Does anyone ever fall into a seemingly endless rut??

I need your help! For the past week or so, I have been eating things that are not so great. Each day I will sneak some cookies or a piece (or two) of cake. This goes against everything I routinely do. I also have been physically tired and have not been exercising like I normally would. I will attempt it, but become exhausted and miserable after a few minutes and then give up. I am looking for answers as to why this is happeneing. Is this something most people go through at some point? Is it going to go away? I usually look forward to my workouts everyday and it seems now that I would much rather take a nap and worry about it tomorrow. It has not affected me too much yet but I am becoming very concerned that it will if this behavior continues....

I am exactly the same, although i've been like this for 3 weeks...and the damage is starting to show! I don't get it either..I used to love working out, but I seem  t put it off, and i've I eat things I shouldn't I just think it's a one off..but it never is! I am making a conscience attempt tomorrow though: I have bought all my healthy food, and decided I will start with a less intense gym routine so I won't dread going back and work up to what I was doing before. Thats the only advice I can think off at the moment, I'll keep to posted to see if it works! 

hope, your post was funny to me because this is what I posted just last night (so now I'm wondering if maybe it's just the winter blues):

"Energy and motivation comes in waves...anyone else?

Just wondering if I'm the only one this happens to...

I've been working out for years. I do 40 - 60 min. of cardio 4 - 5 x a week and strength training 3 x a week. I workout hard - I tell myself that if it's "comfortable" it's not doing anything for me. I had great results at my last fitness test (fall '08). So overall I'm doing good and I'm pretty proud of myself for getting this far since I was never much of an athlete when I was younger.

BUT I find that some days (sometimes it lasts up to a week) I have no energy when I'm working out.  My legs feel like lead.  I still go to the gym and plod along, but there's no energy or mental motivation there. I don't know why it happens - I haven't been able to see any kind of pattern.  The funny thing is that "out-of-the-blue" it passes and I'm back to my old self.

I get frustrated because I feel like I can't make progress during these days. Does this happen to anybody else? Is this normal?"

We're people... human beings.... sentient creatures with a naturally curious streak and a love for all things new.   We hate being bored!  We are crushed by routine.  Listen to a favourite album track over and over again and you'll soon start to hate it.  We need to stretch out and live a little... try something else.  

 I think it's important to deliberately shake things up on a regular basis.   We're not signed up to the army for square-bashing.   This is meant to be fun.   If that gym isn't pushing the buttons how about hopping on a bicycle and cycling around in the fresh air for a while?  And if our food choices are coming around a little too often we need new tastes to tempt us and recipes to delight us.   Otherwise we seek our pleasures in old standbys like cakes and biscuits.

My most recent shake-up was to declare it 'Vegetarian Week'... that forced me to try a few new things.  And on the exercise front I've been attaching the pedometer to the waistband every morning and getting 10,000 steps.   Next week I think we'll declare it 'Different Colour Fruit Every Day Week'  and for the exercise maybe we'll dust off the bicycle mentioned earlier now that the weather is getting warmer.

What are your ultimate goals regarding your body?  How much weight do you want to lose and why?  Think about your answers carefully and then ask yourself if that extra piece of cake and skipping out on multiple workouts is worth it.

The hardest part for me has always been consistency.  As soon as I would reach my goal weight in the past, I would celebrate by going and eating a pizza buffet (no kidding).  I would then follow that with slacking off on the exercise.  Soon afterwards, I found that I hadn't exercised at all in weeks, months, and on and on. 

The point is that it is easy to lose sight of your goals IF you allow it.  The hardest part can be getting your bum off the couch.  Just do it if your goals are important to you.  Nothing will magically fix itself.