Let me start you off with a few videos…..
And one more…
I’ve talked about it before, but I’ll say it again. Losing weight, training for a marathon, prepping for a competition, or WHATEVER your goal may be is NOT about your diet, exercise or training plans.
Those things are about 10% of acheiving your goal. The other 90% comes from your motivation, drive, persistance and consistency.
Motivation is probably one of the hardest things to acheive. YES, we want to achieve the goal, but staying motivated all the time can be really hard. When you get your swing moving, things become easier and your motivation can become more consistent and apparent.
For anyone reading this that is stuck in a rut, we’ve all been there. Here, let me say it again: WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE. You are not alone. You are not a loser because you can’t keep your motivation high. Hell, I’ve been there. I would venture to say that I have been there the past, oh, 5 months? Yep, that’s right.
I’ve been struggling, but something clicked with me tonight. I realized a few nights ago that I was really unhappy with myself. Yes, I have been in a pretty good mood most of the time, but deep down: Not Happy. I wasn’t keeping up with my goals and was just letting time slip past me. My only explanation for this is that somewhere down the line, I stopped doing this stuff for me. I started eating well and training for my coaches, sponsors, and friends.
All of these people were “counting on me”(in my head) to compete and get better. I lost my biggest fan, though, ME.
I found her today. After some serious events that hit rock bottom today, I realized that I needed to get my happiness back. I was letting outside factors and simply, a lack of personal motivation get the best of me.
Let me put this out there, I LOVE my life. As hard as things get, and as ashamed of myself as I’ve been, I still love my life. I love training HARD. For some people, getting to the gym is a real struggle and eating right is pretty simple. Although I do LOVE eating healthy, I also like to eat a LOT haha. That doesn’t exactly work when you’re trying to slim down for myself. Not for a competition(although that is a landmark along the way), but for ME. I like my body lean. It compliments my training. It makes me feel good about myself and it reinforces my hard work. So there. 😛
Getting to the gym is easy for me. I LOVE lifting, i LOVE pushing myself to the absolute max. Sprints and running bleachers? Yes, i love it.(Although during it I swear like a pirate and grunt, but that’s just part of my sound effects. I swear one day I will make a soundtrack of myself )
I remember around this time last year, I made a goal. I decided that I was going to get in the best shape of my life, and that when I was ready I would do a competition. March 2009 was in my mind, but when the time came, I didn’t feel ready. So I pushed on and decided on July. About 2 months before the NPC show, my posing coaches told me that I shouldn’t do it. The reasoning is that we were all planning on doing a show in August, and two shows in a row is hard to do.(Learned later, they were so RIGHT.) HOWEVER, I decided to do that NPC show because it was what I had been working for and I wanted to do a damn competition already!! So I did. And I placed 2nd. And had the best day/night of my entire life.
Here’s to me re-committing myself to being healthy and happy. I have found the peace within myself that i have been looking for. All it took was for me to take a step back and remember why I do all of this. This isn’t for my coaches, or my friends, or my family, or my sponsor. This is for ME. If I don’t compete again until 2012 RIGHT before the world ends, then so be it.(1. I don’t really think the world will end but maybe it will! Who knows?! and 2. I DO still plan to compete this February. If I feel ready. If not, I will jump on March. End goal however, is June -Jr.Nationals. That one is in the books for sure.)
I’ll leave you with this commercial that my professor showed us last night. I dig it. I also dig him, he is amazing. I am planning on re-taking his class, because it is THAT awesome. Right now his 466 person class is already full…