My phone would ring every morning at 6:15. My hand fumbled in half-awake panic, searching in the dark for the source of the shrill. It was always Shannon on the other end, my colleage and sporadic workout partner.
"You wanna go this morning?" her voice was breathy and barely awake and I'd roll toward the edge of my tangled sheets and look out the black window at the sleet and ponder my warm toes and I would say too quickly,"No. Totally not. Let's go back to sleep and we'll go tomorrow. For sure we'll go tomorrow."
She'd sigh with relief and hang up. Sometimes we would indeed go "tomorrow", but often we wouldn't. We wanted to be in shape, we wanted to feel the glow of accomplishment we knew we'd feel after a killer workout -- but maaaann: sleep was often so much more appealing.
I've worked out sporadically through much of my adult life. I've joined gyms and tried Nothing But Tofu diets and cleanses involving angry spices in water. I ran a lot after I gave birth to my son, mostly as a quest to get the hell out of the house and away from the smell of baby puke for a blessed half hour.
But this last stretch of almost one year is the longest I've ever lasted on a "fitness kick." Life so often gets in the way -- business travel happens, Mom's cheesecake gets made, a few days pass without the gym and excuses are just so damned free-flowing.
But really, I'm beginning to understand - it's not that hard to stay on track. I like myself so much better when I'm working out and eating right. I like my energy level, I like the way my jeans fit, I like the sound sleep I get, and yeah, it might not be PC but I admit it: I dig that my flabbies are gone, too.
I've been trying to isolate what I've done differently this time around: why I can see this daily exercise and cognisant food choices as a way of life rather than a spastic and short lived phase like all the other times. Here are a few things that have worked to help me stay on track this time, and firmly up to the task for the rest of 2010 as the Resolution gym crowd already starts to disperse and drift.
1. Just do a little.
Even on days where I'm swamped with work or I feel lethargic or sore, I make myself commit to 20 minutes of exercise. Twenty minutes is nothing, it's doable, it's less time than it takes me to cook dinner or jump in the shower. I make myself do a 20 minutes run (which usually will morph into half an hour or more because it really only feels super awful at the beginning for me) -- or twenty minutes of pushups and abs, 20 minutes of the Shred. It's not that much to commit to, and it very often turns into more.
If I'm feeling weak at the gym, I envision my muscles getting bigger, stronger, pushing more. When I want to stop running up that hill, or I can't imagine trudging to the end of that sidewalk, I think of the girls on the Nike ads: strong, determined, lean. I picture myself strong, too, running hard and gracefully. It's amazing how frequently imagination can turn into reality.
2. Have a go-to snack in your purse
I had a whirlwind business trip last week: Thursday in LA and Friday in Seattle. My days were jam packed with meetings and really no time to eat in between. In years past I would have hit a McDonald's for a Big Mac or at least a Subway for a tuna melt because I my stomach can only chew on itself for so long. But these days I'm prepared: I filled my purse with several Myoplex bars. They're filling, nutritious, taste good, and kept me satisfied until I had time to find dinner that did not involve a deep fryer or vats of mayonnaise. My fave bar is the cinnamon roll crisp.
3. Recruit your partner
For sure the biggest difference in my motivation this year is Corey. He pep-talks me when I don't feel like going to the gym, he's patient when I'm frustrated that my bicep never wants to move more than a 15 pound weight. He motivates me with his discipline and it's kind of hard for me to formulate and excuse when he's always able to find time to go for a quick run, do a push up set, or go to the gym. It also helps that we cook healthy food together and set goals: we are planning to do a triathlon together, and are contemplating a marathon in Hawaii. I think this would all be much harder to do if I were to do it on my own, so I'm grateful for him.
4. Give yourself permission to fail and to inhale.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the need for a giant hunk of old cheddar cheese. Sometimes my Mom's apple crisp, cooling on the stove all caramelly-scented, is too much for me to handle and I have to dig in. The difference is: I give myself permission to do these things now, at least one day a week. And if I go outside of that and stray from my diet on the other days, I tell myself it's OK and go back to being disciplined. It makes a lot more sense than giving up to eat another bowl of ice cream and cutting up the gym pass.
5. Ditch the scale. Take pictures instead.
I gained more than ten pounds when I first started working out. I was eating cottage cheese and tuna and no bread and working my ass off and I remember nearly crying when I saw that number on the scale climb instead os decrease. I only felt better when I looked at pictures. At 144, I was thin and flabby: unhealthy. My arms were pinpricks. At 155, two months into hardcore gym effort and a strict Body For Life diet, I looked much leaner and stronger. My arms and shoulders had definition. I threw out the scale.
What keeps you motivated?
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