Can Has Motivation?

Welcome, internets, to my 30th Blog post! It is also the 4-week mark of my healthiness journey! Thusfar, I have officially lost 4 pounds!

This picture looks like I scanned wrapping paper...

The update today is thusly-- I am lacking in motivation! Today was not necessarily a bad day, food-wise, such that I stayed under 1800 calories, however, I did not get my fruits in (success with vegetables, though, yay me!) and I also took up several calories with ice cream. I believe I am allowed to eat ice cream sometimes. The lacking in motivation piece comes later, where I get home from work at five and had the entire evening to get dressed and go to the gym, and didn't.

Man, if I lived in Jurassic park or on that show Terra Nova, I'd totally get my exercise.
Or totally get eaten.

Internets, beloved family and friends, you know I try to be honest with you. I publish my weight, I tell you when I really want a burrito, I share about being a total crybaby when it comes to fitness. I am sharing with you today that I didn't exercise because I didn't feel like it. So what's the difference between severe laziness and going along with your body's desire to go on adventures and sit reading rather than going to the exercise place?

Samplers are a sign of the times. No wonder Oppositional Defiant Disorder is on the rise.
Samplers are such a bad influence.

Here's the deal. I had all night. I could have easily packed up and done 45 minutes at the gym. What's going on with me that I don't? I'm no longer scared of the gym, in general I am not a lazy person-- maybe a procrastinator, but being a therapy intern and going through a master's program leaves no space for laziness. Could it be that I just am not used to going yet and don't feel like it's in my schedule? Was yoga class so awesome last night that I feel like it won't be as cool?

How can you top yoga?

Yes, it's possible that Yoga class was just so awesome. But yoga class is only once a week, and that is not enough movement to keep me going. I need to think of some things to motivate me to get to the gym. Getting healthy is such a life-change that doing all of these things at once is difficult. That's a lot of motivation to have to have every day! Eat well! Don't eat a burrito! Exercise! Keep moving! Gah!

I think I have to both be easier on myself and harder on myself. That sounds complicated, but I need to be more accepting that this is going to be a difficult and long process. With that in mind, I have to push myself to keep exercising and eating well despite the challenges getting healthy brings. 

There were a thousand more fitting images.
I just love office space. It's greeaat.

As I like to do on this blog, I'ma get a little psychological. Where does motivation come from? What is it about? Can it be created? Well-- there are many competing theories of change. But on a very base level, change has to come from values. If you don't value, say, money, there's no reason to work for a promotion that pays more. In this case, getting healthy represents a number of different values, such as health, appearance, longevity and mental peace. 

Cheesy textbook graphics? YES PLEASE!

But on a daily basis, that feels really really vague and unattainable. I have the pieces broken down into little goals-- you can see them at the side of my blog, but maybe motivation needs to be broken down as well. One of my biggest struggles, even as a therapist is being to broad and general. I tend to make goals for myself and for my clients that aren't small and specific enough. It makes sense if you consider that my first collegiate training was in Sociology. 

Sociology: The Study of Society.
Yeah, it's big.

So, let's work on this. Let's bring it down a level. What can I tell myself on a day like today when I clearly need to go to the gym, clearly have time to go to the gym, and have no reason not to go? Let's be real, I need a little bit more accountability than even my extremely public blog provides. 

I liked the idea before of dedicating 5 pounds to a person. Considering that I'm losing weight at a purposefully slow pace, that might be a long time for one person to feel or be responsible for my motivation. I believe that incorporating change into relationships solidifies change, so I think having accountabilibuddies is kind of a good way for me to go. What if it was a week at a time, and your role was to expect a call or a text from me, informing you that I had, in fact, exercised? Or contact me through email each day for a week with some encouragement?

This is kind of kitty abuse...

Maybe I could encourage you too, if you wanted! What do you think? Would you be my accountabilibuddy for a week? 

On my own, I just look like that kitty up there, hoping that everyone around me will just get fat. I can do this on my own, but I think it will work better with help-- that's why I have the blog :)

Thank you for reading my Thirtieth post! Onward!