10 Of My Motivations

I’ve had many people email me asking what I use for motivation to work out everyday.

Now its more of a habit than anything, but in the beginning it was hard.   It took a lot of extra work to get up and force myself to workout everyday.

 My main daily workout is warming up with the Wii Fit, and then jumping on my elliptical.  One good days I also try to get out and walk for 30 minutes.  3 times a week I also use resistance bands for my strength training.

1.        READ.  Read fitness articles.  Read weight loss articles.  Read healthy eating articles.  If you turn yourself into a fitness freak, it makes the motivation fall into place.  Now I’m not saying follow everything you read, and don’t believe everything you read, but read none the less.

2.       CALENDARS.  I went out and bought a calendar just for working out.  Each time you work out mark it on the calendar.  I broke each day into 3 sections.  I color in the top portion with a yellow marker for 1 workout.  The middle with a blue marker for 2 workouts.  The bottom portion with a green marker for 3 workouts.  Then I can make comments in each portion.  This gives me the chance to go back and see how I did on a certain day, and also see why I was able to do as much or as little as I did.

3.        ALARM CLOCK.  Set an alarm and when it goes off, get up and move your butt!  This is probably the best thing I started doing.  Not only does it alert you that its time to workout, its also a great way to make it a daily thing.  For me, working out at the same time everyday made it much easier to turn it into a habit. 

4.       SMALLER PANTS.   This may sound crazy, but I went out and bought me 2 pairs of pants 2 sizes to small.  On the 1^st of the month, I put them on and took a picture of myself in them.  Then every 1^st of the month, I put them on again and take another picture.  This gives me a visual of how far I’ve come.  Once those fit, I started all over.

5.       DO NOT USE THE SCALE.  Being on Predinisone makes losing weight much harder.  I stopped weighing myself because I would get so frustrated because I wasn’t losing anything.  Even worse when I gained a few pounds.  Even using the Wii Fit, I don’t weigh myself.  I only weigh myself on the 1^st of the month.  For me not knowing what the numbers are doing doesn’t stress me out.

6.       HELP YOUR CAUSE.  Most causes have some sort of walk or marathon to help raise money.  Find out when one in your area is and get a team together.  Not only does this give you a goal to work towards, but it also gives you a group of people with the same goal.  It feels good to not only help yourself, but do something for a greater good.

7.       WORKOUT CLOTHES.  What you’re wearing can make a world of difference.  Having clothes I only wear for my workouts gets me in the mood when I put them on. 

8.       FIND A GROUP.  I found a great walking group through Meetup.com.  This is a bunch of women that meet 3 times a week.  Each meet up is at a different location in the area.  This gives us a change of scenery and is much more fun than walking the same place over and over.

9.       POSITIVE THOUGHTS.  I came up with a list of positive thoughts for myself.  I have one of these posted on the fridge, in the bathroom, and in the bedroom.   I’m always stopping to look at them.  These have helped me many times when I’ve gotten frustrated, or I felt like giving up.

10.   SMALL GOALS.  I sat down with index cards and wrote a reward on each one.  Then I placed them each in an envelope.  I had the kids mix up the envelopes so I had no clue what was in each one.  Then I wrote goals on the outside of each envelope.  When I meet that goal I open the envelope and reward myself with whatever is inside.   Each reward is a surprise.