It's a rare beast that doesn't get stuck from time to time. For most of us, getting stuck in the land of demotivation is all too easy and all too common. So many things get in the way and suck us into the abyss of inactivity. Whether it's work, family, vacations, illness, injury, unrealistic expectations, overdoing it, or one of the biggest causes--negative self-talk, there are things you can do to pull yourself out and get back on the path to fitness. I want you to really appreciate that simply recognizing that you have control over your path to fitness means you have the power to create the outcome you really want. So, with the recognition that you are ultimately in control, but because we're all different and we experience the world around us in different ways, you may find that some of the ideas listed below work for you and some don't work for you right away. Be willing to give everything a try, take notes, and analyze the result. If it works, use it, if it doesn't, even after giving it a solid shot, try something different.

Mindset
First a quiz: Think about the following, "Imagine a whirlpool. If you're outside of the whirlpool, you don't feel the power of its draw. As you get closer, and start getting sucked into the swirl, you begin to feel the strength of the energy pulling you deeper toward the center. You gradually pick up speed as you move toward the center until you are pulled into the vortex." Before reading on, answer the question "what happens next." Does your ending most closely match: (A) You drown. (B) You manage to fight against the force and pull yourself out. (C) You are transported to a tropical paradise where you are sipping fresh coconut juice and getting a massage. There is no right or wrong answer, but this question gives you an opportunity to pay attention to your inner self-dialog. If you chose C, your mind took you to a positive and beneficial outcome. If you chose A or B, consider that your mind took you either to a place of failure or a place of struggle. If given the opportunity to go back and select a different answer, would you choose C? If you answered yes, realize that you have the same ability to change your mindset, and just as easily. Think of a positive mindset as a muscle that has to be exercised in order for it to be strong enough to prevail when the heavy lifting is needed. 

So, the first place to start is to come at life with a positive, can-do attitude. And every time that you notice that you are out of alignment with having a positive, can-do attitude, switch it back on. (It doesn't matter if you need to do this 1000 times per day or once, just pay attention to your attitude and do it!)

Because we humans are great at putting obstacles in our own way, it's also a good idea to have an understanding in how it is that we turn ourselves away from that positive, can-do attitude. To gain that understanding, we need to examine the path that lead up to today. We don't need to get stuck on anything or judge ourselves, but simply notice what can be learned from the events that lead us to the present. Further, with the knowledge we've gained we can notice the obstacles before they're blocking our way and choose a different path.

Knowing that you can turn on your positive, can-do attitude at will and can choose a different path to avoid obstacles, the big question of "why" needs to be answered. Why are you on the path to fitness? It's important to dig deep here and be super honest with yourself. Don't just rely on the first answers that come to your mind. Whatever answers you come up with, ask why that reason is important to you. Again, ask why that reason is important. Only you need to know the true reasons why you want to be on the path to fitness, so, again, be super honest with yourself. The reason you need to do this is because often times the first reasons that come to mind aren't going to provide sufficient motivation to keep turning on that positive, can-do attitude when your mind is enticing you to do things that take you away from the path. 

Goals
I advise people that there are two types of goals. Process Goals and Outcome Goals. When most of us set goals, we tend to set outcome goals. "I will lose 25 lbs" or "I will gain 5 lbs of muscle" are these sorts of goals, and ones that my clients initially arrive with. What I tell them is that those are fine targets, but they are problematic goals. The reason is that outcome goals are usually made with a crystal ball approach. We don't really know if what we are setting for a goal is appropriate, accurate or achievable or if we will change course.
Instead of outcome goals, we can set targets, but what will actually help us get there are the processes we put in place to change our lifestyle and the subsequent manifestation of that lifestyle on our bodies. By focusing on the day to day elements of our actions, the results take care of themselves, and it's directly measurable, doable, and sustainable.   The four major elements we need to focus on are consistent moderate to vigorous movement, consistent attention to appropriate nutrition, consistent reorientation toward a positive can-do mindset and consistent rejuvenative and regenerative practices. This is one of the area where the professionals here at Proactive Evolution Fitness help you shine because we set you up with a plan and help you stay motivated for these daily processes.

Planning
​When I say planning, I'm talking about thinking through the ways you might be sabotaged and coming up with strategies to avoid those roadblocks or diversions. Of course, you can't think of everything, but start with the areas where you have been sabotaged before. If you find that you're not working out because after you get home from work you don't want to leave the house, try packing your gym bag and going to the gym before you go home. If you find you're eating cookies and candies at work, plan to eat something healthy by bringing snacks that aren't going to take you off course. Just keep adding to your library of appropriate responses and then when situations arise, you'll be ready to respond.

