Monday motivation

Note: this was supposed to post yesterday, but didn't for whatever reason :( Tuesday motivation doesn't have as nice of a ring to it, so I'm keeping the title.

In the next week, I'm going to be implementing a few new things around the blog based on suggestions from friends and readers -- starting with today's post, which I'm hoping will become a regular feature.

One of my managers read my blog and suggested that I post about what I do to stay motivated on my health and fitness journey. I think it's a great idea, especially since it's something that I constantly struggled with every other time I attempted to "get fit" or lose weight.

My biggest motivator this time, and what I think has made this time different than every other time that didn't stick, has been looking at my journey as just that - a journey. Lasting fitness or weight loss doesn't happen overnight, and understanding that your journey isn't always going to be perfect is crucial to success (in my under-qualified-only-based-on-personal-experience opinion).

For example, this week in particular has been a rough one eating-wise. For whatever reason, I've found it difficult to stick to eating healthy foods, and have had quite a few more sugary treats than I probably should have. I blame some of that on Jif's Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut spread, which is like Nutella but better and somehow found its way into my pantry. I didn't purchase it, but man is it delicious. And terrible for you. But delicious.

Anyways, it's frustrating because I feel terrible - when you're fueling your body with unhealthy things, it affects your energy... something about a glycemic index or something? I'm not a doctor, I just pretend to know what I'm talking about.

Old me probably would have just thrown in the towel, in a "well, it's been fun being fit, but I really like this chocolatey-oil spread, so there's that..." sort of way. The motivated me is looking it as a journey, as in, "hey, I may have had a rough week, but I'm in this for the long haul, and in the grand scheme of things, a rough week is just life."

It was a pretty tasty week of eating terrible things, but I am certainly ready to remotivate myself with the high energy I get from eating well  -- especially since it helps me reach new fitness goals too!

How do you motivate yourself? Interested in writing a Monday Motivation post for Life Gets Two Thumbs Up? Contact me!!