Motivation vs Consistency

We’ve all been guilty of saying “If only I had motivation”.

I did - for days, weeks, months and years.  It became the crux on which I lived my day to day life, especially when I was time poor and stressed.

My lack of motivation was an excuse to eat more, exercise less and live in complete denial about my size and appearance.

Then one day I picked up a copy of Michelle Bridges “Crunch Time” and my life was to be forever changed.

I didn’t need motivation, I just needed to get my arse off of the couch and get moving.  No matter how slow or for how little time, I just needed to get moving.

And I did.  First of all I walked the paths near our home, starting with half an hour and building up to one hour. 

After a few weeks I found that I needed to walk straight after I dropped the kids off at school or it wouldn’t happen.  So I started going to school in my workout gear, knowing that the breakfast dishes and washing would still be there when I got home.

Once the walking paths near home were mastered and my confidence had increased I started walking Castle Hill.  Again straight after I dropped the kids off at school.  After we moved to our new house, I started a combination of the hill and the beach.

It is the same with Bootcamp – I go whether or not hubby is home and no matter how tired or stressed I am.   It does the kids the world of good to be outside running around and I get the marvellous benefits of boxing away my stress.

There is many a day when we are in the madness of getting ready for the day that I think,  “I’ll go this afternoon, I’ll have more energy then and will have a better workout”.  But experience has taught me that afternoons are far, far worse and that my "better workout" never, EVER eventuates.

I have discovered that motivation is a weight loss myth.  Rather the key is consistency ... just getting out there and starting.  Once you start it is often hard to stop and you’ll find yourself looking forward to tomorrow when you get to do it all again.

In the words of Rudyard Kipling:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’