What's left when motivation vanishes?

Skipping through some links from my Google Reader this morning, I came across an article that hit very close to home: Why Motivation Doesn't Matter. This in particular stood out:

Energy comes in waves. And just as each wave has a crest, it also has a trough. Sometimes your level of motivation will be like a rushing tsunami. At other times, it will be a steady flow. These are natural rhythms and following these rhythms are important, because if you don’t, you will burn out.

The author's point is that we have to learn to trust our instincts, to "go with the flow" of our natural rhythms, etc. Which all sounds lovely in the abstract, but in practice what does it mean?

On my first read-through, I thought to myself, "A-ha! So I should give myself permission to slack off. I'm not motivated, so there's no point to trying. Even this Zen guy agrees."

This has always been my downfall. Once I lose motivation or interest, I abandon things completely. My life's history, closets, and computers are littered with projects, hobbies and passions that I dropped as soon as I hit the first wall of boredom/accomplishment/lost motivation. I was so grateful to find online game sites like Pogo and Facebook because my attention span for those is fierce but short, and now I don't have to buy each game and have it on my hard drive forever.

I don't want the same thing to happen with this weight-loss effort, and I am terrified that it will. I really, really, really like being thin. I like how my body looks, I enjoy the second glances I get on the street, I love being able to climb the stairs without getting winded, and being able to shop in nice stores, and feeling kickASS in a pretty outfit. I do not want this to end.

I also want to finish it, to get to goal and no longer be in a state of losing weight. I'm ready to move to the next phase of the project (keeping the weight off).

But my motivation is slipping, and I know my history. I'm scared.

Then this part kept niggling at me:

Accept that you won’t always be insanely motivated. If you’re waiting to take action until you’re incredibly motivated, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself.

And this:

Sometimes you won’t be excited before you take action, but you will feed good after you’re done. Take exercise for example. A lot of people dread or loathe working up a sweat. They are not motivated beforehand, at least not enough for them to break through the mental resistance to the work that will be done. But, they feel awesome when they’ve finished exercising. Therefore, sometimes you can’t rely on being highly motivated before, sometimes you have to rely on being motivated after.

I started to think about that flowing river, about what remains when the water goes still or dries up. It's the physical path of the river itself that remains, the shape and curves that the rushing water carved into the earth at its peak of strength -- i.e., the habits that I formed when my motivation was at its peak. I shouldn't just slack off and do nothing, I should relax enough to let my new habits carry me along the path until my motivation/energy comes back to life.

So what are my new habits that I've been building in the last six months?

1. Eating 5-6 small meals a day.
2. Drinking lots of water.
3. Eating veggies and meat for dinner.
4. Regular exercise -- and disguising it as fun activities, like going to the pretty pool (swimming) and playing on the computer (Wii yoga).
5. Having a nightly popsicle after dinner -- and eating all my meals before that. No nighttime "snacking"!
6. Daily blogging.
7. Reaching out to others who are on the same journey, and not pretending I am doing this alone.
8. Making smart, delicious, on-plan choices when eating out.
9. Developing several fast and easy dinner options for the nights when I am not in the mood to cook (i.e., when the Pizza Monster usually taps my shoulder).
10. Daily photos.

I've been letting #4, 5, 8 and 9 wax and wane as my motivation waxes and wanes. The others have become true habits, embedded in my daily routines. The weaker 4 are the ones I need to rely on right now, because they are the ones that will carry me down the dry riverbed (to continue the metaphor). I think if I keep that last article quote in mind -- the one about gaining motivation after doing something you don't feel motivated to do -- that will help.

So these are the things I will do this week because I will feel accomplished and motivated after I do them:
1. Get regular exercise again. I am on Week 3 of the C25K program, and it's supposed to be warm for a few days this week (=pool time).
2. Eat a popsicle after dinner, and nothing else.
3. If I do go out, treat it like any other meal, not a special event. I don't have to have my favorite thing on the menu; it will still be there next time!
4. Prep the veggies and fruit in the fridge for easy grab-and-go, and consider writing out some dinner menus if I start getting stuck.

Now it's time to go find a killer outfit for today. I need the armor and self-confidence boost that comes with wearing something I enjoy. I like my body, I like looking and feeling like this, and is that (insert food choice here) really worth giving that up? That's the question a killer outfit makes me ask myself, and I need that right now. Every little bit helps!