October 2025 - Fran's Fitness Over 50

Nurture your motivation

Setting goals is an inspiring activity. You’re fired up in anticipation of what you’ll accomplish. But then time goes by and you’re less motivated than you were. You still may want to achieve that goal but it’s not exciting. Your motivation just isn’t what it used to be. Professor of Behavioral Science Ayelet Fishbach says, “to be motivated, you either change the situation or the way you think about the situation. This is the science in one sentence.” Your goal is still there, but if you’re not still enthused about it, you have to nurture your motivation.

Change your mindset

You have to change the circumstances or the way you think about it. If you can’t change the situation, change your mindset. Professor Fishbach gives her own example. She wanted to be more active. But instead of telling herself to walk more, she got a puppy. While that shouldn’t be the only reason to get a puppy, the puppy has certainly increased the professor’s activity. Telling yourself to do something you don’t really want to do is a recipe for failing that goal. I used to have the goal of keeping an orderly desk. That didn’t work – I failed miserably. I just don’t see the point, and having a messy desk doesn’t bother me enough to change. So I dropped that goal. My motivation to achieve it did not deserve nurturing.

Goals are abandoned because the pursuit is not enjoyable

On the other hand, Fishbach’s research found that most goals are abandoned because people don’t enjoy pursuing them. If you set the goal of losing 10 pounds by the end of the year but don’t have a good enough reason to find motivation for it, you’ll probably abandon that goal. But if you receive an invitation for a party you really want to go to, and know the outfit you want to wear, and that there will be a great band to dance to, you have a better chance at maintaining your momentum.

Sustain your momentum when you nurture your motivation

But you’ll only sustain your momentum if you nurture your motivation. Fishbach found that the reason people don’t enjoy pursuing their goals is because they take too long. People are excited when they set goals and closer to the end, they can see the finish line and are excited to get there. But in the middle, their motivation is lacking.

In our example, you’ve got 2 months to get party-ready. And if you call your goal “party-ready,” that sounds more fun than “lose weight.” 2 months isn’t a lot of time in the long term, but it’s 8 weeks. 60 days. A long stretch of chocolate withdrawal. So, here’s how to nurture your motivation: set those intermediate goals. Make sure you have a goal for every week that makes sense. For the first week, eat an extra serving of veggies every day for a week. Or walk 10 more minutes every day. And at the end of the week, perhaps a slice of cheese on the veggies. Or read an extra chapter in the book you want to devour.

Nurturing your motivation helps you to achieve important goals. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. When you achieve goals that are important to you, you’ll feel like you can take on the world. You did it!

By understanding yourself, you can understand how to achieve the goals that are important to you. You’ll be able to nurture your motivation from the start to the finish of a project.

Try the Grow-in Instead of the Lock-in

Great Lock-in Too Restricted? Try the Grow

A while back I wrote about the Great Lock-in. There are just a couple months left of the year, and this would be the time to get ready to take down all comers in the New Year. Make sure you slay those dragons in the first quarter and achieve your goals in a flash. But that might seem too harsh and restrictive. Many folks are trying a different TikTok challenge – the 75 Grow. There aren’t quite 75 days left this year, but that shouldn’t dissuade you from trying this. The goal here is to move, do something you’d ordinarily avoid, and be creative every day. Basically, to grow three habits before the end of the year.

So before you say that this is dumb, let’s take a closer look at what happens when you grow 3 healthy habits before next year.

Movement

This part you’re probably already on board with. I’ve written about the importance of exercise, and if you exercise three or four days a week, you’re probably not sitting around all day on the other days. Even a brief walk counts to grow this habit.

Do something brave

Doing something you’d prefer to avoid every day counts as being brave, in my mind. I was brave last week and called a new dentist’s office (the dentist I’d been seeing for many years retired this last summer). I could have put it off for a few more weeks, but I knew the tooth that was giving me problems would not get better on its own. And the day after I visited my new dentist I was brave again and showed up for the No Kings rally in a neighboring town. Being brave like this increases our optimism – I was proud of myself even for making that phone call. And it also increases our resilience. We’re able to face challenges and meet them head on.

Be creative

This is the fun part of the challenge for me. Increasing our creativity opens our mind to other new things. Even if it’s doing something you’re done before, this will open new passageways in your brain and, again, increase your optimism, happiness, and resilience.

If we grow 3 healthy habits before the end of the year, we’ll be moving more, we’ll be happier and more optimistic. We’ll also be able to meet more challenges and confront more obstacles without sending us into a declining spiral. And we’ll be healthier, having moved our bodies every day.

