Get MOTIVATED!!

I know we have all been there it is late at night, and we think tomorrow I am going to start, I am going to get up and workout. Then we wake up and the motivation is completely gone. What happened in those 8 or so hours that we slept? Why is it gone now? How do you get yourself remotivated and stop saying tomorrow I will do it? Obviously just get up and do it is the first thing that comes to mind. Stop saying tomorrow and do it now. I know from experience, and I still have days where I do not feel motivated, that it is not that simple.

 

 

I think the first thing to get yourself motivated, or remotivated is to look at your goals. Yes look at your big goals and what you want to achieve in the big picture, but I think it is more important to look at the smaller goals. If you look at too many goals at one time you may get yourself overwhelmed and just get up, I know it has happened to me a lot. I like to list my goals out, and pick a small one and focus on that one until I achieve it. Run a 10 min mile, fit in a certain size, get xx oz of water in everyday, get xx min of activity in everyday, etc...Focusing on that one goal. Write that goal down, and look at it everyday. Write it where you will see it, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in your car etc...Once you reach that goal check it off, and move onto the next goal. Focus on just htat goal do not worry about the other ones on your list. You will get very excited and motivated about being able to check goals off your list.

 

 

Find inspiration. Look for what inspires you, reading peoples blogs, starting your own blog, read books, find a goal outfit, research your goals, talk to others about it whatever inspires you. When you feel inspired you are more likely to want to achieve your goal. If you let other people know what your goals are you also will feel more motivated to want to achieve it because you want to be able to say yes I achieved it!

 

Talk about your goals daily. Trust me I know that people will get sick of hearing about them, but it helps keep you motivated to always have them on your mind. I am not saying you should be obsessed with them, but make them important in your life.

 

Find the time of the day that you have the most energy. Start working out at that time. I actually like to do it the opposite way. I know the times that I am the least energetic I try to workout then. Those are the times that I want to just sit there, and do nothing. I find that is the time that I need to get up the most. Find what works for you. Try to always work out at the same time everyday in the beginning. That way you know, "oh it is 12 o'clock time to workout". Schedule it. That way you will be more likely to follow it.

 

I think the one of the most important things is to find something you like. If you do not like strength training you are not going to be motivated to go do it, same thing if you do not like running you will not be motivated to go do it. Find what kinds of activities you like, and stick to those. You can slowly add other activities in when your motivation goes up. Trust me when you start reaching your goals you will want to start doing more and more.

 

Find a buddy. You guys can help keep yourself accountable. It is so much easier to get up and go if you know that someone else is going to be depending on you as well. It also feels great to achieve your goals together. You can talk about your goals with one another to keep yourselves inspired and motivated.

 

Stop making excuses. This is probably one of the hardest things to overcome. We always have excuses for not doing something. I'm too old, I don't have the time, I don't have the equipment, I don't have the money etc...Absolutely none of these excuses are valid reasons to not get in some physical exercise. I have seen men and women in their 80's lifting weights at the gym, get in a quick workout on your lunch break, before work, after work, as soon as you wake up, in the evening instead of watching tv, turn on some music and dance around the house, you do not have to have money or equipment to workout. Running is free, use some cans as weights, look on you tube for different exercise routines. So stop making the excuses. Take responsibility and get up and do it. If it is important to you then you will find a way to do it.

 

Some other things that can help keep motivation up are changing up your routine. If you do the same thing all the time then you probably will not be too excited to go do it again. Change it up. Also music is very motivational for me. Find a playlist that works for you. I do not get that motivated by the music they play at the gym so I listen to my own music.

 

So as soon as you finish reading this get up and do something active. If you feel unmotivated again come back and read this again and get up and move.  

 

 

 

What are some tips that you have to keep yourself motivated?

 

 



Stop Counting!!

Everyone knows if you want to lose weight you should count calories right. WRONG!!!! Stop counting those calories. They really do not matter. Obviously yes we have all heard you should burn 3500 calories to lose a pound of fat. So we all focus so much on the calories we are taken in. Well stop doing that. Do not worry so much about the amount of calories you are taking in.

