Finding Lost Motivation

Transcript:

Sometimes motivation is a moving target. What used to motivate you may not be getting the job done anymore. But hey, you must have some amount of motivation if you are watching this course and paying to be a member with me!

You may not feel the same amount of motivation that you did in the early days of surgery and that’s okay too. It’s a unique time in life to have so much excitement around your new post-op life and it won’t always have that level of excitement.

We talk about the honeymoon period a lot with bariatric surgery. The first year after surgery is when portions are smaller, metabolism is efficient, hunger is controlled and results are at their best. That time does come to an end of course but it is also very well named. It’s a Honeymoon. Just like in a marriage, the honeymoon should be amazing and memorable but you do have to come home and the marriage journey begins. When the honeymoon year is over after surgery, that’s okay too. Now you are settling into life together and working through the arguments and learning how to support and love each other even more deeply.

Motivation may not be as strong as it once was, but even little moments of feeling motivation to do something for yourself is a beautiful thing. A moment of motivation to fill your water or schedule a grocery order is enough! Don’t feel like you need to always be fired up and ready because that’s not a realistic expectation for yourself. Some days you’ll be ready to get up early and go for a long walk and other days not so much. It’s okay.

When motivation feels very low and you don’t want to make any changes, remember this. There is a difference between internal motivation and external motivation.

External motivations are things we can surround ourselves to help support our motivation. Putting on workout clothes might motivate you to get some movement. A new water bottle might motivate you to get more water. Internal motivation is the real power of feeling motivated to make changes and when that feels like it’s not very strong, lean on external motivators to help in the meantime. Listening to video courses from me is an external motivator. I can’t reach through the screen and make you make healthy changes, but hopefully as you listen you can start to feel the fire ignite inside of you to make some steps forward.

Also, consider what has helped motivate you in the past? Many post-op patients will say having a walking buddy or someone to meet at the gym is really helpful for motivation and accountability. They have more fun and they know someone will notice if they skip.

Others find motivation when they dangle a carrot of something to work towards. Maybe you ask your spouse to buy you a surprise gift card to a store they know you like and after you plan your meals for 3 weeks straight, you can earn the gift card.

Whatever motivates you, make sure it brings genuine positivity to the process and doesn’t hold something over you that may lead you to feeling guilty if things get off track. Instead of writing down how many pounds you want to lose each week for the next month, skip that. Instead, set a goal of how many minutes of walking you want to get in this month to earn a new pair of headphones to enjoy walking even more.