Psychological factors?

I'd like to put this out as a general question to everyone. It seems to me that aside from a supportive community an intrapersonal kind of motivation and drive really goes a long way. It's probably been a year now since I first checked out CrossFit, and although I know I was in better shape back then and I probably took a little bit of herbal stimulants before those few classes I did (nothing crazy just things like Endurox/siberian ginseng with maybe some caffeine) it seems like I don't quite have that same drive. Obviously my head is in a different place now which is good for the long run, but it's like this inner fire is kind of missing. I'm sure lots of people go through their day to day life in this kind of blase state especially as it relates to physical fitness in this day and age, so it seems like it's something that would be really good to address.

Does Sports Psychology touch on this at all? I guess this is really a kind of psychology that bridges the highly effective with the regular everyday and not so much one or the other, but kind of making the transition.

[roger]

Part of the blazé is psychological, and part of it is physiological. You say you're not as fit as you were when you took the classes back when, so your metabolism is depressed, which makes it harder to really attack the workouts. This is why so many people get stuck in a descending trend in their fitness. They feel worse, and are less motivated, so their training goes downhill, which reduces motivation further, and training then stops, then everything falls apart.

Fortunately we can help with both. Once you're in group sessions you will see how motivating our community can be. Your fitness will improve, which will motivate you further. We have had folks that "hate working out" turn into total gym rats, and love it. Just give it time.

I appreciate that Roger, although I do think there is more than one level to the psychology - but at the same time I know it can be overanalyzed so that it results in an unproductive state including a wrong conclusion. And of course I should note that as far as the physiological aspect I haven't really eaten meat and have got out of the habit of taking supplements for a while now so I'm just starting to do both again.

Other than my own situation though, perhaps even something along the lines of inspirational examples - CrossFit or not - may be nice for the intrapersonal level as a kind of lens to look at ourselves in a different way. Come to think of it, I guess it doesn't even need to be specifically fitness related, but it would likely involve someone making a significant change in their life which would involve some kind of activity .. there's probably plenty of examples if we look at it that way.

So you've cut out meat from your diet? This could mean lower levels of B12 in your diet or just protein intake all-in-all.

From what I hear, it's much easier to hit the hard workouts when they are early with a caffeine stimulus.

Eating meat makes me more happy and content and there is a noticeable difference in my demeanor and williness to hit workouts. When I'm protein light in my diet, it's not a fun time. This is just for me. And it was very similar when I went vegetarian once upon a time. Not a good time for training or much else.