this conversation a lot. We talk about how people tell him it's easy for him to be thin because he has a fast metabolism. This irks him to no end. Yes, it is easy for him to be thin, but it isn't easy for him to be healthy. He doesn't always want to eat right. He doesn't always want to work out. Honestly, I don't think he ever really wants to work out. Exercise has never been fun for him like it is for me. But he does it all, anyway—because he has to. Because it will keep him healthy and active for years to come.

I am the same way. I do like to exercise, but as I say, I don't always want to do it. Sometimes I find myself at the gym, repeating the phrase "Just one more set and then I'll leave" over and over and over, until I have actually completed all my sets and I can take off. Some days are just like that, and on those days it isn't motivation that gets me through. It is commitment and routine. Working out is a part of my life now for good. To enjoy time with the kids I plan to have and to be healthy and active long after others have bent at the spine and are walking a snail's pace, I have accepted that exercise must be a part of what I do forever. So I do it. I go to the gym, even when I don't want to, and I get through my routine. Because I have to.