motivation is BS!
Motivation is a Lie We Tell Ourselves...and other Fitness Bullshit
I’m just not motivated.
Two words I hate; “just” and “motivate.” Let’s talk about motivation. Here’s the deal. Without momentum, you can’t have motivation. You don’t need motivation to start. The story we tell ourselves is that we have to have the motivation to start, and that’s a lie we tell ourselves. Or maybe we have a lot of motivation...like we’ve hit rock bottom, so we go balls to the wall for a week but something happens and we can’t sustain the effort, or we get hurt, or something comes up and we get derailed and we beat ourselves up for lacking the motivation to continue to succeed...or we just plain burn out. Does any of this sound familiar? I have experienced it all.
Motivation. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. But if you don’t have momentum, motivation can be elusive, and quite honestly we don’t have the time to wait for motivation or inspiration to hit us when it comes to our health. Time is running out.
Three Things to Bring on Momentum:
#1 Consistency
#2 Hydration
#3 Sleep
Consistency. What’s my key? Set the Bar Low. Seems ridiculous and counterintuitive right? Wrong. I have spent a lifetime in and out of season. Training for soccer seasons, track seasons, then later marathons, half marathons, triathlons. I have played phenomenal games and completed breathtaking endurance events. But as I entered a new season of life, one where my sleep was stollen by toddlers with poor sleep schedules instead of early morning runs, training hard for events was no longer sustainable for me. Did it leave me frustrated? Yes. Did it leave me tired, injured, and burned out? Yes. But most of all I was sad and resigned.
When my doctor said, if you can “just” move your body for 20 minutes a day, I rolled my eyes. How could that do me any good? So like many athletes, I didn’t listen and over time my body changed and it could no longer do what it used to do. I started a business instead of training for an ironman. I also started reading books like The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen and Atomic Habits by James Clear and I watched my friend Bethany transform her life by consistently working towards closing her rings on her apple watch. And I thought about what I was reading in those books and how it applied to not only business but to our daily health habits.
Ask yourself the question, what is one thing I can do every day that will move me closer to my goal? If you can’t commit every day, then make it smaller. Don’t increase until you have built a daily habit. I would say a week or 2. Psychologists say 21 days. Here’s why, and I will use me as an example. I was working out off and on maybe 3 times a week, sometimes I would miss an entire week or 2. I set a goal of moving my body for 20 minutes every day so that I could “close my ring” on my apple watch. If you’re not exercising at all right now your minimum bar might be 10 mins a day, might be 5 mins a day. Somedays you might do more, but the idea is just to do the minimum every day. Quite frankly, I go back and forth with that. If you are having a really hard time creating a habit, just do the minimum. Don’t increase at all until you have consistency. At the same time, rigidity can sometimes backfire. Remember the goal is consistency. Let go of the ego that is telling you you can do more. Immediate results are not the end game. The goal is to build consistency, which builds momentum and you will see your efforts compound over time, and that is what my dear friendies will give you the motivation to continue over time.
Hydration. How could that be so easy and so hard at the same time? It’s practically free and unless you live in an area with contaminated water sources, readily available. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, “Drinking enough water each day is crucial for many reasons: to regulate body temperature, keep joints lubricated, prevent infections, deliver nutrients to cells, and keep organs functioning properly. Being well-hydrated also improves sleep quality, cognition, and mood.” Check check and check. But yet how many of us are running around dehydrated. Insert emoji of lady raising a hand. I’m not sure why this happens to me...but I think it’s because I have failed at making drinking water one of my health habits, so here’s what I have done. I drink water first thing when I wake up. I have also learned that many times you might feel tired, but you’re really feeling dehydrated after a night’s sleep. Then while I’m making my coffee, I drink more water. That’s what James Clear calls “habit stacking.” A technique he describes as pairing one habit that you’ve already acquired with one that you’re trying to develop. My morning coffee is a well-honed habit. I have also replaced any other drinks with meals with water. All of this has really helped. I also track streaks in hitting my water consumption goals so that I can be more consistent and gain momentum with this healthy habit (see the last section). And when all that failed, I bought the bougiest of water bottles a Hidrate Spark. It has a Bluetooth connection that tracks how much you’ve drunk and flashes lights and sends an alert to your phone if you’ve fallen behind in your daily hydration.
Next sleep. Sleep really deserves its own series of posts. But here’s the short of it. If we don’t make sleep a priority we cannot show up as our best selves. Without adequate sleep, our bodies can’t fully recover. I wear a Whoop strap. If you want to give Whoop a try, you can get a free WHOOP strap and your first month free when you join with my link. It is a wearable fitness tracker that tracks your sleep and recovery. It gives great feedback so I know how much sleep I need. I recently listened to a great podcast where Rich Roll interviews neuroscientist Dr. Mathew Walker. I’ve linked it here. In this podcast, Dr. Walker and (my boyfriend)* Rich Roll discuss the profound short and long-term impact sleep has on every facet of our lives from learning to mood, productivity, energy, hormone regulation, and longevity. I’m not quite ready to be the sleep police but I will say there are things you can do to improve your sleep, and I love the concept of “sleep hygiene.” It makes me all warm inside, like some kind of spa-like magical self-care that occurs in your bedroom. Moving your body every day in an exercise-type form will aid in sleep. Incidentally, I don’t like always using the word “exercise” because some of you don’t have a good relationship with exercise. Being well hydrated will also aid in sleep.
But maybe you’re like Ally, wtf?! I have babies, and kids, and there aren’t enough hours in the day. To that I say, I hear you. I’ve been there too. Just know, that you are in a season. You don’t need a fitness tracker to track your sleep. You just need to know that you are doing the best you can and this is a season of life that won’t last forever. Ask for help when you can but don’t try to do it all yourself. Your people are there to help you and make sure you’re drinking enough water. You’ve got this. Also, if you’ve gotten this far and are sleep-deprived and you’re reading my blog, shut it off and close your eyes. Blue light, the light coming off your phone or computer or tv is not good for sleep hygiene.
*Rich Roll is not my boyfriend IRL, more of an imaginary pretend boyfriend if I wasn’t married to an awesome guy already. Its more of a joke and means no disrespect to my husbo who friends refer to as St. Mike. Also, means no disrespect to Rich Roll’s beautiful wife.