There are countless people that want to get fit. They’ve long despised parts of their body that they know are getting out of control, and they would like to finally trim down and get the figure they have always yearned for. Then what is stopping you? All you have to do is get out of your house after getting dressed for a workout and go do it right? Well, if only things were actually that easy and we could all get up off the sofa, leave our computer screens, put Netflix on hold and do the things we need to. However, this requires motivation, determination to stick it out through the tough times ahead. That fleeting personality trait that seems to come and go as it pleases in our mind, is difficult to snatch and hold down. The thing is, we are hurting ourselves by going to work out, and hurting ourselves when we don’t go to workout. We’re constantly in between a rock and a hard place. It’s little wonder then that motivation is the one thing that we need to conquer first, grasp firmly to then use in our daily lives to keep us fit. And yet, once you have it, it doesn’t mean you will stay motivated. You need to constantly keep getting re-motivated in different ways to keep going to the gym.
What you will do when you etch a time slot into your personal schedule to go workout is, debate whether you should actually go on the day or not. We’re all guilty of doing this. We set ourselves a time, say for example, Saturday morning at 11 am. We set ourselves a task, such as jogging 3 miles. And then when it’s time to wake up, we keep saying in our own mind “it’s not that important” or “I’ll go tomorrow” and of course the classic “just 5 more minutes in bed”. Little do we know this battle started a long time ago. It’s manifested itself the night before you were going to go workout.
The night before, did you go to sleep at the right time so you got the most sleep you needed? Typically it’s 8 hours of sleep you need to feel refreshed. Did you go out partying the night before? Did you stay up late doing your taxes? Were you consumed with your favourite TV show? All these things are a lack of discipline. Even though you know you should be getting to sleep, you still haven’t put yourself in the mindset that working out is going to be a chore at first. It’s going to require us to not live entirely how we want to because we have a goal to reach. So you must win the internal debate first of whether or not you really want to get fit or not.
Be honest, what would you rather do, eat a pizza or go do push ups and sit ups in the gym at 8 o’clock in the morning? The former is the option many of us would choose if not all of us. Even the people that workout regularly, will confess that they are fighting the urge to not slip back into eating unhealthily and skipping out on their workouts. All it takes is for one missed day for the thoughts of slacking off to creep into your mind. “Go on, just one more day off” you’ll begin to say to yourself.
If this sounds like you even before you have put on your joggers or running tights, don’t worry there are still ways you can motivate yourself to keep going. The donkey and the carrot method works. Give yourself a reward for working out. This will encourage a ‘habitual loop’ in your mind as psychologists have noted. For something good that you do, you get an instant gratification in the form of a reward. This could be something as small as eating a chocolate bar at the end of a workout. It might also be having a cheat meal or day which is the most widely known way of performing the carrot and cart method. This is something simple as eating a healthy diet for 6 days out of the week, and for one day you can eat whatever junk food you want but still keep within your calorie limit. It could also be something that isn’t related to food, such as watching your favourite show online and catching up with the latest episode. Don’t allow yourself to watch the show, until you have worked out. Don’t forget to check for new information about the keto diet too.
Human beings are both solitary and pack animals. Men tend to be more solitary when they are on their own and won’t seek outward to be part of a group. Women on the other hand would rather be in a group and do the things they have trouble with together. This is why there are so many fitness figures on social media websites targeting women who want to workout. If you’re trying to discover who you should follow then check out the list of Fitness Instagram figures who each have their own take on what kind of workouts to do and how to stay motivated.
Many people would like to work on a specific part of their body, such as men would like to improve their upper bodies while women would more likely want to workout overall body. For women, it’s best to try and do bodyweight exercises first before you head onto any kind of additional weight. For example, being able to do lunges and squats in high repetition just on your own is the first challenge. Many of these fitness symbols on social media websites, will show you new techniques on how you can do this. At first it can seem like doing bodyweight exercises isn’t difficult and even mastering high repetitions and high sets will eventually become normal. The fitness motivators on Instagram will show you different ways to attack your body and make it do what you want. Sculpting your body to how you want it to look like will take time and the more new techniques you know, the fresher your workouts will become. Thus you’re not repeating yourself often and becoming bored.
Many fitness professionals will tell you that their life has had to be changed and altered to fit their new lifestyle into it. For example, many people who weight train will find that working out early in the morning makes sense for them. They get up early around 5:15 am, eat a small snack and perhaps a little bit of stimulant such as caffeine or creatine, and then get to the gym at around 5:45 am. They will work out until 6:30 am and then go home, and get dressed for work and have a shower beforehand. This is adapting to their workout sessions and changing their normal life, to make sure they have enough time to do everything they normally would.
Pick a time for when you feel most comfortable to workout. Preferably, this will be when you’re not so tired, and it won’t be after a meal by at least 1 hour. So if you want to workout in the evening, you can adapt this way. Get off at work around 5 pm, head straight to the gym and come back home around 6 pm. On the other hand if you have children, you can pick them up around 3 or 4 pm, drop them off and make them a snack, and then head to the gym around 5 pm. Get back around 6 pm and begin making dinner or doing other house chores. Either way, you need to figure out what kinds of things you would normally be doing and work your way around them. Of course, this means you will have less leisure time to watch your favourite shows, and perhaps even have less of a social life. But this is the price you must pay to become fit and stay motivated.
Working out forever is not something anyone wants to do; unless you’re a professional. For most ordinary folk, working out must have an end goal. This could be hitting a certain weight and losing a few pounds. But this doesn’t mean that once you achieve your target that you stop working out, it just means you lessen the number of times you do so.
For example, if your goal is to slim down from 180 lbs to 150 lbs, and you’re working out 3 to 4 times a week, then once you hit 150 lbs, you should half that amount to 2 times a week instead. At this point you’re merely trying to maintain your figure by eating right and working out occasionally throughout the week.
Reward yourself to sticking to your workout plan. This could be in the form of a cheat meal where you eat some junk food that you have otherwise cut out of your diet, or it could be just a simple sugar snack like a chocolate bar. Follow fitness symbols online to get new tips and ways to keep yourself motivated to reach your end goal.
This is a featured post
Great points all round, Rach! I particularly agree that we all need a decent night’s kip before we can feel motivated to exercise. I’d also agree that we need to adapt our lifestyle to fitness…for me, it’s wandering around in ‘active wear’ most of the time so I’m always prepared to go for a run or a walk or to do some yoga without making any excuses! My go-to exercise is 30 mins of yoga every morning. Since I know how great it makes me feel afterwards, I actually look forward to it! When I tire of that though, I try to do unusual, fun exercises like ecstatic dance…or I’ll go to a zumba class. It makes me laugh, it’s a tough workout and it keeps things fresh so I stay motivated! I don’t really have an ‘end goal’ per se…it’s more like I just want to keep healthy and happy and I know that a bit of exercise a day goes a long way! 🙂
Emma recently posted…6 reactions to alopecia around the world