Coming to the end of the year and I start to notice a lot of people lose their high levels of motivation as they start to wind down for the year. I get it. We get tired and need a break to refresh and recharge for the year to come.

But during the year I find myself having similar conversations with people about motivation, their lack of, them wondering when they will get motivated again and why aren’t they motivated. All great questions and in my experience, they can be answered simply.

Motivation isn’t something that arrives at your front door. It doesn’t smack you in the face at 4:30am and scream “I’M SO EXCITED!”. Motivation doesn’t happen on the first day of the 8 week challenge and then stick around for 12 months consistently after that. It comes in ebbs and flows.

So when does it come?

Well, from my experience it can take some time, and in that time there needs to be a consistent work habit.

So let’s say you have signed up for the 8 week challenge and you want to lose 10kg. We know the first few weeks are going to be a shock to the system. Early rises. Change in routine. Extra tired while you adjust to the new exercise sessions and so on. Then after a few weeks you start to lose some weight and you start to get some momentum. The early mornings still might be a little bit of a drag, but you can see them working. Four to five weeks in you are starting to enjoy the sessions more. You’ve made some new friends and you are consistently eating better. The results are still happening. Week seven you are looking for ways to keep this all going post the eight weeks. Making plans, setting up your weekly routine. Week eleven you are still motivated because you have stuck to a regular routine for some time now and things are getting easier. Sure, you could stay in bed (couldn’t we all?) but it’s worth it and you can’t imagine your mornings any other way.

While not everyone’s timelines will fit this exact story, my point is, a lot of people I speak to wait for motivation before they start something. In fact, it’s the other way around. You must start something and then the motivation happens.

So next time you notice you start to fall off the motivation train, write down your goals and review them regularly. This will help to keep you inspired.

J

How to make the most out of your naps

Everyone loves a good sleep, from Sunday morning sleep ins to that midday nap on the couch. But is there a way we can optimize our sleep for better performance during the day?

We all know the basic sleeping 8+ hours a night is best, but what if we don’t reach that marker?

Its very well researched that partial sleep deprivation (PSD) is very harmful to our body and compromises our ability to perform our regular activities during the day. Romdhani 2020, found that PSD compromised antioxidant defence and enhanced sleepiness and biomarkers of muscle and cellular damage. So, we know that if we are tired our body is at a greater risk of getting sick, which definitely isn’t optimal for 2020 conditions, but our body is also undergoing an increase in muscle and cell breakdown, negating the improvements we are making while training.

So how can we combat this tiredness, well, this same article was able to show that a nap of 90 mins

• Increased wellness
• Decreased daytime sleepiness
• Decreased negative mood scores
  • (ie, depression, fatigue, stress and anger)

It was also found that a nap of just 20 mins was able to produce similar results as a 90-minute nap, however the improvements were not as large

Some key points to optimizing your naps in the future

1. Don’t let it take away from your night-time sleep (8+ hours at night is still important)
2. Take it early afternoon or late lunch time
3. Keep it 20-90 minutes
4. Cool and dark environment

Happy napping everyone!!

Romdhani, M. et al. (2020) ‘Improved Physical Performance and Decreased Muscular and Oxidative Damage With Postlunch Napping After Partial Sleep Deprivation in Athletes’, International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance, 15(6), pp. 874–883