Hi, friends! It’s been a while since I have touched base with you on a Monday, the day of the week where we share motivation and spread it around a bit. What’s been working for you lately?
I was kind of out of the loop for a good three-week stretch or so, thanks to a severe case of poison ivy or poison sumac. Not sure what the hell it was but whatever it was, it was nasty, and all over my arms, back and torso. Putting on exercise clothes was the LAST thing I was up for while that was going on. Add to that heavy duty medication to knock me out and Prednisone, which made me feel cranky and ravenous and you get the picture. But I learned an important lessen. The longer I go without exercise, for any reason, the longer the pity party and the louder the defeating negative self talk gets. It’s hard to rise out of a slump like that. Can anyone out there relate?
Once I was back to feeling physically well, I knew I had to dig deep to stoke up my motivational mojo again. Here’s how I did it:
- Showed up for my running club, even though I missed the first two meetings due to being sick. I knew I was way behind schedule in terms of trying to keep up with my group of beginner runners, but just showing up and doing the workout for that night was enough to fuel me to hit the pavement again and to actually feel excited about running again.
- Joined the Commit to Your Fit Challenge, hosted by the folks here at Shrinking Jeans. This is a DietBet10 game that lasts six months. It’s not too late to join! You can read all about it here. I always find that joining a challenge ramps up my motivation and helps to keep my head in the game.
- Finally faced the music at Weight Watchers. I am pretty religious about attending my WW meetings. What I am not so consistent with is actually weighing in once I am at said meetings. I have a bad habit of using a NWI (no weigh in) pass whenever I have a gain. My thinking always was ‘I don’t want that gain recorded in my little booklet, so I will just skip the weigh in this week.’ This is not a good strategy my friends. It snow balls. Avoidance is never a good thing. Ever. I got on the scale at my meeting this past Saturday and had a 3lb gain from the last time I weighed in at WW which I didn’t realize till then was all the way back in MARCH. (on the plus side, I was down 1.2 from my DietBet starting weight.) Anyway, stepping on that scale has re-lit a fire in me. I have been tracking since Saturday, which is usually unheard of for me, planning out my meals ahead and upping my water intake. My head is back in the game, and again I am feeling excited about it.
- Ditched the “Pounds to Go” jar. You have seen these on the web and on Pinterest. You have two jars, one labeled “Pounds Lost” and one labeled “Pounds to Go.” The idea is that as you lose weight you move a marble from one jar into another to show your progress. I had these two jars on my kitchen window sill but Saturday I took the Pounds to Go jar and moved it to a closet shelf, out of sight. I have my one marble in my Pounds Lost jar (for my DietBet loss of 1.2 so far) . The rest, I did not want to look at. I know how much I need to lose. I don’t need to see it in front of me every day. It was too overwhelming. I prefer now to look at the one marble I have in my Pounds Lost jar and say to myself every time I see it ‘I am working hard to get another marble in there at my next weigh in.’
So there ya have it, my self-created solution for getting unstuck from my slump. What’s worked for you in the past, or recently? How are YOU doing? Have anything you’d like to share about what has you stoked lately? Hit us up in the comments. We love to hear from you!