Rejuvenation
Real growth happens in those moments when you relax and allow the stresses you place on your mind and body to dissipate. What that means is that when you workout hard and you fight against all the ways you sabotage yourself, you also need time in your week where you let go. At the beginning, give workout three to four times per week, and once a week, allow yourself an indulgence meal. As you start to get comfortable with your fitness practices, say after every two or three weeks, decrease the number of non-exercise days, and continue that until you are working out 6 days per week with one rest day. The weekly indulgence meal is just one meal per week where you can eat whatever you want. Plan it. Put it in your calendar. Whether it's a waffle breakfast on Sunday morning or a night out with your friends on Friday evening doesn't matter. Letting yourself have whatever you want for that one meal still puts you in the 95% success rate. The interesting thing that I found on my weight loss journey was that as time progressed I began to actually notice the difference in the way my body and mind felt after I ate things which before were my go-to indulgence foods. When I ate those favorite indulgence foods I felt bloated, sluggish, depressed or distracted. From that space of not feeling 
 
And don't forget using social inspiration and perpetual motion to your advantage. More on those elements to come.

Yep, stretch. I know you don't have time to stretch after your workout, and it seems so difficult and painful and you don't see the value... But stretching helps condition your muscles, increase range of motion, improves mobility and reduces muscle spasms. Static stretching, where you hold your stretches for 30-60 seconds is ideal following exercise.  One thing that I notice among a lot of people is a lack of awareness of good stretching technique. If you've never been trained to stretch, I recommend that you work with a trainer or yoga instructor to learn how. ​

As of 2014, two out of every three Americans is overweight or obese. That's right, 66% of Americans tip the scales into the unhealthy territory and the trend upward is continuing. By now, everyone should know about the risks for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, and biomechanical dysfunction and degeneration that comes with weight gain. But, it seems that rather than doing something to try to rectify the situation, being overweight or obese is becoming normalized.

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, 7/March/2017) shows that even though more people are overweight and obese, fewer are trying to lose weight. In 1988, 56% of overweight and obese individuals reported that they had attempted to lose weight during the previous year while in 2014, only 49% reported attempts to do so. There are a variety of reasons for this drop in the number of people who are attempting to lose weight, but as already mentioned, the most prevalent reason seems to be social normalization. ​

It's time to HIIT the gym...

New research published in the journal Cell Metabolism (Volume 25, Issue 3, p581–592, 7 March 2017) has shown that Metabolic Resistance Training can reverse the cellular ageing process in adults. While the Mayo Clinic researchers didn't mention Metabolic Resistance Training by name, they showed that those who did high intensity interval cardio training (HIIT) combined with resistance training (what they called "combined training") combated some of the cellular aspects of aging.

The study was designed so that participants (Ages 18-30 and 65-80) were divided into groups with some doing High-Intensity Interval Cardio Training (HIIT), some doing resistance training and some doing Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT) over a 12 week period. Regardless of the modality of their exercise, all participants saw improvements in lean body mass and insulin sensitivity. However, only the HIIT and MRT exercisers showed improved aerobic capacity, an improvement in mitochondrial function for skeletal muscles (69% improvement for the older exercisers), and improved muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein content. Further, the study authors noted that the MRT exercisers also increased their muscular strength and the older participants had a 21% improvement in oxygen consumption. The resistance only exercisers saw none of those benefits. ​

We often think of the principal drivers of fitness--exercise (strength, motility, power, agility, stability, flexibility), nutrition, mental outlook, and rejuvenation--as independent components. We forget how each of those drivers depend on each of the other drivers to create what we call fitness. The most easily recognized example of our focus on individual components is how we think a diet is the solution to weight gain. But losing weight is not the same as becoming fit. In fact, there are many people who are thin, but I wouldn't call them fit. How about the person who exercises 2 hours per day, 6-7 days per week but eats junk food. And don't forget about the person who eats like a bird but has a hard time lifting light hand-weight several times. Then there's the person who works out regularly and eats well but continually floods their system with cortisol due to living an unmitigated high stress lifestyle.  And then there's the person who is very strong but can't move easily or run up a few flights of stairs or they're flexible but doesn't have much power or strength.

