Now days, I’m in a LOT better shape and self motivation is something that I really don’t struggle with anymore. The transformation period is honestly THE hardest part of losing weight/getting in shape. It’s so easy to start working out, eating right, then 4 weeks down the road, look in the mirror, and get discouraged that you aren’t super tight and thin like you have envisioned. Here are some tips I have for staying motivated.

Goals

Hands down the most important part of any transformation! It is SO important to have a future event or goal in mind that will make TODAY accountable. The more days that pass, the closer you get to that future event, the more realistic it is that time FLYS by. Week after week can pass and your body/health will remain the same. Set your main goal. Run a marathon, lose 20lbs, get a six pack by summer, whatever it may be. From there you break that goal down into SMALLER, more realistic goals. Weekly or monthly. Example, I started my journey at 225lbs. My goal was to get below 200lbs. Looking at a 25lb weightloss goal is a huge deal. But if you break it down and make it realistic, it can be accomplished MUCH easier than you think. I knew 2lbs per week was a healthy weightloss so that is what I set my smaller goal to. Each week pushing hard in the workouts, MAKING TIME to put in the work that I knew would get me to my goal. I hit the 10lb weightloss mark. Felt amazing. 15lbs down. This is where my motivation started to dip. It was phase 3 of p90x. Last 30 days. I slacked for a week, stepped on the scale, and saw 4lbs gained:-/ Talk about a wake up call. I just simply had to remember my goal and get that FIRE burning again. Those last 3 weeks flew by like always, only difference was I DID something during those 3 weeks. And I hit my 199lb mark. Guess what you do once you accomplish your goal….MAKE NEW ONES! That is honestly the main reason I am so motivated all the time. I have a list of goals, big and small, that I know I WILL accomplish, as long as I do what it takes. Simple as that. Put in the work, see the results.

Support/Accountability

Also a huge aspect of staying motivated. Going week after week pretty much by yourself it tough, I’ve been there many times. The key here is first, find an accountability partner. Someone that you can either workout with in person, or someone you can at least talk to on a daily basis. KNOW eachothers goals, weaknesses, strengths. Simple things like a daily text asking “Hey how is your diet today?” or “Wow I just kicked butt in that workout! When are you doing yours?” These kinds of messages have helped me out on numerous occasions. If you can find a friend/family member in person to physically be there to workout with everyday, even better! As for support, make it public that you are on a mission to lose the weight, get in shape, run that marathon, whatever your goal may be. Family, friends, co workers, hair stylist, massage therapist, everyone should know what you are up to. I use hair stylist/massage therapist as examples because those are types of appointments that you have time to talk/see this person once a month or so. If you are truly sticking with it week after week and go back to see that person, they will notice the changes, they will ask you everytime, “How’s the training going??”

Plan

Have a written plan. Very simple to create, very tough to stick with. Don’t wake up everyday and ask yourself “Hm what workout should I do today” or “What should I have for lunch”. Sit down, make a written plan, and follow it day by day! For myself, I use a whiteboard that has a big calendar on it. The 1st of each month I will sit down and write out which workout I’m doing for all 30 days of that month. I wake up, look at the calendar, and know exactly what workout I need to do. Then it is just a matter of MAKING time during that day to kick some ass. As for food, one method I love to use is prepping my meals ahead of time. For those of you that follow my facebook, you’ve seen me post pics of the containers. I will grill up a bunch of chicken, make some brown rice, and steam broccoli. Then I divide it all up into 6 containers. Bam. There’s my lunches for the week.

Hopefully these tips can help you out with your journey. I know how hard it is to keep the fire alive and putting in the time to workout 5-6 days a week, WHILE putting healthy foods in my body each day. Its no walk in the park. It takes extreme dedication to accomplish weight loss goals. From here, my challenge for you is to sit down, write out one big goal that you want to accomplish in the next 6 months. Then break that goal down into smaller, more realistic goals that you can accomplish on a weekly basis. After that I want you to write out a written plan for the next 30 days. Finally, I want you to reach out to someone and ask them to be your accountability partner. Someone that will be there with you each and everyday. It can be a friend, co worker, family member, or just someone you know on facebook. Reach out. Get out of your comfort zone. To get the results, you must put in the work. Simple as that. If you need help with making a plan, setting goals, anything at all, visit the “Contact” page and get in touch with me anytime!

