Staying motivated

I feel like life has been handing me a few lemons lately so what did I do last week? I went to the gym twice and sat on my butt and whined the rest of the week. Really healthy and motivating huh? Staying motivated to go to gym or exercise when life gets busy or crappy or even when it doesn't and you just lose motivation is really hard. So how do you keep it up?

I think most people go through this, even athletes; at least that is what I tell myself to make myself feel better... But how do you keep up the motivation when you have that extra obstacle of Lymphedema. It could have been stress on Thursday but my body, leg and hip ached so badly I went straight home and got into bed. I am not sure if going to the gym would have helped but it probably would have helped if I had just gone for a 20 minute walk. I worked late on Friday and instead of going on a run or walk, I just walked to the red box. Saturday I finally got myself together and did 90 minutes of cardio on the treadmill and in the pool. Here I am on Sunday and I don't want to repeat last week but I feel that unmotivated bug creeping back in (because the darn thing bit me today – grill with friends or exercise, well you see which won out).

I wrote my workouts down for the week so I am thinking I will stick to it. Possibly just writing this post will make me stick to it. My Lymphedema isn't going to magically disappear with my butt on the couch. It won't disappear in the gym either, but the swelling and pain will be near nonexistent if I stick with my exercise and healthy eating. New week = better focus on my priorities.