With an awareness of the multifaceted nature of fitness, it becomes clear that a holistic approach to fitness is necessary.  We can't just workout or just diet or just meditate or just stretch. We need to do each of them, and do them with a positive, mindful, motivated and playful mental outlook. ​

From the place of fitness, it is much easier to recover from a lapse in any of the individual components. I can attest from personal experience that this is the case. Some months back I was injured. To be honest, I don't recall how I got hurt, but I woke up one morning with extreme pain in my shoulders and neck. It was devastating. I could barely move my arms without pain shooting through my neck and the slightest turn of my body caused my shoulders to feel like I was ripping them out of the sockets. After about a week of this I started to get very worried. My mindset crashed along with my exercise routine.  Where I had been working out to the tune of an extra >1200 calories burned per day, I was idled. Had exercise been the only pillar of fitness that I developed, I could have gained a lot of weight. Fortunately, thanks to my meditation practice and mindfulness of my eating, I was able to pay attention to the disconnect between what I was eating and signals my body was sending me about how much food I needed. It was in the depths of my physical pain that I forced myself to pay more attention to my nutrition both from an emotional and a habitual perspective. When we feel horrible, when we're afraid, it is easy to attempt to pacify the emotional upheaval with food. The feel-good brain chemicals that get released as a result of a favorite food are what is truly addicting about the food. When exercise is curtailed along with the emotional component, it is important to have a mindfulness about the body's nutritional needs. For the first few weeks of my injury, I continued to eat habitually. In other words, I continued to consume food as if I was still burning an extra 5000-6000 calories per week. Within three weeks, I had gained 5 lbs.  Thanks to having a mindfulness and meditative practice that raised my awareness, I was able to catch myself before things went too far off the rails. ​

Motivating Feelings

There are three primary feelings motivating our desire get or keep fit: Fear, guilt and pleasure. Most of us only consider the first two, fear or guilt, when we think about fitness. When it comes to fear, many people start an exercise program after a health scare that fuels our thoughts of pain, illness or death. It's often from this space of fear that people sign up at a gym or purchase a piece of exercise equipment. This is the point where guilt most commonly comes into play. We feel guilty about the money were spending on an unused gym membership (the average price for a gym membership in the US is $500+/year) or about the expensive ($500-$3000+) exercise contraption that is gathering dust in the corner or we feel guilty because we told our friends and relatives that we were serious about getting fit and the heaviest weight we've lifted was a bag of chips.

The problem is that fear and guilt may motivate us, particularly in the short term, but they rarely create the sustainable lifestyle changes that will bring us the physical AND emotional benefits of getting and staying fit. The reason why this is a problem is because operating out of fear or guilt requires us to live in the future or the past rather than in the present.

When we're exercising out of fear, we are exercising due to anxiety that if we don't get or keep fit, something bad will happen to us in the future. Not only does exercising due to fear require a lot of will power (because the "something bad" is usually not immediate), but it also requires us to exercise harder because anxiety produces stress hormones which cause the body to store fat. Additionally, because getting fit isn't instantaneous, we fear that we won't reach our goal before the "something bad" happens. This is especially true when it comes to a serious health scare.

Exercising out of guilt also requires a lot of will power because we're focusing on a past action that either cost us money or credibility. Often, operating out of guilt breeds resentment (for ourselves, the sales person at the gym or equipment store, our friends/spouse/relatives, etc.) and that's demotivating. Additionally, as with fear, we usually have a stress response to guilt, which causes the body to store fat.

In both cases, the negative psychological state that comes with constantly bullying ourselves, actually makes it more difficult to perform the acts that will get or keep us fit. This leads to lower self-esteem, lower success rates and a learned helplessness which becomes self-perpetuating.

My friend loves to exercise... Why can't I?

We all know someone who seems to love running, cycling, swimming, aerobics classes, boot camps, lifting weights, etc. Most people wish that they had that internal spark that would give them that intense motivation to move and sweat and build their fitness. Depending on our relationship with the person we know who has the spark, we may even ask (or be asked) to tag along, hoping that some of it will rub off on us. But, unless our "role model" is either selfless in waiting for us to catch up or we're able to suppress our egoic urge to compare ourselves, it's unlikely that the internal flame  will start to blaze as a result of proximity. In the end, we have to realize that the spark that ignites our passion for fitness has to come from within ourselves if it is going to last. What I and many others have found is that friends and relatives can fan the flames of our passion to exercise, but we have to start and maintain the fire on our own.

Why is exercise such a drudge?

