How To Get Motivated To Workout

With health and fitness becoming ever more popular and people wanting to be the healthiest versions of themselves. It can feel quite overwhelming knowing where to start, who to listen to, what exercises you should be doing and what you should be eating. With this overwhelming feeling becoming all encompassing, it can be hard to stay, or even get motivated.

We All Have Our Off Days

However, we all have our off days when working out, or eating healthy couldn’t be further from what we actually want to be doing. No matter whether you’ve been working out for years, or you’re a total newbie. Motivation ebbs and flows with life’s ups and down. You’re never going to be 100% motivated 100% of the time.

Don’t Rely On Motivation

Motivation isn’t some thing to rely on when it comes to health and fitness. Yes, it’s great when you have it bucket loads, but it won’t always be there to make you go to the gym, or eat a salad instead of a burger and chips! Instead you need to find another way to keep you on track with your health and fitness goals.

Here are some other ways you can do this…

Don’t Be So Strict With Your Goals

Some people aim way too high for their current fitness levels. Say right now you’re doing the couch to 5K challenge. Yet you’ve set yourself the challenge of being able to run a marathon in 2 months. This probably isn’t likely to happen and will only deter you from succeeding as you continue to fail. Instead, lower your expectations. Aim for something manageable for you. Yes, you want to push yourself, but you also want to be able to reach your goals.

Track Progress

Tracking your progress is a great way to keep you going towards your goals. Whether you want to lose a bit of weight, gain some muscle, lift heavier, run faster…etc. By tracking your progress you can see the progress you’ve made so far. Whether that’s in photos of yourself, timing your runs, noting down what weight you are lifting each week. You probably won’t see the progress yourself until you look back at your progress.

Ignore What Others Are Doing

You can really get stuck in your own head if you concentrate on what other people are doing, or on other people’s progress more than your own. Ignore what other people are doing. This is YOUR journey. What someone else can do is totally irrelevant to you and your journey. There will always be someone better than you, stronger than you, leaner than you, more muscly than you. But that doesn’t matter. YOU are what matters! Everyone’s journey is different, as all people are different. The rate in which one person progresses will always be different to yours, so don’t pay attention to what they’re doing.

Join A Class Or A Group

If you struggle to workout on your own, try joining a group or a class instead. You could even get yourself a personal trainer to help push you. Although you don’t want to start relying on them to get you going. Yes, they can teach you things and give you a kickstart but ultimately, it’s down to you to keep going. Be your own cheerleader!

Make It Fun

If you don’t find eating salads fun or enjoyable, then don’t eat them! There are plenty of other ways you can eat a healthy diet. The same goes with fitness and exercise. If you don’t enjoy running, don’t go running! You could go cycling, swimming, play football, get yourself a skipping rope. Find something you do find enjoyable instead.

Make It A Lifestyle

Instead of feeling guilty and trying to fit exercise, or eating better in to your life. Make it your life! Don’t see it as a chore you HAVE to do. Make it something you WANT to do. If you get tired after work, try and do your workout during the day instead. Or, if you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen in the evenings, get meal planning at the weekend and prep your meals for the week.

Don’t Feel Guilty

We all feel the guilt from time to time, especially if we’ve missed a few workout sessions, or haven’t eaten so well that week. We all do it, no one is going to be 100% perfect all the time. If you fall of the wagon, that’s fine. Don’t stress about something you can’t change that’s ow in the past. Learn from what went wrong and move forwards! You can’t change the past so there’s no point in worrying about it or feeling guilty for it. Plus, having a few days off won’t put you back at square one again. You won’t any lose progress if it’s just a one off. The worst thing you can do is beat yourself up about it.