If the self-motivation begins to slip
Whether you had the self-motivation to begin with or someone
instilled it in you, when you get to the point when you just don’t care anymore
there is not much which will change your mind. The trick is to prevent the
slippery slope of self-doubt, exhaustion and boredom before it leads to you
throwing in the sweat towel. This feeling of motivation leaving my exhausted
body has happened more than once during the past months, but I refuse to quit.
There are too many friends, relatives and people who really DON’T CARE but are
forced to read my posts who know. At first, your own motivation alone may not
be enough. If you have started a fitness plan (INSANITY or not) without telling
a sole, you have more self-motivation than myself. What I lack in
self-motivation I gain in you knowing and waiting for me to quit. When I can
barely drag myself in front of the TV and press play, knowing the hour of
exhaustion that is to follow, I think of the feeling I get when the timer
reaches < 5 minutes and how good I feel the morning after: the now familiar
aching feeling which means the day before was a successful workout. If like me
motivation comes and goes (“My healthy diet starts on Monday!!”), push through
the days when you want to stop: It’s a lot harder to start over.
Guest piece from Insane Girl II at No. 46
I got sick on day 39 of INSANITY. Right slap
bang in the middle of it. An influenza virus decided to pitch up and have a humdinger
of a party in my sinuses, throat and chest making the daily ritual impossible.
Shaun T, forgive me. Listening to my housemate’s distinctive INSANITY noises
from the sickbed provoked feelings of guilt, but participating may have
prolonged or worsened the illness. My advice? When you get sick, STOP the
programme and wait until you feel human again. Your body is a battlefield
during infection so be sure to give it the support that it needs, not make it
work 5 times harder. Perhaps light exercise may speed up the viral fight but
INSANITY isn’t quite light exercise, is it?!
Getting back into INSANITY after 4 days off
has proved difficult- mostly due to residual phlegm but also because of
feelings of frustration. It feels like the fitness that I’d built up over the
past 5 weeks has wasted away during my bed-bound days. And I probably won’t get
the fit test results I hoped for next time around. But perseverance must prevail! Illness is one
of those inevitabilities in life and I was unlucky to catch it during this
training. You just have to gradually build up back to your pre-illness level in
order to recapture the lost fitness over those missed days. Easier said than
done, but it’s the only way to move forward!
Another side thought- this was perhaps the worst
bought of ‘flu that I’ve had for a few years. Did the “death by Shaun T” day 36
(fit test plus max interval training) make the ‘flu effects worse? It seems that prolonged periods (> 90 mins)
of intense activity elevate hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, and these
have negative effects on immune function. The workout certainly didn’t make me
sick, but trying to fight through the initial ‘flu-like feelings might have
hampered my white blood cells efforts during the first stages of the infection.
In conclusion, stay very far away from sick people to ensure an optimal
uninterrupted INSANITY programme!
I got sick on day 39 of INSANITY. Right slap
bang in the middle of it. An influenza virus decided to pitch up and have a humdinger
of a party in my sinuses, throat and chest making the daily ritual impossible.
Shaun T, forgive me. Listening to my housemate’s distinctive INSANITY noises
from the sickbed provoked feelings of guilt, but participating may have
prolonged or worsened the illness. My advice? When you get sick, STOP the
programme and wait until you feel human again. Your body is a battlefield
during infection so be sure to give it the support that it needs, not make it
work 5 times harder. Perhaps light exercise may speed up the viral fight but
INSANITY isn’t quite light exercise, is it?!
Getting back into INSANITY after 4 days off
has proved difficult- mostly due to residual phlegm but also because of
feelings of frustration. It feels like the fitness that I’d built up over the
past 5 weeks has wasted away during my bed-bound days. And I probably won’t get
the fit test results I hoped for next time around. But perseverance must prevail! Illness is one
of those inevitabilities in life and I was unlucky to catch it during this
training. You just have to gradually build up back to your pre-illness level in
order to recapture the lost fitness over those missed days. Easier said than
done, but it’s the only way to move forward!
Another side thought- this was perhaps the worst
bought of ‘flu that I’ve had for a few years. Did the “death by Shaun T” day 36
(fit test plus max interval training) make the ‘flu effects worse? It seems that prolonged periods (> 90 mins)
of intense activity elevate hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, and these
have negative effects on immune function. The workout certainly didn’t make me
sick, but trying to fight through the initial ‘flu-like feelings might have
hampered my white blood cells efforts during the first stages of the infection.
In conclusion, stay very far away from sick people to ensure an optimal
uninterrupted INSANITY programme!
No comments:
Post a Comment