What does exercising mean to you? For the majority of the population, exercise means hard work. It means accomplishing something--running X miles, lifting X pounds, riding X hours, etc. If you've noticed the emotional response that just these thoughts brought up, you might have noticed the idea that this article started with: Fear and guilt. Most people, even those who have the will power to exercise  regularly, are doing it for all the wrong reasons. Think about this: who in their right mind would get on a treadmill and run for an hour? I really think that epitomizes the drudgery of exercise. Likewise, what kind of person is going to go and do the same weight lifting workout week after week, year after year, sometimes decade after decade? Are these the type of people who truly have a spark, a passion, or the ability to fan the flames of your motivation? I doubt it. These are people who may have will power, but they lack the creativity to inspire anyone to fitness greatness. My guess is that their level of fear or guilt is so high that they exercise not because they're passionate but because they're stressed. There is a better way and it's right in front of our eyes. It's not the gym rat or the obsessive/compulsive marathon runner that's going to show us how to find motivation to exercise. It's children!

Why do children exercise?

That's really a silly question. Children, especially before the age of 10, don't normally exercise. What children do is called play. They run and climb and skip and hop and ride their bicycles and do all manner of physical activities without ever thinking "I need to workout for 60 minutes today." Children run to avoid being tagged. Children climb to get up or down from the playground structure because they're on an imaginary mission. Children skip and hop because they're keeping time to a rhyme. Children can play for hours, in fact all day long, until they're tired and sweaty and ready to fall asleep standing up for the simple reason that they're having fun. Unlike adults, children are not trying to accomplish something by playing. They're playing because they're developing and engaging their imaginations, bodies and social networks. They're playing because they're having fun. ​

Why we stop playing

At some point in our lives most of us  stop playing and start getting serious. Instead of developing and engaging our imaginations, bodies and social networks, we start challenging them. We start needing to be the best at things and prove ourselves to those around us. We start needing to win. We start needing to accomplish things. It's at this point that we stop riding our bicycles because it's fun and start riding because we need to train or get someplace. We stop running to avoid getting tagged and start running because we're being graded and ranked on how fast we can get around the school track. We stop swimming because we're playing dolphin and start swimming laps for time or distance. We stop playing games and start "playing" sports. Unfortunately, few of us have the natural talent to be Olympic contenders, or for that matter, the talent to be contenders for the top spots in our school. And in an effort to avoid embarrassment, we told ourselves we're not athletes and we stoped engaging in the activities we used to enjoy when we did them for play. 

​Now, as adults, most of us have no idea how to have fun any more. What we think of as fun is a far cry from the way we had fun when we were children. What we think of as having fun usually has a competitive component to it. As a result, we move our bodies to beat a clock or beat a competitor or beat the bathroom scale. Sadly, even if you made it to the top of the Olympic podium, you won't always have the best time, the strongest finish or a fast metabolism. With this, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with competition. I am saying that it's the wrong way to go about fitness.

​​Bring back the fun
​Pleasure, or fun, is by far the better motivator for fitness. At Proactive Evolution, we've always promoted the idea of Strenuous Play. By bringing playfulness into our exercise, we bring our minds back into the moment. And by making that exercise strenuous, we don't give our minds the opportunity to wander into demotivating thoughts. Here's an example. For about 8 years, I commuted 18 miles each way by bicycle, four days per week. There was a steep 2-mile hill near the end of my ride to work. If I hadn't brought playfulness into that commute, I never would have been able to bring myself to ride over 1500 times. I always pushed myself to keep myself from thinking about how difficult it was to ride up that hill. And, to make it fun, I played mind games. One day I'd alternate sitting and standing the lengths between the bike lane signs. Another day I'd sit one length and stand two lengths. Another day, sit one, stand one, sit one, stand two, sit one, stand three, etc. Another day I'd try pedaling 100 strokes with my right leg and then 100 strokes with my left leg. Other days, I'd chase another cyclist who was very far in front of me and the next day I'd go just fast enough to encourage someone else. Ultimately, I made a game out of climbing the hill. 

Here are some ways to bring fun back into fitness:

1. Stop competing, start collaborating. By helping and encouraging others rather than trying to beat them, you'll enjoy yourself more as well as create community. 
2. Play mind games. Even if you're on a treadmill, find ways to gamify the experience.
3. Forget about trying to beat your Personal Record and focus on doing things differently. (For example, instead of trying to beat your bench press record, try to do plyometric presses.)
4. Do your workout on a playground. As silly as it may seem, climbing up the rope ladder while a bunch of children are watching you will bring out your own inner child. 
5. Do new things. Try new types of workouts. Try activities that challenge you in different ways and keep you in the moment.  Do you run? Try trail running. Do you cycle? Try mountain biking. Like trail running? Try Parkour. Try bouldering or slack lining. Try "Ecstatic Dance" or Zumba.
6. Pay attention to how many times you smile while you're working out. If you catch yourself frowning, bump up the energy level.
7. Try BitGym or Bit Breaker from Active Theory Inc. BitGym takes you on a guided tour while on your treadmill, elliptical or spin cycle while Bit Breaker is an app that requires you to move your body to play the game (both are available for Android or iPhone).

