HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED

January has come and gone, but what about your goals and New Year’s resolutions? Have you been able to make it to the gym 4 days a week, did you stop eating copious amounts of chocolate, did you stop overusing the word bae? Have you been nicer to your brother and have you been calling grandma at least once a week?

No matter where you are in your fitness/health/personal journey remember this, it is just that, a journey! While there is no overnight magic pill to help us concentrate on our goals or fairy godmother to help make our dearest wish come true I can let you in on a little secret and that secret is motivation.

So what can you do with that? Well you can’t eat it, sleep on it, or take it on dates but you can internalize it. The key to not only getting motivated and (keyword) staying motivated is your mindset. The mind is a powerful thing so be careful what you tell yourself!

Busy schedule, no time to get to the gym? Okay then, no gym it is. However, what if no gym turned into a few squats while brushing our teeth or a few sit-ups before crawling into bed.

Throughout the day things will always “come up”. My favorite time to workout is in the morning, I feel refreshed and energized, even if it’s a small workout I can always do a second workout in the afternoon if I have the energy or time. Pinterest has great workouts you can do at home in a matter of minutes! Start small even if it’s just one day a week and build from there. Once you start setting and reaching even the smallest of goals you will automatically be motivated to continue. If you set your goals too high it might turn into a chore and that’s where our motivation drops. Are you a clean the house all in one day type of person or clean up as you go, figure out what works best for you and your mindset!

(Think about what small goals you can set for yourself this week. Don’t set yourself up for failure or disappointment!)

Another way to keep up with your goals is to stay focused! Don’t get distracted or discouraged along the way. To become the best version of yourself requires a little bit of time. You didn’t get to where you are overnight right? It took time to learn those habits or behaviors that you have decided you want to change, so give yourself enough time to unlearn them and to learn a better way instead.

Don’t forget as you are setting and reaching those little goals check them off and keep going, decide if you are moving at a fast enough pace, from here do some self reflection and make a few changes depending on what you think you can handle. Make SMART goals. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Be good to yourself, you deserve this!

So now that the whole “New Year, New you” craze is over take a few minutes (after reading this) to look at where you are. Are you still on track or did you find yourself wandering of course? Are you acknowledging the little improvements or are you frustrated that big changes haven’t happened yet. Are you bored of your current routine or have you found ways to switch it up? There are only so many ways you can eat eggs right? Wrong! I for one am a huge fan scrambled eggs with asparagus and boiled eggs with lemon pepper seasoning. There are so many oatmeal choices out there, one week I might have brown sugar or add some honey and apples. Eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, yes I’ll admit my basic-ness when it comes to breakfast but I know what works for me and as that chimney guy from Mary Poppins once said ” I does what I likes and I likes what I do”. Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey Chim chim cher-oo.

Same goes for my workout routine, once something stops working for my body, instead of getting frustrated, I try something else.

With us being only a month into the New Year we may not see any home runs but keep working for it, keep looking and what you see a few months from now just might surprise you!

I almost forgot! Another way to stay motivated is to surround yourself with people who have a common goal. The pumpup community keeps me motivated to continue to live a healthy lifestyle. You can find me on the pumpup app @jodikayedwards where I post my meals and a few workout tips as well!

Shoes/Nike Pants/Nike Top/Given to me compliments of PumpUp

xx