Good health, which involves regular exercise, is like a web; everything is connected to a core purpose. Something many of us can relate to is finding the motivation to stick to our goals. I’m no stranger to this myself, and over the years, have found my own approach towards reaching my goals. But for many of you, I’m sure it’s not always that easy. 

Even though I’m only human myself, and have managed to make a lifestyle that supports my own goals, I understand that it’s going to be a different situation for other people.

That’s why I decided to find out the mindset behind motivation. And it turns out that science continues to discover how our brain affects our ability to pursue our goals. Lacking motivation isn’t as cut and dry as I thought it was. It’s been found that willpower alone can’t always save the day when it comes to reaching towards a goal, like sticking to an exercise program. There are chemical neurotransmitters in our brain that play an active role in regards to motivation. One of them is dopamine, which can trigger feelings of accomplishment or “reward”. 

The problem is, dopamine receptors in the brain can also be dulled, malfunctioned, or working not as optimally as they should. Without the pleasure signals from dopamine, we’re not going to feel good. We’ll be less motivated to continue exercising. Inside our brain, we may actually start to sense exercise as a “negative” experience; it could be gentle exercise like a walk, or something strenuous like a marathon. Either way, without dopamine, our brain is going to try to stop us from working out and reaching our goal as it sees exercise as something bad.
But why would dopamine stop working? More research needs to be done behind the specifics, but there are a few possible culprits behind it. Aside from neurological disorders, diseases, and syndromes, some common things within our control can be addressed to help return dopamine back its normal function.
The first should be a no-brainer (see what I did there?): diet. We’ve all heard it a thousand times, but it’s the simple truth: food is medicine. 

Medicine so powerful that I’ve even covered some of the best foods to boost your brain health.

I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all diet, but I do think we can all benefit from sticking to real, whole foods, and avoiding processed, “unreal” food. From there, you need to personally explore what diet is suitable for you. 

Many people find that they start to a feel a lot better once they adopt a healthy way of eating. They not only look better, but they live better. And those effects carry over into the brain. It makes sense that supporting our brain with the nutrients it needs to function would help to bring neurotransmitters like dopamine back into balance. (Although I will caution that it’s not a guaranteed solution or cure; consult your doctor if you’re truly concerned about any possible disorders or imbalances.)

Another link to poor dopamine function has to do with your weight. According to research by Alexxai V. Kravitz Ph.D., a National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigator in the Eating and Addiction Section, Diabetes, Endocrinology and Obesity Branch, both inactive, obese mice and mice with Parkinson’s disease had deficits in specific dopamine receptors. [1] 

This further suggests that our weight and lack of motivation go beyond from just being lazy. It has a lot to do with our brain, and how it can be our greatest enemy towards our health.

But with that being said, it doesn’t mean we’re doomed to staying a certain weight! If you are obese or running short on staying motivated, there is a way to increase it.

Exercise.

You may think this would be making this worse, or is the last thing that would help overcome a dopamine receptor problem, but the researchers from NIH also found that exercise could actually help to overcome this issue!

How so?

By exercising, we can help to “reset” the receptors in our brain. And I’ve actually written about how this works– working out creates neural pathways in our brains that can help to safeguard us from losing our ability to stay motivated. Those pathways are like bridges, and we can choose whether or not they’re built of straw or stone.

If you workout either occasionally or when there’s some motivation, then the irregularity is going to establish a weak neural pathway. On the other hand, if you learn to consistently workout– even when it’s difficult- then you’ll start to create a strong neural pathway. 

According to Psychology Today,

“By gradually increasing physical activity, eating a healthier diet, and losing some weight—the basal ganglia seems to reboot and dopamine receptors ‘wake up.’ This kickstarts the biological reward mechanism that can make someone want to move his or her body voluntarily.” [2]

The reality is, motivation isn’t always going to be there to hold our hand. There’s nothing wrong with having it, but at the end of the day, motivation is just a boost. We need to take responsibility for our health. And if our goals really are worth working for, then we need to be willing to embrace the challenges of reaching them.
We need to face them head on consistently, even when motivation runs dry.

And the great part about doing this is that in the process, we become better people. Inside and out. We’ll not only look better, we’ll feel and perform better.

Those dopamine receptors will be there to help fire us up and make our habits a permanent part of our lifestyle. 

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201609/study-pinpoints-brain-circuitry-emotional-decision-making

[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201612/zero-motivation-exercise-dopamine-receptors-could-be-why