A healthy lifestyle is a choice you make not only for yourself but also for those who depend on you, be it your spouse, elderly parents/grandparents, or even and ESPECIALLY your kids.

It was a breakthrough for me that I was introduced to the GYM way back 2012. I lost weight and got stronger compared to who I was after giving birth to my son in 2010. But I realized that my motivation was not strongly founded on my own ground but rather to those who push me to do it every day. I had to be honest, there was more pressure than there was of inspiration. I never said it out loud, but my thoughts were “only after having to pay for my gym session would I be motivated to go” and yes, on months that I couldn’t afford to pay I would miss workouts for a month, too! I realized I had to find my own MOTIVATION – one of which foundation could not be shaken. And gladly, I found it in myself and at HOME.

I woke up 3 weeks ago and realized that it was rather tiring to feel weak ALL THE TIME and not feel good about myself anymore. What I did was:

1. Pray! Start each day with a prayer FIRST and FOREMOST. I prayed to GOD for strength which I immediately found in His words “Philippians 4:13”. Believe me, you can’t go on skipping #1 on this list.
2. GOOD VIBES is also the key, I think. Tell yourself that you can do it through the help of JESUS “the giver of strength”.
3. Pump up a good playlist! Music can definitely add up to your energy.
4. Keeping a record of a picture in Day 1 became one of my motivation. Told myself that “I’m getting out of the “weak/miserable” version of me.
5. Surround yourself with (although few but) good people who you think can HELP build your motivation. Notice the HELP word is on Caps – that’s because we should not base our source of motivation wholly from others but mainly from ourselves.
6. POST progress on Facebook, and no, you’re not BOASTING about yourself. but simply because FACEBOOK has its reasons why we have what we call a FRIEND’s LIST. Obviously, these are lists of your FRIENDS, and friends look out for, support, lift up and DO NOT BASH each other. SAME reason in FB why we’ve had/made FRIEND requests to begin with and then the other accepts, vice versa  (unless you didn’t know the person but accepted them anyway; you only have yourself accountable for that.) Sum is, DON’T hesitate to share your fitness progress on FB when you got a good List of trusty ol’ Friends to back you up, plus, you’ll never know when you might also inspire them!
7. Eating Healthy. It’s a choice. It’s never hard once you open up your mind to the saying that “what tastes better than to eat is to be fit”. It takes practice and don’t feel bad when you fail to eat healthy one day after a week of healthy meals. IT’S OKAY, DON’T GIVE UP JUST YET. Just continue what you are doing, you’ve done it already, you can do it again and even better. And NO, don’t starve yourself. Eating enough healthy food is different from starving and depriving yourself of food.
8. Stop deciding. Start doing. This motto took me this far to my 3 week Journey working out at home. Even if you don’t feel like it, DON’T trust that feeling, it’s what kept you from doing things that could better yourself from Day 1. Just trust me on this one – SET AN ALARM, and when you hear it, don’t think, just get up and do it! Believe me, you’ll feel better once you’re done and be glad that you did it!

That’s about it. Hope this helps you get your own motivation and start doing!

BTW, just wanted to share a short 3-week progress picture of myself but FYI!, I am far from perfect, I got these post-natal stretchmarks but am not ashamed of having it, ‘coz these are bad-ass tattoos which I got from bearing the life of my kid Bori. 😉

(My Wokrout progress from Day 1 to Week 3)

Personally, I know I still need to work harder for better results so for the weeks to come, I’m going to start on my T25 program by Shaun T (video workouts) and actually shared it to some of my friends who wanted a copy. It will only take you 25 minutes EVERY DAY. WHO DOESN’T HAVE 25 MINUTES TO SPARE in one day in the name of health??? It will always come to a choice. Your choice.

I always loved this saying,

“Start taking care of your body while you’re young, so that when you age, your body will take care of you.”

Hope you start your own journey to fitness and health while you still have the time and strength, it’s never too late! I’ll be glad to support your progress along the way.