Motivation, motivation. Where for art thou motivation?

Exercise. Exercise is an important part of losing weight and getting healthy. I know this because the weeks that I get out and exercise at least 3 times, I lose weight. I also have more energy and feel really good when I go work out. Considering I've never been big on exercise, it feels like an accomplishment to get off my butt and go to the gym.

Why am I writing about this today, because I'm struggling with motivating myself to go work out. For some reason this week, my brain is coming up with 101 excuses to skip my workout and, today, I'm having a hard time finding the energy to override my brain.

I want to exercise. I know how I feel after I'm finished. I just have to fight the pull of the couch and re-runs of America's Next Top Model to go change and head to the gym. Last week I talked about how I started using the Couch to 5K app. to start running. I've made it to week 4 and I feel really good about that. I've been doing things differently where I'm doing each week twice. This has help me feel confident about moving to the next week, where there is more running involved and less walking. So last week I ran for 5 minutes for the first time and felt pretty good about it. The week 4 plan is: 5 minute warm up, run for 3 minutes, walk for 1 1/2 minutes, run for 5 minutes, walk for 3 minutes, run for 3 minutes, walk for 1 1/2 minutes, run for 5 minutes, 5 minute cool down. When I finish this cycle, I've gone about 2.3 miles (slowly working my way to that 5K, which is a little over 3 miles). The run part is not always easy. Sometimes the endorphins do not kick in as quickly as I would like and I find that my mind has to push my body through the full 5 minute run. It's like having a cheerleader in my head screaming "You can do this. You have 2 minutes left. There is no way you are going to stop now." Sounds a little crazy, but it really works because I have not stopped during the 5 minute runs.

As I'm writing this, the cheerleader is starting to yell "Get off your butt and get to the gym!" So I am going to end here, get off the couch, change, and go to the gym. I did weigh in yesterday and lost 2 pounds. So I am down a total of 16.2 pounds since I started Weight Watchers in February. A little slow moving, but not too shabby. We'll see what happens next week!