If you have anything that you like to do to make your workout more playful, put them in the comments!

Cardio training--whether it's walking, running, swimming, cycling or getting on the treadmill, elliptical machine, spin cycle, or any of the myriad cardio machines you see in the gym--has long been held as the ideal way to achieve weight loss. The average person spends up to an hour moving their arms and legs at a moderate intensity, keeping themselves in what the machine or their fitness monitor tells them is the fat burning zone.

Exercising in that moderate intensity zone "fat burning zone" burns more calories from fat as a proportion of total calories burned. However, the reality of the situation is that you burn fewer calories from fat than if you increased your intensity level. For example, suppose you spend 60 minutes on the elliptical machine at a moderate intensity and you burn 400 calories, half of which (200) are fat calories. If you spent that same hour performing high-intensity cardio training, you might burn 700 calories, with 300 calories coming from fat. That in itself should make you want to up your intensity because in the same amount of time, you're burning more fat, which means a leaner body. After all, that's why you're spending all that time on the machine! Here's the rub though. Because cardio training is essentially catabolic, meaning it consumes muscle as well as fat, you end up lowering your metabolism over time.

Here's how it works: During and after moderate intensity exercise, your body consumes oxygen for a variety of physiological functions. These include synthesizing Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the fuel your cells need to function. It also includes balancing your hormone levels, repairing muscle tissues and nerves, replenishing fuel (glycogen) stored in the muscles for future exercise, and most importantly, restoring your body temperature to resting levels and returning your body to a resting state. Consuming oxygen, however, requires energy (approximately 5 calories per liter of oxygen). Because moderate intensity exercise keeps you in the aerobic state, meaning you are able to consume enough oxygen to perform all of these functions, when you stop, your body quickly cools and returns to a resting state and calorie burn reverts to your Resting Metabolic Rate. In other words, you burn higher levels of calories while you're exercising, but quickly drop back to resting levels.​

With high intensity cardio training, your body doesn't get enough oxygen to fuel your muscle contractions, and the physiological functions listed above. To keep your body in motion, your body resorts to anaerobic (without oxygen) energy pathways to produce ATP which is far less efficient than aerobic ATP production. As a result, your body goes into oxygen deficit while exercising. Then, after you finish your workout, your body starts to erase the oxygen deficit through what is called Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). As already mentioned, consuming oxygen burns calories, so while you're in EPOC you're still burning calories. That's great news for anyone trying to lose weight because it means burning calories both during and after the workout. However, because high intensity cardio training ultimately reduces your muscle mass, there's less muscle tissue to repair and fewer cells to refuel, and a lower oxygen deficit. So, your body still reverts to a resting state fairly quickly (within a few hours after you finish.) That's better than moderate intensity cardio, but there's a better way.

A Better Way: Metabolic Resistance Training Is More Effective At Burning Fat!

​​The Simple act of adding resistance training into your cardio solves the problem of muscle catabolism. Of course, you could do two separate workouts: resistance training and cardio. But that means spending more time in the gym and my guess is that you're like most people, and your time is limited with professional, familial and social obligations.

What we do here at Proactive Evolution is what is called Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT). MRT combines high intensity interval training (HIIT) with resistance training to build muscles and get your body into oxygen deficit, and keeping it there longer so that at the end of your workout, your body will have created a very high oxygen deficit and  need to continue to consume oxygen (EPOC) to restore your body to its resting state for quite some time. And as stated above, that means your body continues to burn calories long after the workout has finished. In fact, multiple studies have shown that the MRT workouts can burn calories for 48-72 hours after you've taken off your sweaty workout clothes. So, with just three one hour workouts per week, you can burn more calories than 5 to 6 hours or more of traditional cardio training, plus build a strong, lean, agile and powerful body while you're at it. It is worth noting that MRT will not result in you looking like a bodybuilder. Instead, you will get a ripped physique that will get you noticed without making you look like a freak on steroids. Whether you're a man or a woman, MRT workouts will get you the results you've always sought and admired while saving you time for the other activities that you want to do. 

For more information on how Proactive Evolution's MRT workouts can fit into your life, click on over to the Contact page and send us a message or call us at (760) 56-EVOLVE! Do it today and get started on the fastest path to fitness, and the body you want!