Every single person—even the most successful, self-driven individuals—suffer from lack of motivation at times. It’s true, so don’t feel hopeless or get down on yourself if you’re slipping or have already fallen into a rut when it comes to your fitness routine.
Positive change doesn’t happen overnight, but your life will 100% continue to improve if you apply these mental tricks to get motivated again.
- Focus in on one main goal. Perhaps when 2022 hit, you took all the great advice and sat down to write out your goals. We are instructed to dream big and create a clear vision of all we want to achieve. Great, right? Except your list may be overwhelming to you, and if you don’t know where to start, you risk freezing completely and going nowhere! Instead, take your list and circle your top three goals, then choose one to tackle right now. The list isn’t going anywhere, and you have plenty of time to check off every item, but you’re far more likely to do that if you take things one at a time.
- Add nutritious food instead of subtracting unhealthy ones. You will do yourself a kindness to stay away from diet culture and weight loss fads that restrict foods and leave you feeling irritable and hungry. Create a positive experience during your fitness journey by gradually making impactful changes, like consistently eating two servings of vegetables each day. If you were previously missing these important nutrients, then you’ll quickly feel the benefits and will end up being more satisfied with your complete meal (meaning you’ll be less likely to over-indulge in less ideal food choices).
- Train your brain. Give yourself permission to surf for knowledge related to your goal to get excited about it again. This is a wonderful daily habit that will feed your mind with incredible information to help you level up, and will keep things fresh and interesting.
- Build anticipation by setting start dates and benchmarks in advance. You’ll create energy if you have time to prepare to attack your challenge and improve your focus by developing a timeline for progress. Be sure your mini-goals are realistic and achievable so you can build on small successes as you climb the ladder to success.
- Accept setbacks and enjoy the ride. Life is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, and your fitness journey is much the same. You are going to have some fantastic weeks where you prepped delicious meals and declined the office donuts, and you’re bound to have days where you crave all the sweets and forget to thaw chicken for dinner. Roll with the punches and have the mindset that you are going to simply do your best. If your diet isn’t perfect or you mess up, don’t stress! Stress hormones are not going to help your body release fat cells. Instead, push forward and take time to revisit your struggles with your coach, so you can pinpoint together what went wrong and have a game plan to avoid the same issue reoccurring in the future.
Having a community to support you in achieving your fitness goals is a huge benefit! Talk about your fitness journey, listen to other people share their weight loss experiences, and never hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions – I love to help!
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Coach Julie Germaine is a NFLA-certified fitness expert and prenatal trainer, and a NASM-certified nutrition specialist. She is also a 2x world-class fitness champion who has been featured in and contributed to numerous fitness, fashion, and lifestyle magazines and other media. She has loved helping men and women lose belly fat and maintain inspiring body transformations as a virtual coach since 2005.