We all know what we should be doing and why. The problem is that sometimes we lack the motivation to get things done. For instance, many people made New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and now the only exercise we get is writing the check to pay the gym fees because we stopped working out.
You have to admit to yourself that at one time in your life you have paid for a gym membership, gone to the gym for the first month or two if you could and after that the bills went to the gym more than you did.
Is the problem the gym, the people at the gym, or getting out of the house or leaving work to go to the gym? Ok, how about the exercise programs you purchase from the television infomercials? The problem is neither of these external factors. The problem is our lack of motivation. So, if motivation is the problem, how can we get ourselves motivated enough to go?
“Get a buddy,” says Charles Harris III of Chizel-It Fitness Center. Find a place where you feel you are a part of the group and you are missed if you do not show up. Just do it. This sounds easier than practical.
“Have someone to be accountable to, isolation is an easy way to say no to yourself, you need someone to say, hey, you said 6am…you will let yourself down before you let someone else down,” says Harris.
Chizel-It Fitness Center is located in the Owings Mills Mall in Baltimore County where he has been for the past three years. The latest exercise craze is Zumba and he also offers his Chizel-It class and Ab-Attack. The fitness center has eight certified trainers and the hours are from 9:30 a.m. until 8:p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“Motivation is the ability to get a person enthusiastic from the inside out, finding a reason to do something. Wanting to lose weight might not be enough, but if a doctor tells you that your blood pressure is too high that might be enough to motivate you to get moving,” says Harris.
“Some tricks to keep yourself motivated are: repeat your goals as affirmations, keep your goals written down and in front of you on index cards, use pictures of what you want to achieve or how you want to look when you go on that trip to Jamaica, Harris says.
You can tell whether a person is motivated by their track record, look at their activity level, the proof is in the pudding.”
Lesa Collington, a pre-kindergarten teacher at the New Rogers Avenue Day Nursery and was a loyal participant of the fitness center until an injury in April of 2009. Collington began working out at Chizel-It because she felt she found the perfect place to exercise. After many years of looking at herself in the mirror she had an eye-opener, she needed to lose some weight, to be healthy and strong and look better.
“I am a people-Out person and not so motivated to do by myself. When I heard about the gym, I talked to people and it was not typical, it was fun, they had classes so I didn’t feel out of place on the exercise equipment and the music was exciting,” says Collington.
Collington formed friendships with the people who went to the fitness center and rejoiced when she saw people lose weight and reach their goals.
“For me, seeing the people there was my motivation,” she says.
Collington reminisces about her first experience with her trainer, Dwayne. He had her run up and down the stairs four times and she says it felt as if a knife was in her chest. What are you, soft?, he shouted.
She could not believe she could not run up and down those stairs four times.
“From that day, I would run when he was not there, my goal was to do better with the steps,” says Collington.
Since being restricted by her doctor, Collington takes a slow walk along her usual route and occasionally uses the treadmill which she says is boring. She is anxiously waiting to get back into the gym.
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