Category: Daily

Motivation can get all kinds of annoying dips if you don’t believe in your skills and knowledge to reclaim your energy and strength. When you feel you don’t have the right tools to reach your goals.

That could be any of the following:

1. Knowledge of nutritional needs for energy and strength.
2. Understanding the importance of rest and recovery.
3. Ability to create a sustainable fitness routine.
4. Techniques to manage stress.
5. Skills to prepare quick and healthy meals.
6. Knowledge of how hormones influence energy and strength.
7. Understanding how to adjust workouts based on your needs, resources and capabilities.
8. Ability to identify and deal with signs of burnout.
9. Tools for tracking progress and setting realistic goals.
10. Techniques for effective time management.
11. Strategies to incorporate fitness into your schedule.
12. Knowledge of the benefits of different types of exercise (strength training, cardio etc.).
13. Tools for maintaining motivation and consistency (you’re doing this now!).
14. Understanding of the role of mental health in overall energy and wellbeing.
15. Techniques for mindful eating.
16. Skills for practising self-care.
17. Understanding the importance of sleep quality and quantity.
18. Knowledge of how age-related changes can impact fitness and energy levels.
19. Tools for balancing fitness goals with other life responsibilities.
20. Skills to say “no” to other people’s requests.

How to overcome this annoying motivation zapper.

It’s a cliche, but knowledge is power. Learn more about the topics you struggle with.

Start with the one that will be the biggest hurdle on your path. Read books, listen to podcasts, take courses or hire a coach. Get your friend, partner, or mother-in-law (maybe not) involved and do it together.

Once you’ve got your knowledge and skills to a level you feel confident about, move to the next hurdle.

Tick them off one by one to boost confidence in your skills and abilities.

-J

More specifically, I’ve been saying that you don’t need motivation. Or at least once you’ve found the initial motivation, you don’t need to rely on it.

And I was wrong. For two reasons (at least):

1. I’ve been using the word ‘motivation’ when speaking about ‘enthusiasm.’
2. Motivation can absolutely fade (and there’s usually a specific reason for it – more on that in a sec)

Even when you don’t feel enthusiastic about a task, you can still get it done. You can still get in your steps, do a workout and make healthier food choices. Sometimes you don’t feel like doing things even though you’re motivated. Because life and the batshit complicated human psyche.

Let’s put it this way:

You can feel unenthusiastic while being motivated. But you can’t feel enthusiastic without being motivated. Am I making any sense here?

There are three specific ways your motivation might take a hit to stop you from reclaiming your energy and strength.

I’ll cover all three this week, including how to overcome the motivation struggle with each one.

For now though, I am sorry for my obnoxious past self for spinning bs about motivation.

-J

Most lifestyle change advice revolves around behavioural modification tactics. Eat your veg to feel fuller, sleep earlier to feel more rested, and swim to work to increase your daily activity.

And most of the time, stacking enough of the right habits will get you where you want to go. But…

If you’ve tried a New Testament’s worth of habits and struggle to stick with most or all of them, the problem likely isn’t that you haven’t found the right habits.

Instead, there’s a good chance you struggle with the resilience to cope with the emotions that make these habits so challenging to stick to.

Getting to the bottom of that will help more than any behavioural modification tactic you could find.

-J

You’re at point A and feeling tired. You want to get to point E and feel like a teenager again. (Strength and energy-wise. And definitely not emotionally.)

Right now, the distance between the two spots on the map might seem daunting. And when the big goal occupies all your attention, it’s tempting to jump from one piece of advice, solution and even gimmick to another in hopes of closing that distance as quickly as possible.

We’ve all been there. Chasing for the one thing that delivers unbelievable results in the shortest time possible. Even when all the sensible neurons in our brain tell us it’s a false hope.

So, how do you stay grounded and put in the work without getting distracted by the next shiny object?

Like you’d do with any other big goal. By breaking it into smaller pieces.

Ignore E for now. File it away somewhere.

Focus on B. Once you get there, aim for C. And then D.

Once you’re at D, then focus on E.

Yes, it’s common sense. But that doesn’t mean that it always gets done.

-J

Improving your energy and stopping the afternoon sluggishness from hell often means:

1. Calculate your calories for a week or two to make sure you’re eating enough. You’d be surprised how many women don’t eat way under their daily calorie requirements. No need to be super pedantic about this though. Just aim thereabouts to give you an idea of how much you need.

2. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. If all your meals are all over the place, focus on improving one meal at a time. Often the best place to start is your breakfast. Probably add a morning or an afternoon snack. Or both.

