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Episode 17 – How To Stay Motivated

Starting to feel like it’s just not worth it? That the effort of hitting a workout is more than you can handle? Before quitting, join me today and listen to my biggest tips on how to stay motivated. As a seasoned coach, I know how it works. Even the best of us have off days. Learn how I tweak the system and find my drive to keep pushing and smash goals.

• Staying Consistent (1:13)
• Stay Motivated- Warm-Up (2:01)
• Training Only Playlist (2:15)
• Work Out At Home (3:41)
• At Home Fitness Equipment (4:31)
• The Aspects You Overlook (5:22)
• Change Your System & Your Goals (6:59)
• Wrap Up (9:22)
• Resources

 

Introduction

Welcome to the Fitasamamabear podcast I’m Shelby, a certified strength coach, nutrition coach, mama to two, and all-around health nut. This show is about a little bit of everything healthy, fit and natural related. So if you’re striving to smash goals, eat better, feel better and enjoy the occasional mom rant. This is the place for you. You’re listening in to episode 17 today where I’m chatting about motivation and overcoming excuses.

 

Stay Motivated – Introduction

Hey everyone. So somehow we’ve jumped into a new decade and I’m still trying to kind of wrap my mind around it.

But to kick off the new year I wanted to get a jump on everyone slacking on their goals, I wanted to check in with you and give you a few pointers on how you can stay motivated at the gym.

So one thing that many newbies don’t understand is that even seasoned fitness junkies lack motivation from time to time. Believe it or not, we’re busy too. I’m a mama to two. I run 2.5 businesses from home and I live in sheer chaos. Trust me.

There are days that the last thing I want to do is get my ass out of bed, warmed up and into a workout before quite literally rushing out the door, but I do. And since next month is a month in which the majority of new fitness routines fail due to excuses, laziness, or anything else, I wanted to jump ahead of the game so that you can keep these tips in the back of your mind.

 

Staying Consistent (1:13)

Staying consistent doesn’t always mean motivated. Some days it means just showing up when I’m not feeling a workout or if I’m just tired and want to skip it.

Here’s a few things that I remind myself of why I’m working out, so believe it or not, my workouts are not vanity based:

My goal isn’t to look a certain way. I work out because I want to be able to play with my kids and because being strong is fun.

Those are two super important things to me, and unless you have a valid reason, a reason that kind of just digs deep inside of you that you’re working out for you’re more likely to bail on your workouts.

So, figure out why you’re working out and remind yourself of that every single time. Focus on just getting warmed up. This is a trick I’ve learned in the last couple of years before kids working out was way easier.

 

Stay Motivated & Warm-Up (2:01)

But obviously with kids, some days you’re just extra tired or you’re busy or you’re just blah. And what I do as I always tell myself that I’m just going to get warmed up, I’m just going to do some mobility work.

The truth is once you’re warmed up, you are way more likely to jump into your workout. So the hardest part is either getting to the gym, which obviously I won’t have that problem because I do work out at home or getting warmed up.

Figure out one small step and just roll with that opt for a simpler workout routine. Some days if I am short on sleep or I’m just not feeling it, I swap workouts.

And while I am all about fitness goals and having to stay dedicated to your training program to achieve performance goals, if I’m not feeling maximal lifting, I’m sure as hell not jumping into 180-pound deadlift because it’s the fastest way to injure myself.

So sometimes it just works better and it keeps you more consistent. If you opt for something a little bit more simple, a little bit less intense, it’s okay, you’re still moving, you’re still rocking it. Put on a playlist and get jacked.

 

Training Only Playlist (2:15)

I wish I had this luxury more. Obviously, I work out with my girls, so I can’t really have crazy music going, but this one works really, really well.

If I’m unmotivated to run, what I do is I have playlists that I only use for running. I don’t listen to those songs any other time.

So, what happens is I obviously love the song. It kind of gets me jacked up, but the only way I get to listen to it is if I run. So it helps me stay motivated on the days that I’m feeling a little less wanting to do anything.

It helps get me ready and out the door.

 

Work Out At Home (3:41)

And lastly, opt to work out at home.

Obviously, I am a crazy big advocate for working out at home. I believe that keeps people consistent. I find it easy and who really likes any kind of travel time if you have kids?

If you are a regular gym junkie and you are having an off day, you’re shorter on time, you’re a little bit more eye twitchy, try a home work out.

Honestly, it’s a way to keep you consistent in the sense that you either bail on your workout or you do a home homework out, doing the workout is always going to be better. And it might just be a nice little switch up and your routine that you kind of need.

Home workouts can be just as intense as gym workouts, depending on how you rock them, but maybe opt for a home workout. And hopefully that kind of helps you get out of bed.

At Home Fitness Equipment (4:31)

Jumping in to chat about today’s sponsor today Pro Source! Pro Source is a fitness equipment company that has just about everything you’re looking for.

By now, you should know that I fully believe that being able to work out at home is essential and while you don’t need a crazy set up, I do recommend resistance bands, particularly a red strength band and a mini green band for all of my clients.

