One of the harder questions to ask yourself when you are deciding to exercise is if you are exercising because you hate your body or because you love your body

Exercising is neutral in essence but when you have emotional attachment to it, then you have two options: positive or negative.

Some people exercise because they have let themselves go and put on some weight or they want to look a certain way because they see models or actors/actresses. This can motivate people very quickly to start working out and going to bootcamps or start dieting hard, but only for a short amount of time.

There is a high turnover rate for these kinds of people, especially the New Years resolution crowd. People are not happy with the way they look after the holidays and want to make a change. So they see their local 24 Hour Fitness, Planet Fitness, or even private gyms having specials for New Years memberships. So they decide to get a membership and workout to get rid of the body they are not content with.

Now this strategy only works for certain kinds of people, for others, it will motivate them for about 3-4 months, and then come March/April, they slowly stop going to the gym and continue their habits before going to the gym because they have no more motivation to workout. The “New Year” is over and its a quarter through the year so there is no hype or motivation to workout anymore.

On the other hand, there are people that learn to be very content with their bodies and just want to optimize their health for longevity and just the rush of exercise. These people do not need much motivation to workout and make it to the gym because they already love their bodies and just want to make them better.

This does not just happen for most people, it takes years and years of practice to love yourself and honestly, its a constant battle. Everyday is a new day to either love or hate yourself. But by choosing to love yourself, the days will seem brighter and brighter and not as hard. You will begin to see that you do things that you once hated, and not worry about the stress of “oh no, I HAVE to hit the gym today”, instead you will get excited about working out and bettering your body and health.

So I encourage people to do the self-work like gratitude, self-love, and taking care of their insides, before they start to work on the outside. Because at the end of the day, its the inside that counts!

Thank you for reading and hope this helps for you guys!

And remember to Control the Basics