Healthy eating is complicated, no doubt about it. First you hear butter is bad, then it prevents cancer. First carbs kill you, then they make you lose weight. Even spinach is confusing… should one eat it raw or is that dangerous?  Nutrition labels, however, deceptively simplify healthy eating. Few calories = good, high calories = bad. Simple. Yet dangerous. This mindset just leads us to eating processed foods that are within our calorie range. I look at the nutrition label when I buy things, although I try to buy a lot of foods that do not have labels, but honestly a lot of times I do not even notice the calories or it is the last thing I look at. I pay attention to the ingredients list, serving size, and all the other nutrition facts available.

If you are nourishing your body with fresh, whole foods you do not need to worry so much. You are just stressing yourself out with counting calories. You do not love your food it is a chore. You should enjoy fueling your body. You should eat foods you love and enjoy, not just the ones that are "low-calorie" and are supposed to help you lose weight. Trust me if you put down the low-calorie processed foods and pick up fresh fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and complex carbohydrates you will get healthy and lose weight. So stop counting your calories!! Go enjoy your food.

Clean eating staples

The decision to eat clean was one of the best ones I have ever made. The thing is before I started eating clean I was a very big couponer. I could get $300 of food for under $100 it was so exciting. I loved going to the store with my big binder of coupons, and seeing the dollars come off my total. The problem was I was buying processed, fat, sugar filled crap. I was basically killing myself and my family. So the choice was kill my family with unhealthy crap to save some money, or pay a little extra and have a healthy family. The answer was obvious. I can sometimes find some coupons for clean eating foods, but for the most part they are for processed foods.

One part of living a healthy lifestyle is to have it in every area of our lives. It is essential that we live on a budget. So yes I want my family to eat healthy, clean foods, but I also have to be realistic about it. We have to stick to our budget to keep a healthy lifestyle for our bank account. The question was where do I begin. I had never really eaten like this before. Obviously I had eaten fresh foods, but cutting out processed foods? That was a challenge for me. I thought I would be spending $600 or more every two weeks, that is how often I go shopping other than odds and ends, but I have been very surprised that I do not spend anywhere near that. Yes eating clean can be done on a budget!! You just have to be willing to put a little work into it.


The best place to begin is to first figure out exactly what clean eating is. It is exactly what it says. You want your foods to be clean. They should be the way they were intended to be found in nature. Your meats and dairy should be antibiotic and hormone free. Preferably grassfed or even grain fed. With my fruits and vegetables I try to buy fresh organic produce mostly. Obviously everyone's budget is different. I cannot afford to buy everything organic. So I try to stick to the clean 15, dirty 12 as much as possible. Now if I find something off the clean list that is organic at a great price. I will go ahead and get that as well. I do buy some frozen vegetables or fruits, but I look at the label and if anything other than that fruit or vegetable is in there I do not get it. I never buy canned. For my carbs I only get complex carbohydrates, no white pasta, bread or rice. You want to try to get those unprocessed if possible. I look for the non-gmo label on my products as well. The best tip I can say is try to buy as many foods as possible without a label. That way you know they are fresh. If there is a label you want a very small list of ingredients, and make sure you can pronounce everything. You don't want a bunch of crap in your foods. Try to stick as much as possible to this. Now obviously like I said everyone's budget is different. Try to make as many healthy choices as possible while still sticking to your budget.

