How to Stay Motivated When Your Progress Stalls

Today we're sharing our best tips for staying motivated! It can be challenging to stay focused on your goals when week after week you're putting in the effort, eating well, and hitting your workouts hard, but fail to see the major body changes we see everyday on social media. Don't worry, we've all been there. Ronnie and I have both experienced success as well as failure with different workout and nutrition plans so we've put together our top tips to staying motivated to help you hit your body and fitness goals.

• End game: It may fee really good to stay in your cozy bed at 5AM instead of getting up for that early morning sweat session but keep your end game in mind. The same is true when you get home from work, hungry and exhausted after a long day and all you want is takeout. Staying in bed or ordering takeout will be easier in the short term but it wont help you reach your goals. These split second decisions can lead to guilt and set you back. Don't undermine all your hard work with unplanned and unnecessary 'cheat' meals and missing workouts. Always keep your end results in mind. Whether that be leaning out before bikini season or adding 5lbs of muscle by the end of the year, remember to eat and workout with your end game in mind.
• Small Goals: Set small goals along the way. When I decided a few years ago to get back in shape, I looked at women like Kayla Itsines and Kelsey Wells and decided I was going to 'look like them'. Work had been super stressful, the holidays had gotten the best of me, and I was 20+ pounds heavier than I wanted to be. At the time, I couldn't do a box jump, running a few miles at a time was out of the question and I had to modify burpees to step back instead of jumping back. There was a LONG way to go between where I was and the fitness inspo I saw online. Initially, I didn't set small goals and got disappointed when after 3 months of hard workouts I didn't immediately drop the weight or box jump onto the couch with ease. I started setting small goals such as 5 un-modified push ups or 5 jump back burpees in a row. By doing this, I changed my mindset from being disappointed that I hadn't become a professional athlete to being proud of myself for my improved athleticism. A year and a half after not being able to do a single box jump, I called my husband on the way home from the gym because I was so excited I was able to do 10 30'inch box jumps in a row. Small goals help you reach big goals!
• Progress Pictures: take progress pics once a month to track progress. This tip plays into the small goals. Often we only see someone’s before and after without recognizing what went into the process. I tell our clients all the time, when you see yourself everyday it can be difficult to see how all those sweat sessions are affecting your body. You may feel your clothes fitting differently but it can be really rewarding to put progress pics side by side and see all your changes.
• Scale: this one only applies to certain goals and people. I used to compulsively weigh myself so when I decided to re apply myself to fitness I decided 'screw the scale'. I wanted to create healthy relationships with food and fitness and didn't want to sink back into my unhealthy ways. However, I found that AFTER I had created a good relationship with food (viewing food as fuel) I was able to use the scale as a tool. Eating lots of vegetables, removing most alcohol, only eating lean meets, and reducing fats to less than 30g per day was not an easy way to eat. It meant showing self control at happy hour with my girlfriends, not trying all the dishes at my family reunion, and drinking 1 glass of wine or cocktail per week. Every week I would weigh myself 3 times in the morning and take an average of those weights. It was extremely rewarding to know that all that hard work was helping me lose approximately 1 lb per week. This may not seem like a lot but 1 lb of fat is 3,500 calories! Even though I've hit my 'goal' weight, I still use the scale occasionally as a tool in my fitness progress.
• Meal Prep: Prep your meals to take choice away! I touched on this briefly but it may seem easy to order takeout after a long hard day at the office but this won't help you reach your goals. Even the 'healthiest' choice from a restaurant contains way more butter and oil than you would cook with at home. One of our clients told us how easy it was for him to eat healthy and follow our meal plan in the morning through lunch time but by the time he picked up his kids and got home to make dinner he was drained and would start snacking. Before he knew it, he had consumed a few hundred calories in empty calories that weren't keeping him full and he would start craving sweets immediately after dinner. By prepping dinner in advance and putting it in marked boxes, he was able to stay on track because he took the choice of unhealthy options away. He no longer had to figure out what food would help fuel him and instead could eat his pre prepped dinner knowing he had hit his macros. When you stay satiated and don't get overly hungry you can help stave off cravings.
• Last and certainly not least is sometimes motivation is not enough! This is a hard rule to hear but its true. Even the most motivated people have days and weeks where they don't want to workout and its difficult to stick to a meal plan. On those weeks we have to rely on HABIT. Most research suggests it takes 21 days to create a habit. If your motivation (plus using the tips above) can help keep a routine for 21 days, you're likely to be able to pull yourself out of bed or get that workout in after work even when you're tired because your body is used to it.

At Work It, we believe sticking with a plan, creating healthy habits, and finding new and creative ways to motivate each other is the best way to hit our goals. Losing those extra lbs and hitting new fitness goals isn't easy but with these tips, you can do it! Stay motivated friends!

Xox,

Kelsey