Or as my mom used to say, “My get-up-and-go got up and went!” 🙂
It seems to go with the “will it ever be spring” blahs. But it can also be after getting over illness, a stressful time, overly busy schedule–any number of things!
And just telling yourself, “I need to quit this and get with it!” doesn’t always work. So where can we find that motivation?!
I have had times where just the motivation of knowing this is good for me worked. And I have had times where even though I knew that, it just didn’t motivate me. Probably the hardest time I had was after my mom’s unexpected death. I knew my adrenals had “taken a hit”, so I wisely backed off. During that time I did mostly 1-2 workouts a week, all shorter workouts. Then I went through a period of time where I did absolutely no T-Tapp. Not even a Primary Back Stretch!
I tried to restart with MORE, but that didn’t last long due to me becoming very sick. We then went on our big “East Trip”, where I got in a few workouts with friends as well as having the privilege of attending the annual T-Tapp Retreat at Safety Harbor. Due to my adrenals still slowly healing, I sat out some of the workouts, took lots of notes and only did half the reps in most of the workouts I did do.
I was inspired to “get back to it”, and decided to do an online class with Charlotte Siems. I enjoyed it thoroughly and was able to ease back into the saddle a bit. I thought I’d be good for the holidays (her class ended mid-November), but, alas! I “fell off the wagon” again! I didn’t stress about it….I had already made the decision to become a T-Tapp trainer and of course I wasn’t giving up! But it just seemed to be hard to “get with it.” I firmly believe I was dealing with the physical issues of my adrenal fatigue as well as the emotional issues of losing my mom so suddenly.
After the holidays I was able to start doing some workouts, although still not as consistently as I would have liked! Once I finally dealt with the emotional issue of my mom’s passing, I was able to be more consistent. Yes, I believe there is a connection!
So I first would look at what emotional issues you are dealing with. Could be a stressful relationship, struggles at work, a chronically sick child, ailing parents, just life being extra busy. You can’t always magically make things better, but you can face the problem. I’m sure you’ve heard it said that just recognizing and admitting the problem is half the battle!
That’s where I was with my emotional issues. I finally “gave myself permission” to hurt about it. To miss her. To work through the feelings and come out on the other side. Even though I didn’t get to the other side of it right away, just admitting it and letting myself work through it was a huge relief. I think being the oldest and having type A tendencies contributed to making me feel I needed to stay “strong”. No one was putting that on me; I had to face myself in that.
Another possibility is your own health. I can’t say it enough–very often a lack of motivation is a symptom of adrenal fatigue. I have had several people tell me they are not adrenal fatigued, or that they really don’t have that much stress. Then they proceed to tell me how their children were all sick at once last month, their mother has some strange symptoms and they are going to doctor visits with her, a husband had a major job change and finances are tighter–oh, and they have a major event (wedding, anniversary party for parents, you-name-it) coming up that they are responsible for!
Yikes!
I really believe we have come to expect a certain level of stress as normal! Then we don’t recognize when overload is occurring. Until we start crashing!
Really slow down and take a hard, honest look at things. What if this were your sister or dearest friend? What would you advise her about her crazy, busy life? There are many things we can’t control, but there are always others that we can.
So you’ve looked at your emotional issues, taken stock of your schedule and life, and maybe you’ve even cut back on some things. Does that make motivation just appear?!
Don’t we wish! 🙂
Even though those are good things to do, it doesn’t always trip the switch of motivation. Then we can look at some practical things to get our groove back.
Read testimonies that inspire you. (Note: if you know you are a slow loser, reading testimonies of those who lost more quickly will not be much motivation!)
Read through Fit and Fabulous again. You will be inspired by the stories there, but you will also be surprised some of the form tips that will stand out to you more now that you’ve been T-Tapping for awhile.
Watch a dvd. Yes, I said watch it! Trainer Dan Wiley (or Dantheman, as we all know him!) has a great post about “reading the workout”. Watching and gleaning further tips that you can’t always catch when doing it.
Finally start small. Do the Terrific Three (PBS, T-Tapp Twist, and 1 HoeDown) or The Fab Four (PBS, T-Tapp Twist, 1 HoeDown and Thread The Needle). Or any mix of 2-3 moves, whether from a workout or TappCore. Just be sure to do them in order if from a workout (no T-Tapp Twist before Reach Scoops, for example).
If you have the MORE workout, starting with MORE Chair is a great way to get back into a workout routine. You can also use TappCore as mentioned and do2-3 moves a day. There’s also SunRay TappCore (also known as TappCore 2) which is seated and a lot of fun!
But if you don’t have those, you can still ease yourself in with BWO+. You could split it up or do fewer reps. Hold the plie squat vs. going up and down. In fact, I’ll give you two options for a “Find My Motivation” schedule using BWO+! 🙂
Option 1:
M: PBS, Plies (hold the squat and kick out after each set—the pause button IS your friend!), Reach Scoops (4 reps only on both Plies and Reach Scoops).
T: PBS, T-Tapp Twist stretch only (you could take a walk if you want)
W: Same as Tuesday
Th: PBS, then pick up BWO+ at Jazz Twist–don’t do the singles. The Box, do as shown, then do Oil Wells, only 4 reps. Kick out between moves if you need to.
