Fitness motivation comes and goes, and that is just the honest truth about it. If you’re feeling unmotivated, don’t beat yourself up about it because even bodybuilders face the same lack of motivation to exercise sometimes. Just because I’m an advocate for living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean I’m always motivated to exercise. As a matter of fact, most of the time, I would much rather relax, curl up under a warm blanket in my rocking chair, drink a cup of green tea or coffee while reading a great book.
So how have I been able to commit to exercising everyday despite not being motivated all the time?
Quite simply, exercising has become a habit. So whether I want it or not, I mechanically get dressed and exercise twice a day, five times a week. I read a book called The Power Of Habits, by Charles Duhigg. In his book, Duhigg explains clearly that when an action, a thought or a behaviour is so repetitive that the brain classifies it as a habit, the brain activity stops getting involved in the decision making process. Much like brushing your teeth before going to be is an automatism, so does exercising become so anchored in your routine that it becomes a “no brainer”. So whether you want to train to lose weight, strengthen your body or simply be healthy, here are 5 way to find the motivation to exercise.
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Ftiness motivation – Forming habits
Forming habits is easier than we think, but the first step toward lasting change is, of course, willpower. If you don’t truly want to make exercising a habit and part of your routine, you will fall off the wagon. So the first part to build up your workout motivation is to make the firm decision to change your lifestyle and exercise regularly to take great care of your body and health.
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Fitness motivation – You have the power over your emotions
The second step to build up you workout motivation is to resolve to exercise regardless of how you feel: tired, exhausted, moody, sad, angry. No matter the excuse you come up with to not exercise, overcome it and push yourself. You’ll quickly realize the when you don’t feel like is actually the best time to workout as it will boost your mental and physical energy levels. Look at it this way: you don’t have a choice but to exercise, so why debate internally? You’re wasting your time because you know that in the end, you will go to the gym or exercise from home. The sooner you get it out the way, the better you’ll feel about yourself.I also want to highlight another point that I think is important: ten (not nine) times out of ten, what you want to do is in opposition with what you know you should do in order to feel happy, satisfied and proud of yourself. And this applies to everything in life, not just fitness. Ten times out of ten, allowing yourself to do what you want to do will make you stay in your comfort zone and as a result, you’ll feel bad. Have you ever decided to watch Netflix instead of going to the gym and felt guilty afterwards? You felt guilty not because you did not exercise, but because you were disappointed in yourself as you KNOW you could have pushed yourself. You have to always keep in mind your reputation with yourself. You want your reputation with yourself to always be at an all time high. In order to do so, you must get out of your comfort zone and do the things you don’t want to do but know they will bring you the most joy in the end.
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Fitness motivation – We are visual beings
I know that for me, watching videos of girls exercising or looking at pictures of girls with a gorgeous body motivates me like nobody’s business. I particularly love watching girls who not only hold themselves like pros when they train (meaning who have great posture and behave like athletes vs girly girls) but who also have a great, positive and joyful attitude throughout their workouts. We have a tendency to think of exercising as a chore and as a result, act as if the workout was the end of the world. I particularly love following on Instagram Karina Elle (@karinaelle) and Melissa Alcantara (@fitgurlmel) their bubbling energy is contagious and they show a different, more positive approach to exercising that feels like a breath of fresh air in the fitness industry, which leads me to the fourth point. But before we get to that, the third part to build up your workout motivation is to follow girls that have the discipline and body that you aspire to possess. They’ll help you achieve your fitness goals.
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Fitness motivation – Change your mindset about exercising
If you keep thinking: “ughhhhhh I don’t wanna go to the gym today“, “I hate training“, etc, chances are you will probably end up going to the gym, but the whole experience will be living hell. If you keep telling yourself positive and uplifting things such as: “I am so proud of myself for sticking to my plan of exercising“, “I am determined to taking great care of my health and body“, “I am willing to push myself so I can get better, improve and increase my fitness levels“, your experience at the gym will be much more pleasant. We underestimate the power of the voice in our head that keeps telling us negative things. You must learn to control that inner monologue and counter it every time with more positive affirmations. We are what we think. Our thoughts shape our lives. Before anything materializes in the world, it was first a thought. If you want to change your life, you must first change your thoughts.
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Fitness motivation – Get creative with your workouts
This is a major one. About a year ago, I formed the habit of doing cardiovascular exercises every morning. Since I own a stationary bike at home, I would jump on the bike early everyday and would pedal for an hour. That hour then became 30 minutes and for the past two months, I must say I grew increasingly aversive to completing even these 30 minutes of cardio on the bike. I thought to myself, I can’t give up these cardio sessions because I work on my laptop all day and I really need to move and get my blood flowing in the morning (not to mention that doing cardio in the morning always fills my energy tank up and puts me in a great mood to attack my work days). So I decided to do replace three bike sessions out five by two sessions of High Intensity Interval Training of 20 minutes each twice a week, and one 15-minute session of jumping ropes. HIIT helps me burn more calories than the bike in a shorter amount of time (but it is also much more intense) and 15 minutes of rope jumping burns as much calories as 45 minutes of biking. So there you have it. There many ways of exercising, you don’t have to train at the gym all the time, you can take a dance class, go swimming, try Yoga, Barre Fitness, Pilates, Essentrics, go for a run, play tennis. The options are endless and you can really have a good time while exercising.
There you have it, my five pieces of advice to stay motivated to workout, form habits of exercising without giving up. I hope these were helpful! You really don’t have to put yourself through an intense workout everytime. Sometimes simply moving your body through a Yoga session or low impact cardio session can make you feel wonderful. Also, finding a workout buddy or hiring a personal trainer is always helpful! They both keep you accountable.
