It’s Monday. Yes, I hear the moans and groans. But it is the start to a new week of goals and achievements! Time to get back on track with our fitness and willpower, more importantly. There are often times where the couch beckons you much louder than the squat rack or the treadmill in the gym. This happens to me as well. Resist the evil couch! Pick yourself up, no matter how unmotivated you are and just go. That’s the theme for this week: just keep going, just keep swimming. Because you will always be happy you went. One never regrets a workout unless there is an injury involved.

If you have a headache or feeling tired, go workout! I find that when these symptoms occur, a bout of exercise is the best thing to cure it! Keep the mantra in your head… just keep swimming. Here are some inspirations that I have been using lately:

• The Lions vs Eagles game: it was literally blizzarding and they fought through, played through. They had to wade through half a foot of snow but they kept playing. Their skin was probably burning from the cold and they could barely see, but they went on.

• It’s about to get nerdy up in here, but the quest in the Hobbit! Dwarves and Hobbits have damn short legs and they were able to get through all that terrain, climb all those mountains with bands of orcs behind them. Think about going to the gym as a quest. You must make it no matter what stands in your way–laziness or sleepiness! Fight on!!

• Lastly, look to those around you for strength and motivation. I have a client who is in her later 20s, has a 6-year-old daughter, is a full-time nurse, going to school for her Master’s, oh and training for a half-marathon. She is in the gym every chance she can get. She gives me inspiration to get my butt up when I’m simply feeling lazy because that girl has her priorities straight and she is damn fit.

Never give up, never surrender! Fight past any laziness, sleepiness, or grumpiness and make your way into your workout, whatever it is. Fight hard and stay hungry and fit!