How We Fail Ourselves in Our Health and Fitness and How to Overcome it

Health and Fitness doesn't fail us. We fail ourselves.

The best way to describe this is to show you how it happened to me. I am going to tell you how I failed my own health and fitness at times. How I motivated myself and what I used for inspiration to keep going.

Accepting that you failed yourself is definitely an eye opening experience that I feel everyone needs to have. I also feel it isn't something you can force.

My Fitness Failures

I have always been athletic and an athlete. I started playing sports when I was 5 and it just took off from there. With that being said, it always felt like I had to work a little bit harder to maintain my weight.

Since I was already very active this was maintained through my diet. Everyone is different. Each individual has a different metabolism and different sensitivities. Try explaining that to a teenage girl. I was already taller than everyone and I was "thicker" than all my teammates too.

Obviously at 30 I have realized the difference but it hasn't always been easy.

Since I was 18 years old my weight has fluctuated several times. With the exception of my pregnancy every time I gained weight it was because I failed myself emotionally. To be honest even getting down to my lowest was due to stress and my workouts and eating habits.

Since the birth of my son, I have maintained my weight within a 10lb range. It has been the longest time at a consistent weight since college.

I lost the weight pretty quickly and was more determined than ever to maintain a healthy lifestyle for my son. I make a conscious effort to not go to far over that weight. My husband has gone away for training a few times and I've done better of maintaining.

Overall I have learned that I am solely responsible for my health and fitness. I control what I put in my body and I control if I workout.

Motivation

Finding your motivation is the most important thing for staying consistent. Everyone has short term goals such as a beach trip or wedding but to maintain it beyond that is the real dedication.

It comes down to will power. And I hate to say that because most people say they have no will power. It’s not about saying no to bad foods all the time just most of the time.

You don’t have to workout everyday and eat healthy everyday. It’s all about balance.

My biggest motivation to be and stay healthy is my son and husband. I personally want to be healthy and fit for myself but it helps to have outside motivation.

My husband is very active and in great shape and we are always talking about workouts. We discuss supplements and meal plans. He really helps keep me in check.

As for my son, we want him to eat healthy and be active. I can’t say no sugar to him while I am eating Oreos. Now we do eat these things but we try to moderate this. But we don’t want him getting bad habits at a young age.

If you don’t have a significant other or child for motivation join groups. I am currently a member of at least 5 groups for motivation and fitness on Facebook alone. People post every day and help keep you accountable for your workouts.

Join a gym. Find connections there. My CrossFit community is great at keeping you accountable and motivating you to work hard.

Find something you enjoy. That is key. I enjoy CrossFit. I enjoy running in 5ks and mud runs. This year I have even done a half marathon. I am not a huge fan of running but I enjoy the experience.

Inspiration

The other part of maintaining my health for me is inspiration. Finding the right inspiration will help you keep pushing forward. Find a blog. Find an Instagram account. A YouTube channel even.

I personally follow a lot of people on Instagram and YouTube just for fitness. I like to watch other people push themselves and to check and see if they did it again today.

Bloggers definitely give you ideas and try to keep you motivated. One of my current favorites to follow is The Chubby Crossfitter. Check her out!

Create goals for yourself. Small ones and large ones. Weekly, Monthly and yearly goals. It doesn’t always have to be weight loss either.

My big goal for fitness this year is to do a pull-up by the end of the year. Preferably strict but I will take kipping if I have to.

Find it in the people you work with, your friends, your family. If someone you know is up working out why can’t you?

You are going to have good days and you are going to have bad days. You don’t have to be perfect all the time you just can’t be bad all the time.

Being healthy doesn’t always have to start on a Monday or the first of the month. It can start tomorrow. You have a bad Wednesday with your diet. That’s ok. It doesn’t mean to just not care about Thursday and to start again on Monday.

At that rate you are only having two good days to 5 bad. It's all about managing it for what works for you.

What are some of the ways that you get inspired? Share your ideas with me!! If you have some fun groups on Facebook add me I love to see other people working hard.