It's Sunday night, Susan has meal prepped for the next 2 days and is all set and ready to get up early Monday morning, workout and eat a healthy breakfast! 

She wakes up Monday, works out, has a juice and heads to work with her prepped lunch and plans for dinner. Comes home, makes dinner and relaxes for the evening knowing she has Tuesday all prepared. Tuesday, waking up early is a little harder, but she does it anyway. The day is pretty similar to the day before. 

Except, after dinner, she doesn't prep for Wednesday and Thursday. She tells herself it'll be fine, she'll throw something together in the morning or grab something healthy out to eat, because she has this!

Wednesday comes, she wakes up 30 minutes later than the 2 days before. "No big", she tells herself, except now she doesn't have time to get a lunch together or workout. Work is rough the first half of the morning, so she heads out to get a break for lunch. Orders a salad for lunch, but then decides a coke would be a good energy booster and help her get through the rest of the day, plus she's done so good the past 2 days it won't hurt. She heads home, exhausted, and not wanting to make what she planned for dinner. So, she throws together a quick pasta. Now, she's feeling sluggish and doesn't want to workout. 

Thursday comes, everything is off track and she decides "eh, it wasn't good timing this week. I will just start over on Monday." 

Does this sound familiar? Many people go through these vicious cycles. What happened to Susan? She lost her motivation! Do you know what she lacked? Discipline. 

The Difference

I spoke briefly on this on Instagram stories, but you must know the difference and when to apply each one. 

Motivation is that feeling you get when you have made the decision to get healthier and have decided to make the change. It's that feeling when you you are seeing results, it makes you feel good and you decide to continue on. 

The problem with motivation is it's fleeting. It goes away QUICKLY when things aren't convenient, when results aren't immediate and when your strength is tested.

Discipline is knowing the end result will come, but you must be persistent. Discipline is doing it even when you don't want to. It kicks in on that Wednesday when you don't feel like sticking to your plan. It kicks in when you're out with your friends on the weekend and they want to get junk food, or just one more drink! 

Know Your Why

To keep your motivation up, you need a big enough reason. For most people, losing weight isn't big enough. It won't keep you excited, it won't remind you to push forward. If it did, we wouldn't have the obesity epidemic that we do. 

Reevaluate your why. For example, wanting to be active enough to be able to play with your children. How about, wanting to live longer? Or maybe it's something as simple as an event coming up where you'd like to wear a particular outfit? 

Keep it mind. Write it down somewhere you see it everyday. Change the background of your phone to it. Whatever you have to do to remind yourself, do it. 

And when the motivation runs out, and it will, keep yourself disciplined. 

Your goals are reachable, but like anything else, nothing worth having comes easy! 

If you need help with your Why, I am always here to talk it over! 

Get out there, start right this second and make yourself healthier one day at a time.

KEEP IT FRESH. KEEP IT SIMPLE. KEEP IT REAL.

xoxo Aubrey