No drive. No get up and go. Lack of motivation. No mojo!
That’s been me for the last three weeks! Me! I know! Weird eh?
I have been forcing myself to go to the gym. When I was sick last week, I was all too happy to stay home.
This was totally un chartered territory for me.
I love going to the gym. I usually rearrange my entire life to fit in a class. I turn down invitations if they interfere with my class. I’ve turned down my kids’ play date invitations if the pick up or drop off time affects my class. I haven’t made plans on a Friday night in a long time since I have a class that night. I almost bailed on The Killers concert this summer because I didn’t want to miss my class. I’ve been seriously committed this year to working out.

Then something happened. I just didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay home. I had never felt this way before. For the last eleven months I’ve been working out at least 5 days a week- then all of a sudden I didn’t want to. It was weird.

Once I got to class, I loved it. I was super happy I was there- so it wasn’t the class that was killing my drive. What was the problem?

I think I’ve narrowed down my root causes for why my mojo took a dive.

#1. November + early snow = stay home-stay warm

Which leads us to the next source of laziness

#2. This outlaw:

My new fireplace. I just love my new fireplace. I just want to sit in front of it for hours and hours. I realized that sitting in the warm glow of that fire is pretty sweet.

Then the biggest reason to stay home- this guy:

#3. Boyd. Now that I’m working full time, Boyd and I don’t spend as much time together. All Boyd wants to do is cuddle with me– who am I to argue with that. The last three weeks, staying home, in my nice warm house, in front of the fire, with Boyd sleeping (and snoring) on my lap has been pretty appealing.

I’m not sure if these are actually the reasons I have been feeling lazy but I’m sure everyone goes through times where their focus and motivation dips. So I’ve been thinking- if this could happen to me- someone who went to 58 classes in 43 days this summer- it could happen to anyone.

Going to the gym can be hard.
Staying at home is easy.

I have the secret though.
I have the secret solution to lack of motivation.

You just have to go to class. You just have to get off the couch and go.
Drag yourself kicking and screaming to the gym.
Once you are there- you will be fine. You just have to go. Get there somehow.
That’s it. There is no secret pill. No motivational quote. Nothing except you just have to go.
That’s what I did. I went. I sweated. The endorphins kicked in. I felt great. Then the next class was less harder to get to. You just have to get through it you period of bad mojo. I did. I couldn’t wait to get to class tonight.

It also helps to take away some of the excuses. No I’m not getting rid of Boyd….. When I get home from work, I change out of my work clothes and into my workout clothes. It feels a little embarrassing changing out of non sweaty workout clothes into pjs. It helps me to get out of the house.

This week, I’ve also been using my crockpot to make easy and fast dinners- freeing up time so I can head to the gym. This week I made an amazing Butter Chicken in my crockpot. It was so amazing- healthy and fast!

You will need:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size chunks
1/2 onion, finely minced
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 teaspoons curry powder
1-2 teaspoons curry paste
2 tablespoons garam masala
1/2-1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I skipped this and it was still pretty spicy)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (14 ounce) can of coconut milk (I used the full fat kind)
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/4 cup half and half or heavy cream

You can find the directions at http://www.halfbakedharvest.com/easy-healthier-crockpot-butter-chicken/

It’s a really easy recipe- no browning! I hate having to brown the meat then adding it to the slow cooker! Here’s what it looked like when I left for work.

I came home to this! I wish my blog had “smell-o-vision”!

So good!

The problem with this Butter Chicken is that it is so good, you might want to skip the gym and stay home and eat more!

Choose happy! 🙂

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