This is a special blog contribution from one of our newest teachers, Shane. Shane may be very motivating on the bike and fun to listen to sing along in class but he has also worked hard for his fitness over the years. He’s struggled with his weight all his life. Continue reading for tips about motivation and his amazing journey to find health, love and happiness!
When did you first realize you had a health issue?
When I graduated from college, my doctor described me as obese, weighing 100 pounds more than I do now. Besides the moniker of “obese,” my weight had a number of negative effects on my life.
How were you able to make such a significant lifestyle change?
I have discovered that motivation is a very important part of achieving (any) goals. It allows you to change day-to-day inertia to accomplish whatever it is you want. When it comes to exercise, a lot of people have goals focused on weight loss like “I want to lose 5 pounds”. It’s not uncommon for someone to focus on losing weight, and after achieving their goal, have significant trouble maintaining that weight because these goals are short-term motivators.
My motivation for weight loss was to get a girlfriend.
We know that you are now happily married, so your motivation worked! What do you use for motivation now?
After a few setbacks, I realized that short-term goals weren’t going to work for me. I would constantly set them, achieve them and relapse. I realized then I needed to set goals that had no end and find more balance.
In the end, confidence and wanting to live an able-bodied life ended up being a much healthier motivator for me. This informed short-term goals around weight loss and influenced other goals in my life such as improving my public speaking skills and upgrading my wardrobe.
How would you recommend a client think about their goals and motivation?
Setting your motivation (live a healthy life and be able to share that life with your family) are now the framework within which I can set short-term goals around personal development and athletic performance. The goals end up being a lot less important in the grand scheme of things, and instead act as checkpoints in my journey. Rather than set goals around maintaining weight, I end up using “run a 5k race” as a short-term motivator and always make sure I set a new goal when I complete the last one.
How did you stay on track throughout this process?
I needed to find activities that I enjoyed which was a huge part of my struggles early on. The gym to me was a time sink. I would go hit the weight machines and the stationary bikes by myself and zone out. Cycling outdoors helped some, as at least the scenery was changing, but it still wasn’t something I could do year round.
I never thought working out could be so much fun until I stumbled upon uforia and Revolutions, seriously. Before, exercise was always a means to an aforementioned end. Now it is something I actively look forward to.
It gives me a chance to listen to awesome music and have fun. More than that, it gives me the opportunity to see friends and make new ones. This community has become an important part of my motivation to stay healthy.
This is all great, what are you going do to help us enjoy our workouts and achieve our goals?
My hope going forward is to motivate you all as much as you have motivated me. Giving back to the uforia community through my classes is now one of the long-term goals in my journey. So please, come take class beside me, take class from me, or just come chat. If nothing else, I hope my journey above can inspire some healthy long-term motivation of your own.