I have been following a blog for sometime written by a man named Tyler; his blog 344 Pounds- How to Lose Pounds and Live a Healthy Lifestyle- follows the ups and downs of his decision to reclaim his life and take hold of his eating habits and be healthy. His journey started January 9th 2009 and as of today has lost more then 125 lbs!
Tyler wrote something recently about motivation. Please read and tell me if you agree- IS MOTIVATION OVERRATED? What would add? What do you disagree/agree with?
"I’ve never been more motivated to change my body.
I’ve talked about motivation before. It’s easy to stay motivated, especially once I’ve already lost 100+ pounds, by simply looking at my before and after weight loss pictures. I look at where I was and where I am and I’m instantly motivated to keep doing what I’m doing — but what if you haven’t already tasted success? How did I stay motivated when I was two weeks into my weight loss journey, 330+ pounds, and had little to celebrate?
I could give you a bullet point list of things for you to do to stay motivated. Write you goals on a piece of paper and put them on your dresser mirror to remind you every day. Reward yourself every time you reach a new goal.
Etc, etc, etc.
But I respect you more than that — you already know why you want to lose weight. You know what’s at stake if you don’t lose weight and you know you’ll be reward with a happy, healthy life that you’ve always wanted.
Motivation is so overrated.
You just need to decide to earn your new life. Nobody is going to give it to you. Motivation is so overrated — it’s not a requisite for losing weight or obtaining your goals. I’ll say that again: you don’t need motivation to lose weight. You don’t feel like going to the gym tonight? Tired, have a headache? Tough. I slept about 6 hours last night and will end up working 10 hours today, getting off around 5 and coming home to cook dinner for the wife. After an hour or two of quality time (cooking, cleaning), I’ll leave my warm, cozy house and family behind to go to the gym and leave my heart on the floor. Around 9, I’ll come back home to find my daughter already asleep and my wife soon thereafter.
Once back home, I’ll stay up until close to midnight replying to e-mails and preparing tomorrow’s lunch, typically a turkey sandwich with chips or maybe something like a tuna sandwich or PB&J. It depends on the mood.
Nothing exciting. Nothing that keeps me motivated. But I’ll leave it all on the floor of my gym every single night because that’s how I’ll reach my goals.
And I will reach my goals.
For now, don’t worry about motivation. It’s not necessary. All that’s required of you is to leave it all on the gym floor every single time.
Show me what you can do. Show your friends. Family. Yourself."
January 2005 vs January 2010
WOD for 01/28/2010
"Tabata Deadlift"
Total of 4 minutes- 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. Go for form, not reps.
(m:155#; w:95#)
THEN..."Death by Pull-ups"
First minute you do 1 pull-up, second minute you do 2 pull-ups, third minute you do 3 pull-ups etc...until you can no longer do the required number of pull-ups in the alloted 1 minute time.