We’ll go ahead and cut right to it! This is the first 4 weeks of my new training schedule I put together. I wanted to put together a schedule with LOTS of variety. This basically breaks down to 5 days of running, 2-3 of those being sprints at the track, 4 days abs, and 3 days of weights. At the end of each month I’ll make the next 4 weeks training schedule and update:)

Week 1
Mon- 2 Miles, Chest/Back, Ab Ripper X
Tues- 4 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Wed- Shoulders/Arms, Ab Ripper X
Thu- 4 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Fri- 2 Miles, Insanity Upper Body Weights, Cardio Abs
Sat- 5 Miles, Pushups/Pullups, Ab Ripper X
Sun- Rest

Week 2
Mon- 2 Miles, Chest/Back, Ab Ripper X
Tues- 6 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Wed- One on One-Just Arms, Ab Ripper X
Thu- 6 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Fri- 2 Miles, Insanity Upper Body Weights, Insane Abs
Sat- 5 Miles, Pushups/Pullups, Ab Ripper X
Sun- Rest

Week 3
Mon- 2 Miles, Chest/Back, Ab Ripper X
Tues- 8 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Wed- Shoulders/Arms, Ab Ripper X
Thu- 5 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Fri- 2 Miles, Insanity Upper Body Weights, Cardio Abs
Sat- 5 Miles, Pushups/Pullups, Ab Ripper X
Sun- Rest

Week 4
Mon- 2 Miles, Chest/Back, Ab Ripper X
Tues- 10 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Wed- One on One-Just Arms, Ab Ripper X
Thu- 4 Miles, Pushups/Pullups
Fri- 2 Miles, Insanity Upper Body Weights, Insane Abs
Sat- 5 Miles, Pushups/Pullups, Ab Ripper X
Sun- Rest

I am currently on Week 1 Day 3. I’ll be hitting Shoulders/Arms with Ab Ripper X as soon as I’m done with this post:)

Stay tuned for what I’m doing for Nutrition!!

Well last you heard was the pains I was having on day 12. Those first 3 weeks was definitely trial and error for me. The aches and pains are virtually gone now thank god! I have found my stride, my pace, and everything that works for me.

I did have my very first 15k race(9.3 Miles) on February 7th. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done! I havent done much hill training and of course when I showed up to this race, the ENTIRE thing was hills! Suddenly my hour and a half goal turned into a 2 hour goal. I kept a slower pace and just kept telling myself to put one foot infront of the other.

Luckily after 3 miles of brutal hills, there was a 2-3 mile stretch of flat road. This is when I kicked it up a notch and held a 9 minute pace. I felt amazing at this point…Then the hills kicked back in….

The last 3 miles was definitely the hardest run of my life. I was physically drained and exhausted. And of course my GU pack fell out of my pocket around mile 2 but I didnt want to stop to get it haha. The last mile I could see my girlfriend and family at the finish and thats when I kicked up the pace again and went at a full sprint. I would guess around a 7 min pace. I managed to finished the race in 1 hour 43 minutes which I was more than happy with:)

I took the next day off of course. I wasn’t too sore which surprised me. Then after that rest day I went on an 8 miler with a friend of mine. I made a video on this you can view here

So here I am day 40. Today I am doing my normal warm up with pushups and pullups. I’m having some issues with my right achilles tendon. Not so much pain, just extremely tight so I’ll get that loosened up today. Thank you for all the support and motivation you give me! I’ll catch ya tomorrow!

My diet is 110% on target. The only bad thing I’ve eaten in 4 weeks is the chinese food I had last night. Although I did keep it as healthy as I could with a shrimp/chicken/veggie mix in a white wine sauce. Was delicious! My energy is amazing. I don’t have to be to work till 11:30 today so I set my alarm for 9 thinking I could sleep in. Nope. I woke up at 7am wide away! Haha, which I’m not complaining about. It feels fantastic to not need energy drinks or coffee to have the energy that I have naturally now!

I still managed to keep an 11 min pace which is a bit slower than my average but I did the best I could for what I had to work with! Tomorrow is another day of insanity but I have the feeling that I will be VERRRRY sore haha. Probably going to do upper body weight lifting so we will see! Thanks for reading and I’ll catch ya tomorrow!

A co-worker of mine, Ava, knew I was into fitness and always looking for a good challenge so she invited me to run a half marathon with her. Then I found out that is 13.1 miles!!! This was the perfect chance for me to have a solid goal so of course I accepted the challenge:)

I started running 3-4 weeks ago. Day 1 I decided to do a running “Fit test”, so I just went out and ran as far as I could. I walked a lot, way more than expected, but I managed to do 8 miles total. Now I knew what I had to train for. So from there I would run 2-3 times a week just to get in the groove of things.

Now that I know my limits, I know my pace, and I know what I want to achieve, I have put together a training schedule for myself. I got the nike plus sensor which tracks distance, time, and pace. The nike plus website has a coaching program so I am following that.

So here is my schedule. I run 3-4 times per week. Typically 2 shorter runs at 3-4 miles, and 1 longer run at 6-8 miles. Each week that long run will increase by 1 mile. To get my endurance and speedwork in, I am doing an insanity workout 2x per week. With all of that, every other day I am doing a pushups/pullups program!

Now the purpose of me posting all of this is because since I am bran new to running, I want to document it so I can look back a year from now and see how far I’ve come:) I also want to post updates every single day for those who are new to running so they can follow my progress!

This concludes it for today! Everyone take care and thank you all for your support and motivation!