1/07/2011

Motivation

I did a lot of talking & thinking about motivation yesterday.  It all started with a text from Amanda, she needed some motivation to get to our cardio class that night.  I responded that she didn't have a choice, we were going.  This led to an on & off conversation all day about what motivates different people.  I've found that for me it's mostly about food and people.  When it comes to food, I like to eat delicious food & I like to go out to eat.  Once I mastered the art of calorie counting I realized that I could continue to eat my favorite things but I needed to burn more calories to do so, therefore I MUST go to the gym.  When it comes to people, I need to be accountable to someone.  If left on my own I won't work out, it's why I take classes & always work out with a partner, if someone is expecting me, I usually won't bail.

Amanda, on the other hand, works better with pep talks, like "you'll look really great in that dress this weekend" or "we'll have great your beach bodies this summer."  Whenever trainers would say things like that in group power I would always roll my eyes and zone out on the rest of their speech.  This got me to thinking, why didn't this type of motivation work for me?  On my way home from the gym it occurred to me, I'd never been small enough for one class or one week of diet/exercises to make any difference.  I always knew it would take months of hard work to make that dress look great (and it has).  Even after coming this far my mind hasn't quite gotten there yet; I still think day to day instead of final destination.
Ok, enough of the deep thought...  Thursday started off just like any other day, get up, get ready for work, pack gym bag & lunch (I really look like a bag lady leaving my house in the morning), have breakfast (cinnamon toast crunch & banana again = 286 calories).
Work was pretty smooth sailing, all the excitement of the new year has started to wear off.  I did a lot of filing though, I should have taken a picture of the giant stack, I'm pretty sure I hadn't filed anything since we got back from vacation, in November...  I brought my normal lunch but substituted the last of the NYE fruit = 274 calories.
After lunch I got a delivery, one of my vendors sent a gift basket.  I thought it was very smart of them to send it after the holidays, this way it didn't get lost with all the other gifts coming in.  It's really nice stuff too, not the normal no name assortment!  I had a handful of gummy worms as a snack = 130 calories.
Amanda & I made it to our cardio class and got good and sweaty.  January & February are always a busy time at the gym because everyone that made a new years resolution to lose weight is trying out our classes.  This one woman was practically standing on top of me for half the class, plus she came in late & left early, I hate that!

I called Joe on the way home because I was starving and hoping dinner would be ready when I got there.  He said he was still trying to decide what to do and that we would probably be eating with Nicole, Lou & Jack.  Then he asked how many calories I had left for the day, when I told him I had more then 800 thanks to my super workout he said Wendy's it is.  I made sure to get a shot of all the food he brought back for the 4.5 of us; he actually had a Wendy's shopping bag!
And here's the shot of my meal (blt cobb salad & jr frosty) = 820 calories.
We hung out for a little while after dinner, watching tv & wrangling Jack.  Joe finally had his January work schedule so I spent some time loading that into our google calendar and figuring out the rest of the month's events.  We're already pretty booked up until February, crazy!  Once Lou fell asleep on the couch it was time to call it night.  

How did I do on my January goals?
1. drink 64oz of water every day: check, every day total
2. track all my food & burn at least 500 calories a day for at least 25 days: 2445 burned - 1510 eaten = 935 total burned, 3 days total
3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 60 minutes today, 145 total for month
4. run 20 miles: none today, 2.6 total
5. 15 spend free days - didn't spend a dime!, 2 day total

1 comment:

  1. Great day!
    I have a hard time with motivation too. I do well when I remember that I just have to do it, no excuses. "Just shut up and work out already" is really my motto. I don't like working out alone at home, or doing the machines at the gym, or going to a gym class alone but I just do it because I have to. Its when I decide that I don't feel like it that I get in trouble! Of course, having someone waiting for me also works wonders and training for an event that you know you need to complete helps a ton too!
    ~Ang

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