American Fitness Professionals & Associates

This article is an excerpt from “Eat to be Fit — The Truth About Fat Loss”, By Michael J. Foley, M.S. with Pat Walsh; published November, 2002, Living Well Publishing Company, Portland, ME.

The very first step in any change-of-lifestyle program you begin must be to understand your motivation for making a change. This is so important because when you are tempted to do things that are not in line with your program goals, you will need to make many decisions, both big and small, every day about your diet and exercise plan. You will need to be able to take out your motivation and look at it, remember why you are trying to change, and consider the consequences of taking any action that will not lead to your ultimate goal, actions that will delay you from reaching your goal, or undermine your progress altogether.

Motivation is a very personal thing. It varies from person to person. Some of the more common motivations for undertaking the lifestyle changes that will lead to physical fitness are:

• Improved appearance
• Long term health benefits
• Improved physical performance
• Freedom from aches and pains
• Stress reduction
• Increased energy

It will help you understand your personal motivation and enable you to articulate it clearly, if you write down, in your own words, exactly what your motivation for change is. You may be motivated by something in the beginning that will change as you make progress toward your goals. Become very familiar with your motivation, strengthen it by thinking of it often, polish it up and look at it frequently. Without strong motivation, major lifestyle change will be impossible.

When defining and understanding your motivation, it may help to think of something that motivates you every day. I am motivated when I look around and see people excelling.

Portland, Maine Police Chief Mike Chitwood, for example, heads the largest municipal police department in the State of Maine, and yet he finds time to work out even when handling the most severe crises.

Think of something positive that will help you in the short term. Picture yourself where you want to be in the next week, in the next month. Keep in mind how great you feel after a good workout or a good day following your nutrition plan.

That alone motivates many of my clients to keep their programs going.

If you are motivated, nothing will stand in the way of staying on your program. You will be able to overcome even legitimate reasons for going off the program if your motivation is clear and strong enough. When you stop caring about your self-improvement, your motivation goes out the door.

There may be times when this happens and your self-improvement efforts fall to a lower priority in your life.

Maybe the passion has died, maybe something has happened to cause you to doubt your own self-worth. If this does happen, keep the door open for a regeneration of your passion, caring and motivation. I have seen this happen time and again with clients, and when they resume their program it is with renewed passion and determination.

You will find that each time you overcome the temptation to eat something that is not on your plan, or skip your weight training or cardio workout, you will grow stronger and that will make it easier to face and overcome the next temptation.

Pat’s Perspective:

“My initial motivation to begin a fitness program at the age of fifty-five had nothing to do with appearance or long term health benefits. Even though I was thirty-five pounds overweight, my appearance was acceptable to me. I wasn’t unhappy with myself in that regard…actually, I didn’t really care. I was neat, clean and could look okay in the right clothes. I wasn’t at all self-conscious about my appearance, except perhaps in a bathing suit or sleeveless top. I could avoid those most of the time, anyway! I’d never had much interest in long term goals, so quite honestly, that was not a motivating factor either.

“One thing that really did motivate me was that I had become so sedentary after my early retirement that I had very little physical energy and lots of aches and pains, all the time, every day. Osteoarthritis of the spine can be very painful, and for me was not only excruciating at times, it made me feel frail and old, way before the time I should have felt frail and old. I couldn’t take care of my grandchildren because I could neither lift them nor keep up with their activities. I was barely able to take care of myself…even going up and down stairs with my laundry was becoming too much for me. I was alarmed, yet didn’t know what to do about it. “I have been lucky enough to be able to ask questions of the universe, God, the spirit world, or however you would like to think of it, and get answers.

Before starting my fitness program, I had a close relative narrowly escape death. After being unconscious in intensive care for nineteen days following surgery, he made a complete recovery. I was so grateful for that I asked one night: “What can I do for him?” Among other suggestions

came, loud and clear, “get into the best shape you can.” I was surprised but took that suggestion to heart. That really was what motivated me to go into the gym for the very first time. I did not have any idea that the results would be so wonderful that in a very short time I would realize that I was doing this for myself, and for the greater enjoyment of my own life, and not for any other reason or person.

Michael J. Foley,  mfoley2000@hotmail.com, 207-797-5700
Pat Walsh, kwalsh1@maine.rr.com
207-878-8386