Choose Your Hard…
5 Mar
Sometimes it is hard.
Sometimes the motivation is lacking.
Sometimes it feels easier to sit in the recliner and veg out with TV.
Sometimes I want to be lazy.
Sometimes I AM lazy.
Sometimes I have to kick my own butt and make it happen even when I don’t feel like it.
There are people in this world who love to workout. Like love it from the thought of it to the completion of it. Then there are those of us who sometimes love it before, sometimes during, sometimes only after. This is me. There are times I love it from planning the workout until I finish my last rep. There are times that I love it only after I get up and get moving. Then there are the times that I love it only because it is done and I did it.
I am not a morning person as I have stated time and time again. I am mentally working on the discipline I need to get up and do something productive, besides groom myself, each morning. I currently workout when Tink is asleep. That includes naps on the weekends, but during the week that means late night workouts. I work all day and when I get home, I want to soak her up because frankly I miss her like crazy all day. Sometimes, I will leave her to go do a quick 15 minutes WOD, but most nights, I wait until she is out before I ever get to it.
This results in me getting all warm, comfy and relaxed in the process of getting her to sleep…and sometimes extremely sleepy. Some nights the fatigue/laziness wins, and I skip the workout. However, I then spend the next 24 hours annoyed with myself for not putting in 30 minutes.
The point is as hard as it is to sometimes find the motiavtion to get up and move… and heck even get up and food prep for 2 to 3 hours on the weekend, this is harder…
I used to think that people purposefully looked miffed or unhappy in before pictures to help make the after seem that much different. I was not faking this face. I was really that uncomfortable not stoned in my own skin and especially in front of a camera.
When it feels really freaking hard to make the time and find the energy to workout, I try to remind myself of how hard life was in that day 1 picture. That girl, despite having a great husband, an amazing kid and pretty stellar life, was by all accounts unhappy. THAT was hard. Getting up off my butt at 9:30 pm to work my hardest at a 20 to 30 minute workout is not that hard compared to that (past) life.
Choose your hard…
Stay Strong and Keep Moving,
Love this post. You rock!
I totally agree with you. If I didn’t have work during the day I honestly would love working out but I am so exhausted after work, that I never feel like it. But I drag myself out for a walk because I know I would feel bad if I didn’t. I also agree with the last quote everything is hard but we either choose to have healthier life or remain fat
Thank you for this post! I am going through exactly this and needed to hear a different perspective — I have a 4 year old daughter who goes to preschool and I work full time. When I pick her up, I soak her up until her bedtime and then sit in her room with her as she goes to sleep, both of us listening to her “sleepy music”. Then I get sleepy and want to go on to bed myself. For the past two days I have set my clock for 4:30am to try to get up to get in a workout before my husband and I usually get up at 5:30am. I have reset the clock each morning and wake up feeling defeated by my own hand even before the day starts
I need to “choose the hard” of staying up and doing my workout at 9:30pm or 10pm instead of going to sleep. How long did it take you to get into a routine for this? Did you do things like change into your workout clothes when you get home or what tips do you have to help steer yourself to the right choice when you get to that all relaxed/sleepy/warm place and you want to bag? Thanks for your blog, I’m a new follower and am enjoying your perspective and congratulate you on your success!!
Susanne,
It makes me really happy that this post is something you needed. I love when I see something somewhere and it is like a slap in the face because it is exactly what I need to be told in that moment. One trick I have done is to put the workout gear on before I start the bedtime routine with my little one. If I am dressed and ready, I much less likely to cave to laziness, plus I will feel even more guilty if I just lay around in workout clothes.
I think it took me a good couple of months for it to really feel like a habit. I still have bad weeks where I just can’t get into it, but I don’t let those weeks become habit. I had to really rewire my brain when it came to eating healthy and working out. One failure somehow equaled quitting. I messed up today so I am off the course. I don’t do that to myself anymore. One bad meal, one lazy week, those are just moments not my forever. I want healthy forever so I just have to get back at it after I stumble. I think it is so much harder when you have limited time with your kids during the week. It is either after bedtime or early and I know I much more likely to convince myself to get up before I ever hit the bed. I just have to drag myself up and make it happen. Once you do it enough, they won’t all be forced attempts. You actually look forward to some of those sweat sessions! Thanks for reading and sharing!
Thank you so much for your reply! I’m going to make this happen. Going to try the change into workout clothes before dd goes down so I’m less cozy and more inclined to get up. You are right about it would feel worse to lay around in workout gear, lol! Thanks again for your tips and encouragement! I have a long way to go but will try to just have a successful tomorrow and see where that leads
Totally agree! I’m in my first week of REALLY trying to lose weight and it’s hard. Seeing people at work eat fast food while I’m eating a salad or Lean Cuisine, is hard. But being overweight is harder.
Lunch room McDonalds is tough stuff!!!!
Love this and love you!!!!!
I workout in the morning and if I didn’t have that option I’d seriously lack some motivation. I know how you feel girl. I’ve been working out for a long time and I still don’t really like it! I’m definitely not one of those “love it” kinda people.
What a great accomplishment girl!! You look absolutely amazing and I can see all your dedication to eating right and exercising has really paid off. It’s definitely hard but so worth it when you worked that hard for it.
Thanks Kristie!
I’m a nighttime worker-outer, too, for the very same reasons. I don’t want to miss a moment with my two (warm, cuddly, unbearably sweet, don’t-want-to-go-to-bed, stall-till-the-last-moment) toddlers… and like you, I put on my workout clothes the minute I get home. I figure if a two-year old drops food on them, I don’t much care, since I’m gonna get all sweaty anyway… and sometimes this works for me. Sometimes, I put my pajamas on, and it’s all over…
Thank you for this post! I am currently a month into my weight loss journey and it is hard to stay motivated. Thanks for the reminder. For some reason I have this misconception that life will get easy.