Maintaining Motivation

Staying motivated and dedicated can be the hardest part of your diet and exercise routine. It is easy to be motivated in the beginning, but when your schedule becomes busy and life gets in the way, it can be harder to find the motivation to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Below I have a few tips and tricks to keep the momentum going throughout this journey.

Meal Prepping

When work and other life obligations start getting hectic, eating healthy becomes much more of a burden. Many revert to unhealthy habits in the midst of a crazy day since it is much easier and faster to go through a drive through than to take time to prepare a healthy meal. One way to beat this temptation is to prepare a week of healthy meals whenever your schedule allows. A good rule of thumb when meal prepping is to prepare a lean protein, a vegetable, and a whole grain. This makes eating healthy easier to stick with no matter what life throws at you.

Leave Yourself Motivational Quotes

Although it seems cheesy, leaving yourself motivational quotes can keep your goals in line. If you see your goals written out every day, it will keep it on your mind and remind yourself of why you started this journey in the first place.

Reward yourself when you achieve personal goals

Rewarding yourself is important throughout this process to keep yourself motivated. Whether you buy yourself a new gym outfit or treat yourself to a cheat meal after reaching your first goal, it will provide positive reinforcement to keep yourself excited and motivated.

Don’t be too hard on yourself

No one is perfect, so a slip up or two is inevitable. Every day is a new day, so just get back up the next day and start over. Consistency is key and the longer you keep up your good habits the easier this lifestyle will be to maintain.

At the end of the day, motivation is important, but discipline is essential. You aren’t going to feel motivated every day but having discipline will power you through those workouts even if it is the last thing that you want to do that day. Keep your goals in focus and a positive mindset, and in the end that is all it takes to change your lifestyle for the better.