When you get demotivated to work out

Hello, Amy Hartsock here! Have you ever reached a point in your workout life that you just didn't feel like doing a workout? Okay I can see how this question might be confusing to the devout fitness enthusiast. I am (or was once) a VERY devout fitness person who would write my workouts religiously every day and get so pumped that I couldn't wait to get to the gym and do the work. "Was once"? Yep, that's right folks. I've been a slackin'. I've slowly but surely become that person who makes excuses. And I've generally, maybe purposely, been skipping the gym for quite a while now. How long? Well approximately since my last blog! *GASP*

So what happened? Who knows! Life happens I guess. We get so caught up with work and family and stress that we sometimes forget to focus on ourselves. Sound familiar? I am very much a busy working mom and wife. I have a lot of pressure and burdens on my shoulders. It can be pretty exhausting, even for the mightiest of fitness warriors.

Back when I was living my casual easy going life in San Antonio (mind you, I was raising a toddler at the time), I amazingly had all the energy and motivation to work out Mon-Fri. No off days, no excuses. Heck, sometimes my husband and I threw in some weekend workouts just for shits and grins. Man, those were the days! We were beasts I tell you! Beasts!

Then stuff started happening. I began having a crisis...of the midlife variety I suppose. I was stuck at a very stifling, non challenging job. My finances were going down the toilet and my marriage was showing signs of strain. These are pretty typical issues lots of married people my age go through. But for someone who prided herself on her career, family and marriage, this was NOT acceptable. I had to make a change. But instead of doing common silly midlife things like dying my hair or shopping for clothes meant for teenagers, I did something completely and spontaneously crazy. So my hubby and agreed to pack up the family, sell the house and move to Dallas! All in a matter of weeks.

Now even around the time I was going through my crisis in San Antonio, I kept up with my heart thumping muscle crushing workout routine. My life may have been in a weid state, but that didn't mean I had to let my body go downhill! In fact, people will tell you that regular workouts keep your mind and spirit healthy. It certainly helped with my stress.

So going back to my question about not feeling the mood to work out any more. I thought that moving to Dallas would actually increase my opportunities for fitness. But after a few weeks in the big D, I found out...not so much. Because if you don't live and/or work near areas where gyms are abundant and easy to get to, it can be demotivating. That's pretty much what happened,

Our first rental home was in a area of south Dallas where the nearest gym was about 15 miles from us. WHOA! So I tried to find one near my workplace. There were a few great gyms, but that meant driving away from the direction of my house to go workout. I know, excuses! Hold on, though. Unless you live in Dallas, you wouldn't understand what I mean by "driving". Dallas is traffic. Period. This city is a vast, sprawling, frustrating maze of highways and agreesive drivers. There are no ways to evade them. There are no shortcuts, not even on the tollways my friends.

I did find a gym though along the route to my way home, Not big or fancy, but decent and reasonably priced. So imagine me leaving work, first week at my new job, excited and pumped with my carefully written workout in my gym bag. I leave work around 5:30, thinking the traffic will be a little dissipated by the time I drive out of the parking lot. NOT! The moment I drove on to the street that leads up to the main highway, I am stuck. In traffic. With no way to evade, No shortcuts.

The gym was only 10 miles from work. I left work at 5:30. By the time I trudged and toiled my way through the rush hour traffic, I got to my little gym at 6:30. Yes that's right, 10 miles in 60 minutes. Back in San Antonio, the same distance would only have taken me 10 minutes. In the gym for about 30-45 min and home in less by 6:30. But not here, Not in Dallas.