Staying Motivated

99.9999% of us have trouble staying motivated to stay on track with our diet and to get to the gym during the holidays. This morning as I was on a walk to get coffee with one of my friends she told me it was the first time she had done anything active in awhile and that she just feels like a big, lazy blob right now. It IS hard to stay motivated when surrounded with holiday deliciousness and the weather is ugly - makes you just want to curl up with a big blanket in front of the fireplace with a plate of peppermint brownies. Soooooo I thought I would make a list of things that keep me motivated to stay on track:

• Knowing that I will be up on stage in very little clothing in less than 18 weeks with a zillion people staring at me under bright lights. Can anything possibly be any more motivating???? Actually I am leaning towards competing in Vancouver at the end of March also which means it is really less than 15 weeks. Ummmm yikes!!!!
• The little green thing on my wrist - just reminds me to stay on track for list item #1!
• Reading other people's amazing body transformation stories. Bodybuilding.com has a lot of good ones. 
• Surrounding myself with other people who support me, especially others with similar goals. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who still poo poo the whole competition thing but I just try to ignore those Snarky Doodle Doos (yes that group of people has a new fancy name!) 
• Wearing my muffin top pants. Oh yea, I have a pair of awesome stretchy workout pants from Lucy that I bought years ago. No matter how many inches I lose off my waist or how much my body fat decreases, these pants never fail to give me a cute little muffin top. Actually, I am wearing them right now with an awesome WaMu CAN t-shirt and some pink polka dot socks. Yes, it is laundry day. And no, I will not take a picture to post. These pants motivate me because I'm determined that someday there will be no muffin top. 
• Thinking about my next cheat meal. I have now proven to myself that I can go a significant stretch of time without a single cheat (8 weeks - holy cow!) but I do look forward to them! I discovered an amazing salad mix at Costco - Broccoli salad. I know, weird that I would LOVE broccoli salad :) This is what it looks like: 

It has broccoli/broccoli slaw, bacon pieces, walnuts, dried cranberries and this amazingly sinful dressing. The dressing packet is HUGE so I didn't even need to use all of it or it would have been swimming! This will now be a core part of my next two cheat meals (last two before April!)

• Visualizing what I will look like in April - I imagine myself looking like I could be on the cover of Oxygen magazine. Maybe not super realistic but hey, we can all dream :)
• My morning cardio followed by a strong cup of coffee (or even better my "Christmas coffee" AKA SF peppermint americano) As crazy as it may sound, I get totally energized by that 40 minute sweat session. I can't imagine NOT doing cardio first thing in the morning now - it would be like not drinking coffee! I just realized yesterday that since I started doing morning cardio, I haven't hit my snooze button at all when my alarm goes off! 

A Little Inspiration Goes a Long Way

You might be asking yourself "what is that green thing on your wrist???" It's the special little piece of inspiration that arrived in the mail today in a green envelope. But what is it? It's the fancy wristband that all registered 2012 Emerald Cup competitors receive to help keep them motivated while preparing to step on stage. It might seem a little silly but it will be there as a constant reminder in a moment of weakness if I feel like skipping a workout (oh please, like I would do that!) or feel like diving into Andy's hidden bag of tortilla chips (that sounds a little more likely!) I can look down and see this little band of green which will remind me of my goal.

I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning as I dashed out to the mailbox just knowing that today would be the day I would receive my EC competitor packet in the mail. I only knew this since I received an email yesterday that it would be arriving in the mail. I actually ran back in the house, gently tore open the envelope (gotta save it as a souvenir of my first show!) and proudly put on my wristband. Then I went to the gym and when I felt like skipping my last rep or two because I was sore and tired, I looked down at the green and went for it! I even upped my weight on a few things. 

This couldn't have come at a better time . .  .I had my 4-week check in this morning on my progress and was pleased and disappointed all at the same time. I have been feeling rather bloated the past two weeks so I wasn't really sure what the numbers would look like. The good news was that my body fat % dropped another 2% but of course I like to set unrealistic expectations and was wanting it to drop another 4% like the last time I had my measurements done. I mentally beat myself up for a few minutes and thought "what did I do wrong?". I realized the answer is NOTHING!!! I did everything exactly as I was supposed to - I stuck to my diet 100% (except for my 1x week cheat but those are planned and prescribed!) and didn't miss a single workout no matter how tired or crappy I felt. So for now my diet and strength training will stay the same and my cardio will slightly increase with an added 5 minutes to my morning session and 15 minutes post strength training 4 nights a week. Very manageable! 

I'm excited to see what my progress will be over the next 19 weeks and 6 days before I step on stage. Now I think it's time to do a little posing practice in my snazzy clear, plastic shoes before tonight's cheat meal. I'm not doing anything crazy this time - just a yummy homemade taco salad and some chips and salsa followed by some lowfat peppermint ice cream.