F: Like Tuesday
S: PBS, then T-Tapp Twist. Only 4 reps, kick out between sides and after done. 1 HoeDown
S: PBS only
Option 2 for the bit more adventurous!:
M: PBS, Plies as in option 1, Reach Scoops (4 reps), Jazz Twist (no singles)
T: PBS, T-Tapp Twist Stretch, 1 Hoedown (walk if you like)
W: PBS, The Box, Oil Wells (4 reps), T-Tapp Twist (4 reps each side, kick out between sides), 1 Hoedown
Th: Like Tuesday
F: PBS, Reach Scoops (4 reps), Jazz Twist (no singles), T-Tapp Twist (4 reps and kick out between sides), 1 HoeDown
S: Like Tuesday
S: PBS only
If you’re up to doing the whole workout, go every other day (EOD) or even every second day (EO2D). Remember, your goal is to get back into it without overwhelming yourself!
Chances are you’ll start picking up momentum–you’ll be feeling better and sleeping better and soon you won’t have to think about it–of course you’re working out!
Be realistic for the season of life you’re in, see if there are emotional issues or too much busyness sabotaging your motivation, and pick somewhere and start. Often just lacing up my Skechers and saying, “You only have to do PBS and part of Plies” got me going–and finishing!
Have you have anything that helped you find your “get-up-and-go”? Please share!
P.S. Charlotte has a great post about Exercise After Illness here.
I loved the quote from your mom — because I remember my mom saying the same thing! She got it from her Mom! LOL!
Great post! I do have it inscribed in my head now from you and Charlotte that “something is better than nothing!”
I also think of Karen Dent’s quote — “Use what you have. Do what you can. Trust God to perfect it.”
Blessings,
Elizabeth
I loved Karin’s quote and wrote that out and had it in a prominent place more than once to remind myself!
Yes, little baby steps add up faster than sitting and wishing about it! 😉
The key phrase for me was ” I finally “gave myself permission” to hurt about it. ” I think that’s the key that unlocks emotional healing.
Love the quote in your reply, Elizabeth, too!
Very true, Nanci! Why is it sooo hard to “give ourselves” that permission?! :p
Trisch, Thank you so much for this article. I need to understand adrenal fatigue. I gained 100 lbs. after moving to another state and haven’t been able to lose weight. I attributed to stress with my doctor, but he just tells me that I need to basically be hungry and eat like a bird. Thanks, again!
Oh, my! Time to find a new doctor! Grrrr!
First of all, just “eating less and be a little hungry” or the “eat less and exercise more” is not good advice. It’s not that cut and dried. And I get really tired of people (both men and women) who are supposed to be health care professionals not having a basic understanding of metabolism.
Stress really can make you “hang onto fat”. In this past year, I found out how even “holding onto things emotionally” can affect our bodies’ ability to release the fat!
Have you read anything by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein? She has a lot of wisdom in this area. You can learn a lot just from her website. If you can, get either her first or second book through your library. The third one, The Program, is more of a “quick start” without all the whys behind it (has some, but not extensive). The Transition is the best for explaining how your metabolism works and why traditional “dieting” and exercising don’t ultimately work. The only thing that would make her program perfect is if she knew about T-Tapp! 🙂
Here is her website: http://www.schwarzbeinprinciple.com/pgs/home.html#
The overview of her principles on The Program tab is good, but this page in particular will explain a lot:
http://www.schwarzbeinprinciple.com/pgs/program/transitn_read_more.html
And this page has a lot of short videos that are helpful:
http://www.schwarzbeinprinciple.com/pgs/info/faq1.html
You do not have to do her testing to get benefit from her principles. Her basic motto is: “You have to eat well to build well and feel well, and you don’t lose weight to get healthy, you get healthy to lose weight.” That has been my experience to a “T”! I lost 8 sizes as of last spring and only 30 lbs.–yes, you read that right!
Then this past summer, I continued healing and dealt with some emotional issues and lost another 20 lbs. and another size–but even better, my body started reshaping.
Here is a great compilation of threads on the T-Tapp forum that I did a few years back why “weight doesn’t matter”–don’t get me wrong, I know we don’t need to be carrying around a lot of excess fat weight, but going by a dumb scale number does NOT tell the whole story!
http://forum.t-tapp.com/showthread.php?63950-Weight-Doesn-t-Matter-Repeat-After-Me!
HTH! And BIG HUGS!
~Trisch
Trisch…Thank you so very much again for sharing the knowledge you have collected along the way. The funny thing is that this was the first doc after going to 4 that found my hypothyroid. LOL. He lost a large amount of weight by his method…said he didn’t eat out and stayed out of the kitchen…great for him…he’s not a woman who has to cook for the family. 🙂 He is a nice man, I think just a little narrow minded when it comes to this subject. I will look up the website links you sent to me. Maybe I need to seek out an endorcinologist as well. I’ll do some more reading. I agree with you that emotions, stress, etc. help you maintain the pounds. As soon as I’m off for a few days from work, I lose weight without trying….hmmmm.
Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you! Have a great week!
Well, I know men can lose easier than women (testosterone!), and it may be hard for them to remember that we’re not created equal! 😉 Not to mention, as you said, he’s not having to be in the kitchen cooking! Wonder if he’d mind his wife doing that so she could lose weight?! 😀
Hmmm…it does sound like the stress may be affecting things! Now the trick is how to be able to continue living life and yet reducing the stress as much as possible! (Without having to quit work! LOL!)
HUGS to you!
~Trisch
THIS was encouraging! Thank you. I realize now that I am under way more stress than I realize, because like you said, “We have come to expect a certain amount of stress as normal.” When I sit here and think about it, our life has been full of stressful circumstances this year that I have just wrote off as being “normal.” My first step is emotional healing and relearning ttapp along with a couple moves a day. Thank you~
I’m glad you are encouraged, Angie! Be kind to yourself and take baby steps. You’ll get back to health and consistency!
{{{HUGS}}}
~Trisch