Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

my biggest challenge is staying motivated long enough to see the results i want, i usually go hard for a couple of weeks but lose interest. any tips or suggestions?

What has helped me is finding a strict plan that has everything planned out for me ahead of time. I am 4 weeks into a 12 week program and I find the structure helps quite a bit.

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I am in the process of trying to lose 60lbs of fat while gaining lean muscle by December 2012
My fitness/transformation log can be found here

What's your WHY? Why do you workout? What's the result you wanna achieve? what will it give you once you achieved it? How will you know that you achieved your big goal?
After you come up with answers for these questions. You should build yourself some smaller specific goals, that will support the big WHY.

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I would never settle for anything less than I could be - Tony Robbins

Those are both great answers. I'd say combine them. Figure out what your goals are and set up a workout plan. Robert and some others have some good workout plans listed in this forum.
You can also take a look at the fitness journals section of the forum and see what others are doing. Having new exercises to try helps me get excited/ stay motivated too.
P90X also is pretty well put together. You can steal some workout routines/ plans from them. You can easily download versions for free online.

-Dylan

All good stuff was said. It helps, too, to make your workout something to look forward to. You can make a mix of your favorite heart-pumpin' music and only listen to it when you're lifting. Invent a special smoothie that you love and save it for workouts-only. Make gym time a treat, almost a vacation.

If you can, change your lifting schedule at the gym so that you are surrounded by serious, hard core dudes in the weight room. There are actually cells in your brain called Mirror Neurons that fire whenever you see someone doing something you know how to do. Remember how you yawn when you see someone yawning? There you go. (You're probably thinking about yawning right now; all you have to do is visualize it for it to trigger) Your muscles are actually more stimulated to flex when you are surrounded by a bunch of people flexing. I love it when the big guys show up at my gym, I'm always more pumped on those days.

Make your workout fun and eclectic. Making it fun translates into a relaxed body system that learns faster, responds more quickly, and recovers in record time. Considering that healing from microtears in the muscle fibers is how those muscles get bigger, better recovery time might interest you. Do everything in such a way that you can effortlessly maintain a positive attitude and actually have fun and your physiology will rise to meet you. That way, you're not fighting and pushing against something, you're working with it. Leverage is everything.

Making it eclectic pays off in big ways, too. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) doesn't just apply to running or lifting workouts. You can stretch the concept out over weeks and months by doing a week of biking, then a day or two of calisthenics in a park, then a week of climbing wall, a long hike, a week of running, a day or two of swimming, etc. Scatter your lifting days in there and you've got a workout that's hard to beat. You're training your muscles to get bigger and you want your brain to get good at telling them what to do but you don't want your brain to get SO good that it gets lazy and efficient. Those sound like opposing things but not where muscles are concerned. Do the same routine in the gym long enough and the brain will invent shortcuts that provide the least muscle growth possible. Its job is to conserve energy. It's designed to be "lazy" like that. It's YOUR job to keep it guessing.

When all else fails, take a day off, go online and look at photos of guys who look like you wanna look, lifting like you wanna lift, playing sports and partying on the beach and having the time of their lives. Mirror neurons, baby.

Baby Herc

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Keeping a log may help you. When you see that you've made some progress then you will be motivated to keep going and make even more progress - particularly if there is a goal you've set out to reach.

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If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If it isn't, you'll find an excuse.

Great stuff in this thread from many of you. I needed to come back and re-read to motivate myself. I started a new part time job that includes lifting of boxes around and it has caused me to not want to go anywhere near the gym before or after work....
Thanks for the motivating tips yal!

My best motivation is by surrounding myself by other people who are just as into fitness as I am. Frequently by talking with them I find myself ready to do a workout I thought I was too tired and/or busy to do.

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I find training with people has the reverse effect I prefer to train alone...this for me helps me stay in the zone.

I will mirror what has been said & plan what it is you're there to do. I don't ever push to failure,I think it has a negative effect on the brain.
As an example let's say my excel sheet has me to squat 125kg for 3 on my last set of the day, if i hit that number I have achieved something. Though before hand if I'am feeling it as I'm walking to the gym I'll have a set number I want to hit....if I get the 3 awesome,but When I get 10 I have dominated that last set.

People who go in, scratch their asses & then trying thinking of what to do drives me mad. A proper program will keep you looking at the numbers/set/reps.


Also I found that when I hit my deload (every 4th week of a cycle) I only train two days as the work is stripped back. This is so the body can recover but I find it keep me chomping at the bit to start a new cycle the following week.

Just get your shit in order, train to be as awesome as possible & get out of the gym.

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler

Can we see an example of a day in the gym? it maybe you're in there to long? If I get close to an hour for me it's dragging out

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler

I also train alone, but online and in person I chat with many people who are as passionate about fitness as I am, and it helps.

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rational romantic mystic cynical idealist.

Support a tea-addicted geek in the breast cancer walk in May! Any donation size helps:
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Doing Les Mills Combat and loving it! Follow my journey here:
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I agree with this...I have a few serious friends, also I get to train with one of the worlds strongest men. Though time is limiting when I do get to go it's always a blast.

Chatting to people in the gym just get's in the way. I have taken to not even making eye contact with people now if I can help it.

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler

It's distracting. I'm there to work, not be chatty. And with the sort of workouts I do, I won't have the breath to chat.

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rational romantic mystic cynical idealist.

Support a tea-addicted geek in the breast cancer walk in May! Any donation size helps:
http://www.avonwalk.org/goto/TeaAddictedGeek

Doing Les Mills Combat and loving it! Follow my journey here:
http://www.TeaAddictedGeek.com