Dealing with Low Mo (Low Motivation)

Everyone's been low mo at one time or another. You feel blegh and unmotivated, but you know you "have to" do your health stuff. Moving your body, eating nutritiously, staying on top of your mental health game, all of it. Sometimes you just don't wanna do it.

Then, that icky judgy part of you creeps up out of the darkness and says, "You're not motivated?! You know what that means:

You're a lazy slob!"
This is why you're unhealthy. Healthy people don't feel like this everrrr!"
You'll never get healthy unless you feel pumped to do it!"
Something's obviously wrong with you."
Being unmotivated is bad which makes you bad."
You're doing it wrong!"

Slow your roll, dude. First of all, low mo (aka low motivation) is a natural part of the cycle we all go through. You can't feel motivated all the time just like you can't be happy or energetic all the time. You'd crash and burn HARD.

Judging yourself for being low mo about working out, eating nutritiously or doing your self care is only going to make it harder to stay consistent.

Instead of beating yourself up for not being a motivation machine, try reminding yourself that times of low mo make way for times of high mo. It's natural to feel this way. In fact, EVERYONE feels this way, even Olympic athletes.

Periods of low mo come and go, but what if they're your M.O.?

When Low Mo is your M.O.

If you're reading this and you're like, "Yeah cool, but I haven't felt motivated for months," don't worry. It's really common to feel a lull in motivation after giving up the extremes of performance health culture (dieting, overtraining, etc.). Sometimes it takes weeks. Sometimes it takes years.

Even though low mo is normal in recovery, it can be super frustrating when there are things you just gotta do to feel your best. For you, I've got a couple of recommendations that are going to help you do what you gotta do sans the push-push-push mentality of yore.

Here's how to work with your low mo to get things done.

Catch Your Comparisons

If you're new to performance health recovery, you might be comparing your motivation now to the way motivation used to look when you were in the thrall of extreme diet or fitness culture. It's a typical Mental Optics trap that most of us fall into sometime throughout our recovery journey. The point of recovery, however, is that we want all of it to look different (aka more balanced, aka HEALTHIER).

In Mental Optics terms, you're reading the situation like this: If motivation doesn't look as extreme as it did before, it's not motivation.

To free that sitch (aka reframe it), remind yourself that the way motivation used to look may not be the way it looks for you now.

Motivation in performance health looks very different than it does in PH recovery. It's not going to be as all or nothing and that's the point.

Your goals have changed because you no longer live for those "someday" goals; you move your body and eat to feel good in the now while working toward overall health in a more balanced way. Similarly, your behaviors have changed because you no longer go all out until you burn out.

Reminding yourself that not feeling uber-pumped can actually be progress is a great way to get your head out of gotta-be-different land.

Work With Your Low Mo

Even when you're feeling unmotivated, there are ways to stay on your health regimen that work with where you are. That's the key: working with it, not against it.

The performance health way of doing things is to "suck it up and do it anyway." While that's a great way to make friends with your body (NOT), we're gonna do things a little differently.

Forcing yourself to do the extreme of what you don't want to do builds up resentment in your health regimen and a lack of trust for yourself.

Instead of sucking it up, it's important to listen to the voice that says, "I don't wanna." That voice has been ignored for years when you were in performance health. It's the same voice that says that you're going too hard before you injure yourself, or that not eating isn't right when you're on a cleanse.

The voice of low mo is the same voice that's tried to protect you from yourself in the past; the same voice you used to "suck up" and "push through." Rebuilding trust with it is the key to getting your motivation back.

So how does one rebuild that trust? So happy you asked!

Rebuilding trust (and getting your motivation back) takes 3 things:

Acknowledgment
Affection
Loving compromise

Let's visit each one of these things at a time.

1. Acknowledgement

First thing's first: you have to acknowledge the voice that you ignored for so long. Take a deep breath; this might hurt a little.

Imagine the voice of your low motivation as little you (like, little kid you), just calling out, wanting to be heard. Now imagine little you being told to shut up. Imagine that little kid being taught that she/he doesn't matter, is "crazy," and is making everyone's life difficult.

Horrifying, right?

In essence, that's what we've been doing to that voice inside of us the whole time we've been wrapped up in performance health. We pushed through our better judgment (this voice), and our better judgment is traumatized because of it. That's why that voice inside us is screaming out now. It's why often in recovery, this voice becomes overactive, screaming at you for any activity that has to do with health. It's learned that it needs to be this loud in order to be heard at all.

The first step to healing this ignored part of us is to acknowledge that it has a voice, and that voice is important. It's a simple process.

Sit down.
Close your eyes.
Visualize the voice in whatever way feels right.
Tell it, "I see you. I hear you."

That's it. Don't worry about changing anything yet. Just acknowledge it.

2. Affection

Going off the previous step, you're going to go from acknowledgement into showing that voice affection. You can do this in a couple of different ways.

Visualize hugging the voice or comforting it like you would a child.
Put your hands over wherever you feel the voice lives in your body.
Send loving energy toward the voice.

Super woo, I know, but hang in there...

3. Loving Compromise

While you want to be compassionate for that voice inside of you, you also have to be the adult in the situation. It helps to view the possibilities on a spectrum.

On one side of the spectrum is the thing you're beating yourself up for not wanting to do.
On the other side of the spectrum is doing nothing at all, which is what the voice is probably screaming at you to do.
In the middle is the loving compromise that both sides can live with, AND that will serve as a step toward doing more next time if that's what you choose when that time comes.

The thing to remember about the Loving Compromise is that it's not a permanent answer. What you choose to do today doesn't have to be what you choose to do next time or the time after.

The Loving Compromise gets you moving in a way that feels good and less resist-y than forcing yourself to do what you think you "should" do.

Plus, it paves the way for you to take action again next time in whatever way makes sense for you, be it in the same way or doing a little more if you feel called to.

I've got WAY more for you

Let's be real: motivation is a complex topic that requires a personalized approach. If you want to learn more about how to motivate yourself even when you don't want to, I've got good news for you.

We cover all this and more about motivation in my foundational program, Strong Inside Out Health Essentials.

It's opening up for enrollment in a couple weeks for the first time in a year and a half!Click here to get on the waitlist–space is limited!

Health Essentials is the program I wish I'd had when I first got into health and fitness. Man, it could have saved me a lot of struggle and heartache!

This program incorporates the full scope of what I believe about building an individual relationship with movement and nutrition. If you're looking for a way to get healthy (and motivate yourself to get healthy) without shame, guilt or judgment, check it out. I only accept 20 people for each round so that I can give the support you deserve throughout the 6-week process.

Whatever you choose, do it without judgment and with a whole lotta love. Love for yourself, for the way you want to feel and the way you want to live. I hope I get the chance to help you reveal it.

Hugs n' fist bumps,

Amy!