Get it done – with a friend

I believe in getting stuff done. If you want something, I say, figure out a way and get it done. Many times, though, it’s not so simple. Sometimes there are natural impediments to what you want. Other times the thing that you want is so nebulous you can’t clarify it in your own mind. And still other times, you get stuck doing other stuff or procrastinate doing that first thing. But here’s a thought, you can get it done – with a friend.

Friends give you a nudge

That’s right, enlist friends to give you that nudge to get stuff done. Here’s an example. Every time you open your closet, you cringe. It’s over-stuffed. Shoes are everywhere. You can’t hang another thing on the rack. And you know that there’s lots of stuff in there that you haven’t worn in years and will never wear. “I’ve got to clean out my closet,” you say on an almost-daily basis. And say you’ve been talking to a friend and mention your packed closet. She says, “Yeah, mine is a mess, too.”

Schedule a time when she can come to your house for half a day so that you can get your closet organized. And another time when you can go to her house. You’ll both get organized closets and feel great.

It turns out that working with a friend to get stuff done is a real thing, and has been in practice for years to help those with ADHD focus and stay motivated. Folks now call this Body Doubling, and according to Michael Manos, PhD., a behavioral health specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, “Essentially it’s external executive functioning, like having an administrative assistant follow you around all day.”

Mom was a body double

Remember when you did your homework at the kitchen table while your mom made dinner? That, in essence, was a form of body doubling. Mom may not have been actively helping you, but her presence provided focus and helped keep you on track.

So, enlist a friend to help you get stuff done. You can do each other a good turn. Closets will get clean and organized, and then you can treat each other to lunch. If your closet is in good shape, but you have other things that are bugging you and you want done, see if a friend can sit with you on a Zoom call for an hour. They might have stuff they want to get done as well. Body doubling doesn’t have to be in-person.

This works for exercise, too. If, like me, you don’t want to go to a gym, but can’t muster the fortitude to lace up your sneakers on your own, see if a friend wants to work out virtually with you. Or, hire a personal trainer online. They’ll make sure you get your workout done.

No matter what it is, you can get it done – with a friend.

Stack your wins

Every time you show up for something important, it’s a win. And when you stack your wins, you can’t help but show up again and again. That’s better than external motivation, because it feeds your soul. When you can nudge that pointer a little more to where you want it to be – whether it’s your scale, your bank account, your sense of purpose – you keep on doing, and you keep on succeeding.

Let’s say you want to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year. It’s the beginning (sort of) of October, so that’s totally doable. Every day that you meet your dietary goals, that you eat enough protein and short the carbs is a win. Every day that you eat the vegetables, especially those dark leafy ones, that your body needs to feel full, is a win. And every day that you don’t eat a second piece of chocolate is a win.

And when you track what you eat every day, you’ll know when you win. The FO50 Fitness Journal and Tracker has a dedicated page for writing down what you eat every day. There are also little water droplets you can fill in so you can track your hydration, which is also crucial for your health.

Of course, every day you exercise and move your body is also a win. You know that your diet is most important, but following a close second is exercise for your healthy aging.

When you show up every day to the fitness party and track your nutrition and exercise, every day is a gold medal performance.

To top that, track your outlook. When you’re feeling optimistic, you’re more likely to go outside yourself and not devolve into negativity. You’ll start thinking about others, your gratitude for them, and things you can do to help them.

Every day that you take a step toward your goal is a win. Stack your wins, and you’ll be unbeatable.

Every workout counts

Something to remember as you procrastinate, as we all do: every workout counts. When you lace up your sneakers, or hit the mat or the pool, you’re doing yourself a huge service. It means that you love yourself. You care about yourself. And you want to have the very best future possible.

Switch your schedule and move your body

When you’re not feeling it, when you just don’t have it in you to do the workout you had planned, that’s okay – do a different one. Or take a walk. Put on your favorite playlist and dance. You’re moving your body and that’s a start. You can switch your schedule and do your strength workout tomorrow. Every workout counts. If you don’t feel like doing a particular workout, chances are you wouldn’t give it the focus it – and you – deserve.

I was disgusting

I have to tell you that I skipped yesterday’s planned workout. I caught a cold, and while I knew that I’ll be fine, the mat work just was not going to be good yesterday. It was the sneezing, drippy, messy, totally disgusting day of the cold. And while the experts all say that if a cold is just in your head, you’re fine to exercise, I did not want to drip all over myself and my mat. So I rested. And today I feel better, so I did my scheduled workout.

Your resilience shows

When you exercise regularly, especially as you get older, your body gets used to moving. It enables you to do the things you want to do. And when you switch up your workouts for your healthy aging, your body adapts to the different requirements you place on it. You’re resilient – you know that your body is strong and you can withstand the trials and tribulations you’re sure to face.

So, do yourself a favor and make sure that every workout counts.