Happy Friday! Motivation is great to have because it gets us to do things we don’t always want to do and pushes us in the right direction. But, it shouldn’t be relied on. If I only ate healthy or went to the gym when I was motivated to do so, I wouldn’t be in near the shape I am in. I would skip a lot of workouts and eat a lot more ice cream. Habit and discipline is how I consistently make healthy choices and workout on a regular basis. Creating healthy habits don’t happen overnight. They can take weeks, months and sometimes years to ingrain in ourselves. To create the habit to live a healthy lifestyle everyday by making healthy choices and exercising regularly means going to the gym when you don’t feel motivated and eating your veggies when you’d rather dive into a huge piece of cake. As time goes on and the more you make those healthy choices when you aren’t necessarily motivated to do so the more automatic they become. Discipline will get you to the gym when you aren’t motivated to do. Habit of eating vegetables at every meal will allow you to get in your vegetables first and then enjoy dessert if you still want it. I’m not always motivated, but over the many years of trying to be as consistent as possible with exercise and eating whole foods I no longer need to rely on motivation. I can rely on my dedication and discipline from all the hard work I put in to creating these healthy habits. When you don’t feel motivated to workout, do it anyways. When you don’t want to eat your vegetables, do it anyways. Have you ever regretted working out and eating a healthy meal? I doubt it. The more you practice making healthy choices the more automatic they will become and the less motivated you will need to be to stick to a healthy lifestyle.
I have been doing a lot of strength specific workouts lately and adding in a short circuit, metcon or AMRAP at the end. Not all workouts have to crush you. Leaving the gym not drenched in sweat is okay! Give yourself a break from time to time from high intensity workouts and focus on strength.
Strength
6 x 6-8
– barbell bench press
rest 90-120 seconds between sets
Ladder Workout
Perform 10 pull-ups immediately into 2 push-ups immediately into 8 pull-ups immediately into 4 push-ups until you reach 2 pull-ups and 10 push-ups
– pulls-ups – 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
– push-ups – 2, 4, 6, 8, 10