This allows you to target your postural muscles much better than with just your body weight. Bands are simple to use an extremely cheap, I am Dutch after all. So, if you’re sending yourself to up to stay consistent by working out at home, head on over to Prosourcefit.com and because you’re an awesome listener, save some money using code mama bear 15 then stay consistent and smash some goals.

Now those tips work really well for the random day that you’re not feeling it, but what about when you’re not feeling it at all, like for the entire week?

 

The Aspects You Overlook (5:22)

In that case, you’re going to want to look at a few aspects. Maybe you need to switch up your workouts, whether that’s the style-specific exercises or duration.

Sometimes switching them up not only gets you more excited, but it also takes a stress away that you didn’t know you had. It makes it easier to stay motivated.

I love heavy lifting, but they do tend to be longer workouts on some days of the week. That just doesn’t happen and then I dread them.

I don’t want to dread my workouts. I believe that working out to be something you love doing and that you should find something you love doing because it keeps you consistent, so sometimes switching up the workouts for a few weeks helps you get your head back in the game and gets you excited.

Again, this is particularly true with style. Sometimes you just need to try a new kind of workout, whether that’s going to a new class and you’ve kind of always wanted to do or jumping into a new exercise or a progression.

This past summer I really got into ring work and it made me super pumped to do my workouts. So try switching up your workouts and seeing if that helps boost your motivation.

Another option is to make a better playlist. So I mentioned this on the days you don’t want to get out of bed. Having a playlist and something that can help you get in the zone can get you really, really amped up, but also having a playlist that you only reserve for workouts can help kind of boost that motivation.

Change your mind because exercise is not a punishment. I think a lot of people dread working out because they have this idea that you need to be sweaty and intense and have a vomit worthy session, and that’s totally not true.

If you are exercising because you ate crappy food or you’re exercising to punish your body because it’s not responding in some way, you need to change your mind.

You’re never going to stay motivated and you’re probably not going to achieve a whole lot of goals if you’re using exercise as a punishment, so change your mind and you change your results.

 

Change Your System & Your Goals (6:59)

Change the time of day you work out. This is a hard one for a lot of people as we’re very set in our ways, believing that we can, we only have time to get the workout in at this time. But if you normally work out at night, a lot of the times the stress of the day gets you.

You come home, there’s kids to make dinner for and yada yada yada, and you’re dreading going to the gym because it’s just another thing on your to-do list.

Working out shouldn’t be “Just another thing”, as I mentioned before, I truly believe that you should love your workouts and maybe what will help get you to stay motivated is switching up the time.

No one likes getting up early. Trust me, I do not like getting up early either. But even getting up 30 minutes earlier and getting your workout in before your day goes might make the day a little bit smoother and you may end up enjoying it.

So I always recommend to clients to try to change the time of day that they work out. f they’re feeling really, really stuck.

And lastly, change your fitness goals. So, I hear an uproar whenever I say this because everyone’s goals are so personal.

But here’s the thing: A lot of the people that come to me want to work out because they want to look better, which is awesome. I totally get that. But when you tie working out to just the way your body looks, you end up demotivated when you’re not seeing results as quickly or you really want the candy or any other excuse, change your fitness goals, try a performance goal, I kid you not.

It makes a world of different striving for something that you can physically do than just the way your body’s responding, which has a whole other amount of variables to it.

So, the way your body responds to training isn’t just about the workouts you’re doing, it’s about what you’re eating, it’s about your stress levels and your and your sleep and all of those things. Changing your fitness goals to something more performance space is so, so much more fun and it doesn’t have to be anything intense.

I have had goals to deadlift certain amounts to do certain amounts of ring rows. I’ve had goals of running a five K when I never used to run or being able to do a handstand.

All of these have been really, really fun goals and they make you excited to work out not only truthfully, a lot of the time your body responds a little bit better when you shift your goals to performance, but also it just makes your mind a healthier place.

Not everything is about how you look. A lot of fitness should be about how you can reform what you can do and are you able to keep up with your kids.

It’s not rocket science, but I won’t deny that it’s not easy either. Hitting the gym multiple times per week, weekend and week out is how goals are achieved.

One skipped day won’t matter just like one killer workout won’t either.

Remember when it comes to your fitness goals, you are in charge. Your results are what you want to make them. So focus on why you need to be a badass and show up. You’re worth it.

 

Wrap Up (9:22)

Well, that about sums it up for today. Friends, thanks for listening in to my 2 cents on how to stay motivated.

If you know someone else who could use the tips, please share. Even if it’s just a one-person, you never know what difference you can make.

If you’re in need of fitness tips, workouts, and amazingly healthy recipes, don’t forget to check out my website at https://www.ftasamamabear.com and on that note, make sure you catch the next episode.

Chat soon, friends.

 

Resources

• The Ultimate Guide To Home Workouts– A Blog Post
• Pro Source Fitness

 

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