How to keep going in your journey of working out and fitness? Anonymous Q&A

Q. How to keep going in your journey of working out and fitness? How to find a better reason than looking good to keep the consistency of your fitness regime?

A. This is an excellent question and quite frankly is the biggest thing anyone needs to completely understand when starting a fitness journey. At the beginning it is very easy, you are excited, the thought of dropping pounds and pant sizes is intoxicating. You can just see a fitter and sexier you in the mirror, the way you used to look like many years ago. You go hard and you go strong for a couple of weeks, your endorphins are high and every time you work out at the gym you feel like a beast, you embrace the sore muscles and you love it.

After a couple of weeks, you are so excited to see how much weight you have lost, you strip off all your clothes, step on the scale and you’ve only lost a couple of pounds, if any at all. What the hell…. I’ve been busting my ass at the gym every single day and I was sure I had lost 10lbs. Then doubt starts creeping in, is being sore all the time really worth it, is waking up early or going to bed late worth it, I’m missing my favorite TV show for THIS….

Then you start missing workouts, you hit the snooze button a few too many times, you cancel your date with the gym and go out with your friends instead, it’s the season finale, mid-season finale, the ball game is on, I will work out tomorrow, or get up early in the morning. Before you know it, you haven’t been in the gym for several weeks now. The brand-new shoes, workout clothes, and headphones are starting to collect dust on them.

This is completely normal and it happens all the time and it’s perfectly ok. You just haven’t figured out your WHY yet. Why do you want to get fit, why do you want to workout, FYI, it’s not to look sexy or drop a few pounds. This is the outcome of getting healthy and fit.

One of our lessons is the 5 whys. This really helps you dig deep into WHY you want to get healthy and fit. When I decided to get fit many years ago, my 5 WHYS would have been:

Why do you want to get fit?

Because I want to have bigger muscles and looked ripped in the mirror. I want to see a 6 pack in the mirror at all times.

Why is that reason for getting fit important to you?

Vanity reasons and I did not like how I looked and felt when I was overweight and inactive. I had low self-esteem and I did not have a lot of confidence, I would let people walk all over me. I held onto toxic relationships because it was the best I thought that I would get.

And why is that important?

Because I was not happy, I was lonely and I was in a dark place. I had a lot of self-destructive behaviors to cope with my loneliness. I wanted to make a change inside of myself, I wanted to be happy, I wanted to be confident, and I wanted to live life.

And what difference will that make?

I knew that my unhealthy lifestyle and behaviors would keep me exactly where I was at. I knew that if I kept up my behaviors I would live a short life. I knew I would develop cardiovascular diseases at a young age and have to be put on medicine. I knew I would get “OLD” way too early in my life. I needed to make the change inside of me first and then the outer appearance of me would change as a result. I would have the confidence to go out and make new friendships, ones that were healthy and beneficial instead of toxic.

And why will that previous thing matter?

It matters because I knew that I was meant for something big in this world, I was sitting around wasting my life away and feeling sorry for myself. I knew that I wanted to find my soul mate and have a child. At the time, I didn’t know who I was going to be but I knew that I was going to be something special, someone that made a difference to my family and to the world. I knew that I had so much potential in me and I was being selfish and wasting it. I had a fire and a drive inside of me, I just needed to embrace it and grab it. I needed to save my life.

Notice how it started by wanting bigger muscles and looking good in the mirror? Once I got down to the 5th why, I dug deep and I realized what my true “WHY” really was when I said I wanted to get fit. Once you realize what your true “why” is, this will keep you going when it gets hard. This will keep you motivated to show up every single day, no matter how tired you are. This will help you reevaluate your priorities and make time for exercise. This is the “why” that will keep you going for the rest of your life. What is your “why”?

I encourage you to do the same as I did and answer the 5 questions above, if you answer them honestly and truthfully you will figure out your “why”

Do you have any questions you would like to ask anonymously? Fill out the form here https://goo.gl/forms/hR0qP2ntilUkRJgU2 and I will post the answer, I will never know who asked and you just might help someone else who has the same question.