Nina's Blog

It’s not easy to constantly feel motivated, do you agree?

I have clients come to me all the time asking me how they can feel more motivated.

I totally get it! I don’t always feel motivated myself but what helped me a lot was to understand how my own motivation works.

Now I got you hooked, don’t I? 

Winter is coming to an end and you are starting to feel that it’s time to get things back on track so a magical transformation can take place.

Over the last couple of months your exercise routine has somehow moved from front of mind to the back corner and so has your nutrition.

You might be starting to feel a little icky so I totally get that you’re ready to hit the ground running BECAUSE this time it’s going to happen right?

What are those little highlights for you every week?

The things that make you happy, make your life worth living?

Do you love a glass of wine, catching up with your girlfriends or having lunch out in the sun enjoying a cheese platter?

Whatever it is to you, it’s important right?

But then you listen to that voice telling you ‘you can’t’ because you want to achieve your goals.

This ends up making you feel like you constantly have to choose between the lifestyle you love and your fitness dreams, right?

Visualization technique:

• Close your eyes and bring the fear to the front of your mind. Collect all the images that this fear brings up in your mind including the negative feelings it produces within you.
• Next- imagine you have a ‘safe’ and you place all images and feelings inside the box and lock it up.
• Hold the safe in your hands with your arms straight out in front of you and then slowly make this box smaller and smaller until it sits nicely inside your hands.
• Now imagine you’re standing at a cliff, you can hardly see the bottom and then throw the safe down watching it disappear slowly.
• As you turn around walking away from the cliff it starts raining. Notice how the water feels warm on your skin and gently washes over your whole body.

How good is food, like seriously?

I absolutely love food and all it involves. Cooking it, sharing food with loved ones, sourcing ingredients but most importantly I love looking after myself and nourishing my body.

Do you?

One of the most frustrating things I’ve found and also everyone I’ve worked with is trying to navigate through the overload of information on nutrition and what to eat that is readily available online and on top of that each individual that works in health & fitness has a slightly different opinion which doesn’t help.

Remember when you were 6 or 7 years old, you were playing outside and without thinking you just tried doing cartwheels and handstands?

There was no fear or hesitation, you JUST DID IT!

Remember how much fun and how effortless it was?

If you are going to the gym regularly right now and you have managed to get into a routine- well done!

It takes persistence and consistency to get there which is the first step to a healthy lifestyle and moving forward towards your goals.

BUT there are a few things that can easily put roadblocks in your way hence why I’m giving you my top 3 “Don’ts” what you should never do at the gym.

Let’s get straight into it:

I promised to be back with some serious action steps to kick-start some massive transformation (if you’re ready for it)!

If this is you- keep reading!

You are going to find out about 5 awesome steps you can get started on right now to stop comparing yourself to others (or your old self) and swap ‘comparing’ for ‘body-love’! Awesome, right?

This is the real deal!

Body-love might sound a little old fashioned to you right now or you might think ‘what the heck is she talking about’ but HONESTLY it’s probably what’s holding you back from achieving long-term results.

So here it is:

The 5 step process for positive body-love vibes, instead of endless comparison that is nothing BUT taxing your energy:

• Create awareness around your stories and whom/ what you’re actually comparing yourself to.
• Once you’ve gained awareness you have the control to choose your thoughts.

• If you’re comparing yourself to others run through this very logically:
• Do you actually want to be that person? I’m pretty certain your answer is “no” so approach this from a different angle by asking yourself: “What do I see in this person that I’d like to have more of?” Use this as inspiration to take actions towards a better version of ‘you’ as opposed to getting down about yourself.

• If you are comparing yourself to a past version of ‘you’
• There is really no point hanging onto the past. Honor your journey, how far you’ve come and the growth you’ve had along the way. You are who you are today and not 6 months, 1 year or 5 years ago. What have you learnt? Who have you become? What is there to be proud of?

• Where are you now and what do you want more of?
• Take responsibility for where you are right now, identify what you want to improve and find positive inspiration. Change your focus from what you don’t like about yourself to what you love about yourself.

• Learn to love yourself whilst taking action towards a better version of yourself
• This is ongoing work in process. Creating and nourishing self-love takes time but as I said above it has a lot to do with what you’re focusing on, honoring who you are and getting excited about the journey ahead with associated action steps.

Have you ever thought something along the lines of “I wish I could be like…”?

And whether that sentence ends in “my past self”, “a better version of myself” or “person X”, it is a form of comparison.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda…

You might not be thinking much of it but what’s actually happening here is that you’re running a conscious or unconscious pattern of comparing yourself to anything BUT yourself and where you’re at in this present moment...

“I shoulda woulda coulda like to be someone else” works against developing self-love and actually creates roadblocks in your journey towards progress and achieving your goals.

Eeeek…meditation?!

When you hear the word ‘meditation’, you are either getting really excited right now or you are feeling like your insides are about to curl up into a small ball.

Meditation seems to attract a love or hate- relationship and nothing in between.

Sitting down cross-legged with eyes closed whilst trying to avoid ANY thought crossing our minds just doesn’t seem to be for everyone…