Weekly Coach Check-In 2010-08-15

It's Sunday ALREADY!!!! WHOA!!!

I know, I sound like a broken record, but I can't believe it every Sunday when I sit down to write my weekly check-in!

Today, I'm going to talk about excuses.  We all know them, and all have them right?  It's too late!  I'm too tired!  I deserve a break!  I'm going to run down a few that I've said myself and certainly, ones that I've heard my friends say!

• I don't have time!

Oh for crying out loud!  I was just over at one of my coaches house, knocking out a workout with him.  We didn't have a set plan and decided to do Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer.  He had done it before trying P90X and loved it, but it was new to me.  I gotta tell you, after a 2-3 minute warm-up and just one cycle through a 10 Minute Lower Body routine, I was a sweaty, drippy mess!  It was really tough - and used only an exercise band and my body weight to work.  10 Minutes!  Everyone has 10 minutes in their day!

• The gym is too expensive!

For one thing, stop going to the gym!  All we need for some amazing workouts is our bodies and a tiny bit of floor space.  Anyone who's tried Insanity or P90X Plyo knows that you don't need some expensive BowFlex machine or huge rack of weights to get an unbelievable workout! 

• I'm bored!

I hear this one all the time from my friends who stopped going to the gym.  Change it up!  If you notice that you've been doing P90X for 6 months and are getting bored, then change things!  Try Insanity, try Chalean Extreme, try running, try the 100 Push-Up challenge - whatever!  Work out with a friend, change the music, the lighting, the room you workout in! 

• I'm tired!

Guess what?  You won't be if you get off your butt and start the workout.  I'm never tired 10 minutes into a workout, in fact, I'm always MORE awake!  10 minutes in, I'm happier, more alive, less sore and have a solid feeling of massive accomplishment!  Understanding this at the fundamental level of your inner voice is crucial in starting a workout that you really don't feel like doing.

I've pushed my friend Poe many times (and she's pushed me just as many or more) to workout when she wasn't feeling it.  You know how many times she thanked me after?  All of them.  Every time, she would thank me and express how much better she feels after she finished than she did before.  Know this and understand it!  Get off your butt and start - once you start, you will finish!

• I missed a couple days - I'll restart Monday.

Don't wait.  What are you waiting for?  Life to pass you by?  Get heavier, lose more motivation?  If you miss a workout - fine.  Log it and move on - but don't let the hole get deeper!  Jump back in!  You can't "make up" for lost time or missed workouts, or bad food choices - sad but true.  You can only move on and make better decisions!  Make the right one today!

• Your friends and family don't give you positive reinforcement!

This can be a tough one!  Find the motivation that works for you!  You can't always look for external motivation - it eventually has to come from within or your results will be short lived.  After you've lost the weight, guess what?  People will stop telling you how good you look!  You have to find something deep inside you that makes YOU want to change for YOU - then keep the change as part of your lifestyle.

Some of the things that work for me, don't judge me, some of them are brutal!

1. Look around the room at the heavier people and decide that I don't wan to be one of them anymore.
2. Pinch fat on my belly (or back fat - which I seem to never completely get rid of!)
3. Imagine what the food I'm craving will do to my body (in great detail...)
4. Really imagine that I had just finished a great workout and the amazing mindset that I would have after!
5. Call and talk to my friends and tell them exactly what I'm craving - or what workout I'm GOING to do!  They will hold me accountable because I've asked them to!
6. Talk about it, Talk about it, Talk about it!  - this should be number 1 actually, it's the thing that works very best for me!  The more you talk about your motivation, the more motivated you get.  Usually while typing my weekly check-in, I feel the overwhelming urge to get up and knock a workout out.  Hard to sit here eating Doritos while talking about this stuff!

Find motivation that works for you - then tell me what it is!  When you don't feel like getting up to workout - what do you do?  What works? 

We're starting a 21 Day Clean Challenge Monday (tomorrow) and I would love love love you guys to join up with us.  A ton of peer support (not pressure) is so healthy and 21 days can dramatically change your life.  The main posting page will be on Facebook - so if you haven't friended me - please do!

www.Facebook.com/stevemcknighttpt

The most important thing is - find something that works and repeat it!  When that stops working, find something else!  Getting fit is not one huge life changing decision!  It's not!  It is a series of thousands of mini-decisions that add up to a healthy, new, fit YOU!

Have a great week and people DON'T BE STRANGERS!

Steve