Motivation is Key
The most important factor in achieving any goal is adherence, which can be challenging when conditions aren’t optimal. Life presents obstacles, such as work, travel, family crises, changes in circumstances, and stresses, all that can put a wrench in your plan, despite good intentions. This can be frustrating, and it can make it even harder to stay motivated.
No matter what your goals are, it is important, both from a physical and emotional health perspective, to stay on track, if not to advance your progress, at the very least maintain the progress you’ve made.
How to Stay on Track
When life gets rough and you start to find it hard to stay on track, think about shifting your focus to making your goal allegiance to a routine. Engaging in physical activity is like saving money, it all adds up whether you’re saving pennies, or toonies.
Keep yourself on track. You can make a chart, then block out a week at a time and set daily goals for yourself in that period. Find a measurement you can commit to and don’t be afraid to adjust if you over- or underestimate the amount of time/energy you have to spare.
This could be 5 sprints up the stairs, a 20 minute walk around the block, or 15 minutes of squats, lunges and pushups off the counter. These are just a few of the endless examples, just make it something specific and measurable.
Get an Accountability Buddy
Get someone to help keep you accountable. Find a friend or family member and let them know what you’re doing and get them to either check your progress or compete with you.
The enormous change in our schedules and routines make adherence to fitness a real challenge. Remember that the value in pushing through the desire to just flop on your couch will have positive effects on more than just your physical wellbeing. There are many physiological and psychological changes that occur with physical exercise, that elevate mood, help stave off depression, anxiety and fatigue as well as improving immune function.
Commit, comply and conquer should be your battle cry.
Tracey Cooke
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Soul Training, the workshop designed to teach you that there is more to health and fitness, than just working out and eating right. Tracey leads an engaging workshop that discusses a holistic approach to fitness covering meditation, stress management, sleep, mobility and adherence.
Stress cannot be eliminated, but there are ways to cope with and decrease the negatives effects from it. Tracey discusses the wonders meditation will have on your physical and mental state, and even walks you through a quick, guided meditation.
Many of us have heard the importance of a good night’s sleep, but what benefits does it really have on our body, both physically and mentally? Tracey dives into why getting proper sleep and proper quality of sleep is critical to your health. She also discusses ways you can optimize your sleep to ensure the best quality.
Stretching and mobility work is inherent to our body’s functionality, but why do people only focus on it after an injury? Tracey examines why daily stretching is so important to our body’s wellbeing, and provides you with a few quick and easy exercises you can mix into your day.
Follow-Along Soul Training Stretches
Tracey explores the importance of staying consistent, and ways to adhere to your goals, even when life gets in the way.
Tracey wraps up Soul Training by reminding you of the four main topics we covered, how these are just as important to your physical and mental health as exercise, and how these areas will start you on the path to treating your body more holistically.