So now that we know what clean eating is where do we get started. I found that the best thing is to gradually wean yourself off of the unhealthy stuff. You may very well be able to cut it all out cold turkey and not have any problems at all. That was not the case for me. I had to start slow. I am still working on "cleaning" up some areas for our family. Snacks are the biggest area we struggle with. A good idea is to start building a stock pile of basics that can go for a lot of different recipes. Yes spending $10-15 on a grassfed roast, but if you can split that into 2-3 meals. It is actually not that much in the end. Obviously shopping at whole foods and earth fare are great options for clean eating. The problem for us is 1) we do not have those stores in our town, they are about 45 minutes away. I do try to go to them to get things, but it is not the main place I go. 2) I do not have the budget to buy everything at those places. I find that a lot of the grocery stores around us have great prices on the foods we are now eating. I go to the farmer's market, Aldi, Sam's club, Publix, BI-LO, Target, and yes even Wal-Mart for our clean eating. Sometimes I will go to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods or Earth Fare, but like I said that is a bit of a drive for me, and dragging 3 kids 45 minutes for groceries does not sound fun to me. You just have to look in the right places at these stores. My big advice stick to the outside aisles. Do not go up and down the processed food aisles. There are things that I buy down these aisles, but the main things are from the outer aisles. I try to buy staples monthly and then fill in the other things throughout the month. I do have a big chest freezer. So I can make some things ahead of time and freeze them for later which will definitely save you money in the long run. I used to think making things from scratch was so time consuming and expensive. That is totally false. It is actually cheaper to make things from scratch as long as you have your staples. For your staples think of the things that you can use in multiple recipes.



Clean Eating Staples

quinoa
flour (whole grain, coconut, oat etc. I like the King Arthur brand)
Oil (coconut, olive, sesame, grapeseed etc.)
seeds (chia, flax, sesame etc.)
nut butters (peanut butter, almond butter, sun butter. I try to get the organic versions of these)
Pasta (quinoa pasta, whole grain pasta, brown rice pasta)
Rice (brown or wild)
Oats (oatmeal, oat bran, steel cut oats)
couscous
millet
frozen veggies (the biggest one I get frozen is broccoli or cauliflower, but look for no sodium for your frozen veggies and no other ingredients, just do not buy canned)
frozen fruits (look for the organic frozen fruits if possible. Trader Joe's has a lot of good options)
Milk (coconut, almond, if you are doing cow's milk try to get the milk without antibiotics or hormones. I know milk can be a big expense)
Nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I like Fage the best, I use this in a lot of things so I buy the big container and it goes very far)
Breads (Ezekiel brand or Rudi brands are good ones. They are in the freezer section. Although my hubby loves my homemade breads. Which you are using some of the staples you already have on hand :) )
Salt (sea-salt, I like no-salt it helps me watch my sodium intake)
Sweeteners (agave (this goes very far as you don't need a lot), raw honey, organic sugar)
Beans (black, pinto, chickpea etc. You can buy the organic low sodium beans in the can, but they are of course a little more expensive. The bagged ones are going to be very budget friendly. They just take a little more work to use.)
Meats (look for lean meats, chicken, turkey, fish, certain cuts of beef and pork. As I said look for meats that are grassfed or grain fed, no hormones or antibiotics, and very little fat on them). This area is probably where I spend the majority of my budget. We try to get proteins in a lot because that is what has helped us with our weight loss. Protein is essential to this process. Obviously there are other areas that we can get protein than just meats, and we do eat those things. For our meats though I have planned in our budget for this area to be 1/3 of it by itself. That way I am not worried about feeding my family hormone ridden meat. I also will find when there is a good sale on these meats and buy a lot of it and freeze it. I know that some of the nutrients are lost when we freeze them, but like I said budget is a factor as well. I have to buy what is best for our budget. I also will prepare some meals before hand with some of the meats and freeze those to pull out for easy meals later.
I don't buy any condiments other than ketchup (my kids love ketchup. I want to find a recipe to make my own). We do not eat salad dressing, mayo, mustard etc. If you do look for one's that are organic maybe with low sugars and low sodium and low fat.
Raw nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans etc. I get the ones that are unsalted)
Fresh fruits and vegetables (try as much as possible to look at the dirty/clean list)


I know there are a lot more foods that I did not address in this list. This is a basic list to get you started. I suggest meal planning and meal prep. Those are essential. That way you are not buying a bunch of stuff that you will never use. Feel free to comment with any questions about clean eating or send me an email sadie822@hotmail.com