3. Aim for around 20-40 grams of protein and a hefty serving of vegetables per meal. Other than that, include fats and carbohydrates however you see fit to ensure you eat enough calories. And fruit, too, because it’s good for you and helps you poo.

4. Try to eat at least half of your daily calories in the first half of the day. Blood sugar fluctuations, energy zaps and mind-numbing cravings are often signs of hunger carried over from the start of the day.

5. “Indulgent” foods can and probably should be a part of your diet. Having your main meals in order gives you a lot of flexibility to eat the things you love to eat without affecting your energy.

6. Improve your sleep, stress management and recovery. This should probably be number one, but let’s agree that these are not in order of importance.

7. Exercise. Not because it burns calories. But because it helps sharpen your hunger cues and boosts your mood and energy.

And because you might be wondering… Does this mean you must eat three meals and two snacks daily for the rest of your life?

Absolutely not.

But doing so for a while builds the foundation to experiment with different ways of eating that might suit you better.

Yes, there are all kinds of other hacks you can do to improve your energy (spending time in the sun first thing in the morning etc.). But those are just bandaids unless the basics are in place.

-J

Reclaiming your energy and strength isn’t a sprint.

You’re not only looking to visit your destination briefly before heading back.

You want to build a house where you’re going.

How does that change the actions you’re taking today?

J

According to this study, breathwork with cyclic sighing significantly improves mood and anxiety more than meditation.

I know what you’ll ask because that’s the first question I asked.

Cyclic sighing goes like this:

1. Inhale slowly through your nose until your lungs are expanded, then inhale again to fill your lungs maximally. It’s normal for the second inhale to be shorter than the first.
2. Slowly and fully exhale all your breath through your mouth or nose (I’ve been using my nose).
3. Repeat for 5 minutes. Or build up to it.

I’ve been playing with cyclic sighing for the past week and noticed it keeps me more present than focused meditation. Although I’ve been meditating for years, I wouldn’t call myself skilled at it, and my mind tends to go to all kinds of places. Whereas the specific breathing style in cyclic sighing forces me to pay attention.

Worth noting: this was not a registered clinical study but a pre-study done remotely during covid.

Also, it would be interesting to see the difference in results between a group of people with years of meditation practice and another group doing cyclic sighing. I imagine folks super skilled in meditation practice see better results in reducing anxiety and improving mood than novice practitioners.

But I could be wrong. Try it yourself and see what sticks.

-J

Here’s a glimpse of an interaction I had with a client the other day. Discussing self-sabotage and identity and how they might mingle in a way that gets her away from her goals.

Maybe you notice some similarities in yourself?

For context, she’s had a few weeks where she’s missed most of her workouts. Something that’s completely normal in this whole health and fitness thing.

This is all shared with permission.

As a side note, I would actually consider her athletic. Just based on her outdoor activities, she wants to have more energy and strength for. But what I think is irrelevant here.

I can feel a rant boiling up inside me… But let’s see what else she has to say.

Because of how our society defines “athletic”, she’s always felt like she doesn’t belong in that crowd. Just more evidence showing the mental gap between “fit people” and the rest.

I don’t have all the answers on how to close that gap. But what I do know is that posting shiftless six-pack photos on Instagram isn’t going to fucking do it.

-J

In the tornado of responsibilities, it’s easy to let your needs slip through the cracks. You may think that self-care is a luxury you can’t afford.

Picture your energy as a bowl of tom yam soup.

With every task, role and responsibility, you’re spooning out some of that soup. If you keep on spooning, eventually, you’ll be banging the sides of the bowl and coming up empty.

Self-care is like your friendly Uber Eats delivery driver bringing you a tom yam refill. Whether that’s a few minutes of focused breathing, doing a workout or getting a massage.

And when the warm feelings of guilt arise from putting yourself first?

To give your best to your work, your family, and those who expect you to lead, you need to be at your best. Self-care needs to be a non-negotiable part of your routine.

Nobody will be at their best when faced with an empty bowl, previously known as a full bowl, of tom yam.

The elusive quest for “balance” — that perfect equilibrium between work, family and fitness. You can stop looking for it.

Because balance doesn’t exist. Life is a continuously changing beast, and our focus and priorities shift with it.

There are times when fitness finds its way into your top three priorities. When you feel invincible, barely missing workouts and navigating meal times with the same precision as a toddler strategically placing Legos on your path.

Other times, fitness slips down a few notches on your priority list. Behind a critical business project, kids’ sports or marriage that needs immediate resuscitation.

And you know what? That’s just fine.

Life’s about navigating through the flow, prioritising what’s most important at a given moment, and making peace with having only so many shits to give.

Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we might as well start embracing life’s chaos.

-J