What to do when you don’t want to work out

The answer is: don’t work out

There’ll be days when you wake up, you go about your morning or your afternoon or your evening and you just don’t want to work out. And I think that’s fine.

I’ve said in a previous post that consistency is debatably the most important part of working out and wanting to gain/lose weight. If you’re not consistent in your work outs or your diet, then you won’t see progress. I stand by that. However, I also believe that you should do what’s best for your body and your mind.

Today I didn’t want to work out. It was supposed to be legs / abs day. I woke up, feeling okay. I had a decent breakfast. I went out to the pool. Spent a few hours tanning and reading. Had some food for lunch. Went to my Nonnas. Went grocery shopping. Cooked dinner. Watched some of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Laid down to read some more. And by the time I looked at the clock, it was 9pm.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t work out. I just truly didn’t want to. I felt almost a bit ‘burnt out’ and mentally exhausted. And I don’t necessarily believe in forcing myself to work out when my body is telling me not to. My dad made a good point, too. He said when you start to dread going to the gym or dread certain work outs, you won’t feel excited or motivated to do the work. And I feel like that’s true for just any other life situation. We should be doing the things that make us happy and that we look forward to doing. Yes, working out is hard. It’s hard work! But it’s also rewarding and it does make you feel better, both physically and mentally. When it comes to committing to something difficult, we should make it a priority to make that hard thing enjoyable and something we want to do! It makes life that much better!

I also knew deep down that this wouldn’t fully affect my consistent work out groove I have going on. I’m feeling strong and seeing progress, I don’t want to lose that momentum. I’m confident that taking the day to focus on me / what I want to do will put me in a better mindset for tomorrow’s work out.

I feel refreshed and ready to take on the week.