How to get your health and fitness mojo back

Jan. 22, 2013 - PRLog -- Is winter sabotaging your good intentions when it comes to healthy eating and exercise?

The short and cold days lead many of us to curl up in front of the fire and  indulge on calorie laden fatty foods.

Resolutions we swore by only a few weeks ago now seem a distant memory. Goals of hitting the gym 3 times a week and cutting off chocolate and sweets have now been given up. We lost our mojo again.

With our will power and motivation at an all time low, we're finding the easiest tasks harder and harder to perform, which in turn is resulting in ever expanding waists, bigger sizes than ever in history, rock bottom self-esteems, and sky high blood pressures.

MOTIVATION IS NOT SOMETHING YOU LOSE AND GET BACK

"We often say things like "I've lost my motivation" or "I need to get my motivation back", without realizing that motivation is something we're either doing, or not doing, it requires us to use our body and our brain to put ourselves in more resourceful states of mind" says Mind Coach Anna Aparicio, Director of The Weight Loss Attitude and former fitness trainer.

According to Anna it could be our optimism that's preventing us from getting our mojo back.

"Typically we are motivated towards pleasure, or away from pain" says Anna "but if thinking about all the great things you'll get to gain from eating healthily and working out regularly is not making you take action, may be thinking about everything you'll get to lose if you don't do something will fire you up"

TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT YOURSELF

Avoiding looking in the mirror for fear of what we'll see, or hiding our body from other people in baggy or black clothes is not doing us any favors either.

Taking an honest look at ourselves will more than likely bring us to tears and can be painful, but it can also help us reach that "enough is enough" threshold that leads us to take action.

"We like to do just the opposite; we get wrapped up in our every day routine, unaware and unconscious of the consequences that our moment to moment decisions and choices are causing, but we can't escape them. We shouldn't escape them, because these can be the catalyst for change".

So whether you're not happy with your body, you don't feel healthy, or you are not able to do things you'd like to do, but you just don't have the will power to get yourself to the gym or cook healthy meals every day, don't be surprised about this either.

WHY WILL POWER DOESN'T WORK

Neuroscientists now tell us that the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for will power, can't do its job properly when we're under too much stress.

Yet in today's chronically stressed out society we're still relying on will power to get ourselves to the gym or choose a salad instead of a bacon buttie, but more often than not our will power fails us, which can leave us feeling frustrated and like a failure.

FOCUS LIGHTS THE SPARK

When it comes to setting health and fitness goals and sticking with them, a big problem is vagueness, lack of clarity and focus.

While we might be able to imagine in our mind cooking healthy dinners in general, or spending time at the gym, the exact details of these activities are often not clear.

We don’t know what meals exactly we'll be cooking, or precisely what exercise program we'll be following. In this way, the future is fuzzy. This fuzziness can make the future less appealing.

What will help is becoming more clear, not just on what we want to achieve, but also on what we want and need to do in order to achieve what we want.

Also, adapting our mindset to the fact that it's going to take some time, and that the future is worth waiting for.

6 MIND FOCUSING QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU GET YOUR MOJO BACK

1. Think about what specifically you want to achieve: a size 10 body, a positive attitude, healthy blood pressure, running a 10k race...

2. Think about what specifically you need to do to achieve that

3. How often do you want/need to do that?

4. On what days, at what time, for how long, with whom, and where?

5. What do you want to do that for?

6. What one thing can you do right now to make this happen?

Little steps performed over time lead to big changes, so make sure you give the seed enough time to come up to the surface and flourish.

Anna Aparicio's Motivation Workshop is taking place in Dublin on February 2nd, More information at http://dublinnlplifecoach.com/motivation-lose-weight/