It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to get arm tone and as a result, flabby arms were the thorn in my side for a very long time. I was extremely frustrated and resorted to hiding behind kimono-style tops all the time.
And the most difficult part of the whole arm tone war was an unstable level of motivation. Despite all my efforts, I could not stick with a program for a very long time.
At times I would feel so unmotivated that I would simply ditch the whole effort all together. And my consolation was an endless consumption of cookies.
Luckily, I had a wakeup call one morning. I realized that this pattern of ups and downs was not sustainable.
As a result, I began searching for a way to maintain motivation and adherence to a program. The answer to my prayers was Dr David Burns MD. He created a method that revolved around the avoidance of cognitive distortions.
So here are 3 thought distortions you need to avoid today so that you can have motivation tomorrow:
1. Perfectionism distortions. If you see things as black or white then you have this distortion. For example, if you have to have a perfect workout or no workout at all then you suffer from perfectionism. Don’t sweat the small stuff and always keep moving forward despite minute setbacks. In other words, focus on general patterns of improvement.
2. Over generalizing distortions. This one is based on the faulty assumption that if something happened to you in the past it will keep on happening again and again in the future. You may tell yourself, for instance, that since you haven’t been able to lose weight in the past you will never be able to lose weight in the future and every program out there simply won’t work for you.
3. Mental filtering distortions. Make sure to always give yourself credit for the smallest of achievements. With this distortion you hardly focus on the positive and prefer to focus on the negative. If you have a test, for instance, and get 99 questions right and 1 wrong, you focus on the one you got wrong!
If you do not avoid the above cognitive distortions, arm tone will keep on eluding you. You have to achieve constant and lasting motivation in order to stick with an arm toning program.
More importantly, however, is to develop the habit of rapid action. After all, this information will be useless unless you act on it quickly.
Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness physiologist and former flabby arms sufferer, teaches how to get slim arms. Unearth how to get sexy arms by exploring her blog with shake weight reviews right now!