What I do when I lack motivation | Short and sweet Glute Workout

I’m feeling quite demotivated to exercise and eat healthy at the moment… Like, I’ll be honest with you guys… I’m writing this post in bed while eating Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups…

Lately my diet hasn’t been on track, and I do have days where I don’t manage to eat a single veggie. I’ve been craving sweets aaaalll the time for the past couple of weeks, been feeling tired, irritated and, well… Just not my best. On top of that I’m feeling really unmotivated with my workouts… Sometimes eating healthy and going to the gym is so easy because you’re driven and motivated. You’re feeling amazing and it’s just the best! But sometimes I go through fases where I feel like this…

It’s about damage control. So what do I do?

Instead of trying to take away things from my diet (like those delicious Peanut Butter Cups) when I’m in an unmotivated stage, I focus on just adding more good things to keep my diet rich in nutrients and fibre.

Usually when when experience cravings it’s because the body is missing something. If I crave sweets a lot I’ll still have some, but not until I’ve had a proper meal with both protein, healthy fats and veggies. After that meal I’ll most likely wait 10-20 minutes and if I’m still craving something sweet, I’ll have some.
I always just buy a small package and try to eat it slowly and mindfully, until my cravings go away.
One small package of 3 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups is 51 grams and with 511 calories per 100 grams that lands me at approx. 255 kcal. Which is the same as 2 pieces of fruit, which most of us think of as a super healthy snack. And it is healthier, but if we focus on weight management and out diet is otherwise good and varied, in the end, it’s the same! But I feel like I had what I was really craving and so, my craving will be more likely to go away and I’ll probably end up eating less overall hroughout the day, because my mind is not constantly obsessing about all the foods I can’t have. That’s the way I found I can avoid my previous cycles of restriction/binge-eating.

With my training, I still try to get to the gym at least 4-6 times a week, which I know is a lot for some people. In addition to this I go on a few walks and teach a couple of yoga classes each week. The exercise I do I lighter than what I would do if I was is a very motivated stage, but it still keeps me active and most importantly, it keeps going to the gym and exercising as a habit in my life.

Having exercise as a habit in my life is the only reason why I can make it to the gym 4-6 times a week even though I’m feeling zero motivation for it! I just go because that’s what I do. When I get there, I usually put on a tv show or Youtube video and walk for 30 minutes at a moderately hard pace and incline. It’s pretty easy but still gives me 30 minutes of cardio in the book!

Then I’ll do 3-5 exercises for whatever bodypart I’m training on that day. Today was lower body/glutes and below I’ll list the complete workout.

Short and sweet Glute Workout:

A1: Backsquat 3×10
A2: Band side walks 3×15 each way

B1: Romanian deadlift 3×10
B2: Frog pumps 3×50

I started with my 30 minutes of cardio as described above, did a few warm-ups sets with lower weights, and then loaded the bar with a moderate/high work weight and completed all 3 sets for both supersets. And then I went home! I was at the gym for less than an hour, and even though this workout won’t dramatically improve my bodycomposition I’ve found that as long as I’m consistent with my short, moderstely intense workouts, I’m able to keep an overall pretty nice and fit figure.

Hopefully my motivation for a great diet and intense workouts will be back soon. If not… Well, this isn’t so bad either. If you’refeeling unmotivated yourself, just do whatever is easy enough for you to do consistently. It might be a 20 minute walk every day during your lunch break or adding a few veggies to your dinner plate. These seemingly small changes will add up over time and it’ll be so much easier to incorporate other good habits later on if you start today… Even if you don’t feel like it ;)