Blue Jeanz
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Motivation
About a year ago I was listening to a tape series by Susan Powter, and she is very inspiring even though a little eccentric! She said something that stuck with me and after a whole year of thinking about it  I finally put it to the test!
Someone had asked her the question: "How do I find the motivation to exercise?"
And her answer was something like this: You can't FIND the motivation. MOTIVATION IS IN THE DOING. At first you will have to force yourself to do it, say 5 minutes at a time. After a while you will be motivated by your own actions.
And you know, she's right! When I started to exercise I told myself that I would get on my Gazelle and work out for 10 minutes only. And that's what I did just 10 minutes. I did that for quite a while, but eventually I added a few more minutes, then a few more, and then a few more! And now I'm surprising myself that I'm very capable of doing 30 minutes!
Music is important to me when I exercise. I need an energetic beat to stride along with and I can go longer and faster when I'm listening to the right music.
I always tell myself that I can stop at anytime, if I don't feel like going that long but it hardly ever happens.
And guess what? The motivation just sneaked up on me. It was there all the time just waiting, not to be found but to be felt! And once I felt it and how good it makes me feel for the entire day (I exercise first thing in the morning), I realized that I don't want to miss that.
Some little thing I do that's visual and makes me feel good is, each time I do my exercise I stick a foil star on a chart (yeah, like a little kid would do, so what!  ). Just seeing those stars accumulate is giving me more incentive!
The big PLUS though is that my weight started falling. Not fast, because I'm basically a slow loser, but fast enough for me since it didn't seem to be moving at all for a while, even though I was sticking to my WW program.
I like to see the stars and I like to see the scale moving downward. Most of all I can feel the difference in my body. The other day when I was cleaning my house I wasn't moaning and groaning every time I reached up or bent down or carried the laundry basket - I noticed it!
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9/20/2008, 6:17 pm
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Blue Jeanz
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My star chart continues to motivate me and so does the music I listen to while I exercise. Music helps so much - actually I can't imagine working out without it. It helps me to keep a certain pace and also to go longer.
Nike had the right idea with their slogan "Just Do It" because that is what it's all about. Don't have a dialog with yourself before you exercise - head talk will try to talk you out of it in some cases. Just do it!
There is another thing I do that helps too. When my head-talk can't seem to be shut off and it's telling me to skip a day of exercise for no other reason than laziness, I compromise with that voice and say "Okay, I'll just do 10 minutes. After that I can stop if I want to." Funny thing is I usually don't want to once I get into it. There have been times that I stopped though after 20 minutes and that's still a good workout on the Gazelle.
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10/6/2008, 6:56 am
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Blue Jeanz
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I didn't exercise much over the Christmas holidays, and the few cheats that I had on top of that had me seeing a 3 pound gain. Once I got back to exercising and eating right it came back off and I'm happy to say another pound also, so I hit my 20 pounds lost mark (with WW).
I am in the process of burning some new music CDs to workout to and I have stepped up my routine. Watching The Biggest Loser on TV also helps my motivation. I see what those poor contestants have to do and think that my measly little workout is a piece of cake. It makes me work harder. I have a picture of Jillian on my workout poster and next to it I have written: "WWJD? What would Jillian do?" She's standing there with her arms folded and I know she means business.
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1/14/2009, 8:20 am
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Barbara12
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You have come so far Val. Congulations for finding what works for you.
---
Walk your dog every day, even if you do not have a dog.
(from the Discovery Health Channel)
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1/15/2009, 12:16 pm
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Blue Jeanz
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Thank you Barbara!
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1/15/2009, 2:43 pm
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