Motivation – how to keep motivated at this time of the year.

The weeks between January and February can often be hard, motivation is at zero. It’s…

Dark.

Wet.

Cold.

Windy.

And Long…

Mood can be a bit low with lack of sunshine and no holidays planned.

Then squeezing into those clothes is still uncomfortable, after the distant memory of justifying the over indulgent Christmas period and the aftermath when picking up the pieces is getting a little harder each year.

You’ve tried for the last few weeks to motivate yourself, go on a diet and exercise regime. Keeping up with the kids is hard, energy is rock bottom, sometimes it’s a struggle to make it throughout the day without a coffee infused intravenous.

Post festivity, motivation levels have deteriorated alarmingly, and the mood you set these outrageously hard goals in has long left you.

You worked hard, diligently, maybe a little rudderless, but you stuck to your new regime and the scales hasn’t been kind to you. You expected results but despite your best efforts, your clothes still fit no better and the scales are not telling you what you want to hear.

As a result, your motivation drops, you say ‘screw it, what’s the point’?

Then, under the radar, you may have slipped back into your old habits…

Oh no, you’ve just forked out for your gym membership for a year, no refunds, no going back.

You also maybe too embarrassed to say it to anyone, as you’ve been down this road before, probably more than once.

A key thing to remember here is, you are not alone, in fact, you are in the majority. This is the story of far too many people or reso’s (term I had never heard before referring to people on short term new year’s resolutions.)

In my previous blog, I referred to cheap gyms as the reason why this happens, as that is their business model. Read it here https://www.completepersonaltraining.ie/budget-gyms/

Sign em up and forget about em…

It does make me a little annoyed, as the gyms know this is the case, for them it’s like taking candy from a baby in January.

Most people have an idea of what to do, it’s a question of having clear direction, accountability which is a great way to keep you motivated and being shown what they need to do over and over again when it comes to successfully overcoming your previous habit change failures.

Oh and community, don’t forget community. The thing that makes people want to come back to class, have fun and belong at your fitness classes which makes it most tolerable for most people, even the most adamant fitness detesters 

The most important thing we teach people at CPT, is the fundamentals of nutrition, the spring board from which you will get a clear understanding of how to get, and more importantly stay healthy and lean.

Secondly, is sound instruction on safe technique to ensure you minimise injury risk. Remember, if you were once an elite athlete…well even a social one, you certainly aren’t now, and anyone that has you power snatching and box jumping “for time” should have their weekend fitness qualification taken away.

Exercise prescription is often over looked and underestimated. Knowing your clientele and what they are capable of and their limitations is massively important to getting results and avoiding injury.

For example, too much running or jumping for a mum of three kids with pelvic floor issues is certainly not a good strategy.

Or when a lady going through the menopause comes to train in your gym, strength training should be recommended asap and certain foods/supplements such as Flaxseed (It’s a good source of lignans, which tend to balance female hormones) Calcium and Vit D (to absorb the calcium) to help strengthen bones is fairly common to be overlooked.

Being confident in what “expert” (and I use that term loosely) you decide to go with in terms of gym choice is vital. You may not listen to a trainer who costs €10 an hour with 5 minutes experience, as much as you should listen to a trainer with nearly 20 years’ experience and costs €85+ an hour…ahem me.

We’re all about keeping our clients motivated.

Some of the pretty exciting things we have coming up at CPT that do just that are:

Our 5th Complete Transformation Retreat to Lanzarote this (March 11th-18th) where we cover all the above plus modules on Complete Mindset change, the Complete Nutrition System™, Complete Goal Setting and Stress management…well that’s the learning part covered.

We do all this in a luxury villa that has a jacuzzi, a pool and putting green. Our daily excursions tend to add a huge amount of fun, value and breakthroughs in terms of confidence building, morale boosting and laughs a minute. The Complete Nutrition System™, Complete Goal setting™, Morning rituals, Stress management and Complete Mindset change™ help you feel armed and confident coming home with a plan moving forward.

Places for this fill up pretty quick, but one space has come up and a double room has become available. If you haven’t heard anything about the retreat, check out what previous guests had to say here. http://retreat.completepersonaltraining.ie

If heading away in March for our retreat won’t work logistically, Our Complete 6 week Transformation™ is launching this week and is nearly full, understandably as it guarantees results. No other gyms offer this, am I crazy?

Maybe 

But I trust in our systems, and our trainers are the best and most educated and empathetic to your struggles around.

It offers a clear plan, education on long term diet success, accountability and you get to train with some pretty special ladies in our ladies only, small group personal training classes (Check them out here http://retreat.completepersonaltraining.ie/complete-6/
and not to forget out fab fit dads in our male only small group personal training classes. Check them out here http://retreat.completepersonaltraining.ie/super-fit-dad/.

These are a fraction of the price of one to one personal training classes, you get consistent, guaranteed results and way more fun than ‘one on one’ if you ask me, what more motivation do you need?!

You may be a good fit for our programs, you may not. But you can chat to us here and see, with no obligation to sign up with us.

To your health and happiness

Damian