Hi Susan:
I echo the thoughts of the previous posters.
Get free of discipline, limitations, rigid timetables, restrictions on both your activity and your eating!!!! We are made human, that means we crave pleasurable activities, and how much of that are you getting right now? Restrictions on both exercise ("you must complete this rotation, no that's not on the schedule for today") and food ("that's not allowed, neither is that") send us straight into this apathetic mode, resistance mode and we start to resent the very program that is suposed to produce such great results. But, if your mind and body are totally sick of it all and having no fun whatsoever, then you won't stick with it and it will produce no results at all!
You are 'cheating' right now because you are resenting what you have laid out for yourself as a requirement......and I am not surprised, I'd be cheating too!!
Free yourself and allow yourself to enjoy your exercise routines. They will only work for you to the extent that you are constantly motivated to do them, then you will see the results you desire, and that in itself helps fuel the motivation to continue!!! It needn't be a vicious cycle, it could become a pleasurable cycle!!
You know what? I write out my rotation for the week at the start of every one, and by the end of the week, most of it has been re-written because I just hate timetables and limitations, there's so much of it in our daily lives anyway, I don't need to be imposing more of them upon myself, and you know what? If I've had a bad day and I'm had it up to here with grading undergrads' mediocre term papers, then perhaps I will not be able to muster the concentration required to really push through Pyramid Upper Body, and what I reallly need is to let rip with the fabulous music of Imax 2, so I give myself the freedom to change the stated routine on a daily basis according to what my mind and pleasure zones need and crave each day too. You can call me a 'cheater' on a daily basis if you like, but ya know what? I am still seeing results here.........
There are a multiplicity of ways to make sure you get the basic receipe each week (3 cardios min and 2 weights workouts per body part), so experiment, play and don't waste time trying to force yourself to do something you are instinctively resisting.
And if the weather is nice where you live: TAKE IT OUTSIDE!!!!! Go sample the Spring flowers and the greenness of it all on a walk. So much better for the soul, put a few things in perspective, the weights' room can wait until it's raining at the end of the week.........;-)
Take care and take a look at what 's happening out the window!
Clare
