Most of us, including me, spend around 10 hours of our day commuting and working; and it drains the fuck out of us.

 

After we’re done the only thing that most of us want to do is eat and watch TV…

 

But I know that deep inside you would love to do be more healthy and active and take some steps to transforming your physique.

 

So behold the main reason which is stopping you from wanting to exercise, and how to overcome it…

 

You’re not getting enough sleep

 

Before you say anything – I know… you probably here this all the time… But let me actually explain to you on a personal level how sleep affects my life:

 

For Christmas I got a Fitbit – you know one of those things which monitors your heart rate, calories, steps etc. For me the most useful feature of it is the sleep monitor; basically, it tells you how many hours of sleep you’re getting each night.

 

Now in the beginning of January I started to feel progressively worse over the course of a few weeks – eventually leading to me injuring my chest and just feeling very shitty.

 

After looking at my sleep stats on my Fitbit I realised that I feel really good on 7-8 hours of quality sleep a day. However, those two weeks I was hovering around the 6 hour mark – A lack of sleep affects you SO MUCH.

 

I know correlation does not mean causation, but I have noticed it before; when I had a lack of sleep over a few days I did slowly get ill and just felt less fucked to do shit – and I know that a lot of you feel like that a lot.

 

Eventually that lack of sleep I had led to me skipping a few days of gym, and ultimately injuring myself as I tried to push myself too hard when I was under the weather (mainly my fault for being stupid, but still…)

 

Okay cool, no sleep makes you ill, but how enough sleep make me go gym?

 

How you start your day has such a huge affect on the rest of the day – if you don’t get enough sleep, you will feel groggy, and everything will piss you off that little bit more than usual…

 

You are more likely to be late as you rushed out the house, will be more stressed, and have less willpower and energy to work. Tiny little things will build up over the day and just shit on your mood. This paired with the lack of initial energy to start with results in you wanting to do absolutely fuck all when you get home.

 

On the other hand, going to bed at a reasonable time will allow you to wake up in a better state of mind; you will be both physically and mentally prepared for the day with your willpower fully-charged. Tiny things such as slight train delays will not piss you off, and you will generally be more up-beat and positive about the day going forward; you may even not mind the boring work that you’re doing!

 

Better sleep also leads to better decisions. When we are tired most of us simply just want sugar to boost are energy levels up… sugar is not the best if we’re trying to become fitter and healthier. Getting enough sleep will encourage you to eat better food, which will even further elevate your mood; now you’re not only energised but feel motivated that you’re making positive decisions!

 

Slowly throughout the day you will build yourself a positive snowball which keeps on getting bigger and gaining momentum as you carry on making good decisions.
By the time you get to that time when the idea of going to the gym smashes your snowball into little pieces, your snowball will be too large and moving too fast to be stopped… dare I say you will have the willpower and motivation to want to go gym!

 

A good night’s sleep = good decisions and positive momentum. Remember that.

 

–Mike

 

Loved my snowball analogy? 

 

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