Ways to Stay Motivated

Motivation needs to be constantly worked on or it can slowly disappear. Prevention is the key and how you think is a major part of this. Here are a few things to consider.

• Remember exercise is a great way to give something back to your body – it is time for yourself, time to escape, time to undo the wear and tear of stress, work, family life, poor food, alcohol, smoking and all the other stresses of life.
• Losing weight, toning or getting fitter should be compared with climbing a stairs or ladder. The top step is the job done, the ultimate goal. Concentrate on moving just one step at a time. Remember you are getting closer and closer each step you take. Don’t be afraid to stay on one step for a while and give yourself time to enjoy and relax.
• Review your goals and targets – without goals and targets it is very hard to stay motivated. Write down what you really want to achieve. Be very specific with dates, times and amounts. Then break it down into several steps or short term goals. Finally work on one step at a time!
• Just focus on the next 7 days – work hard, put in the effort and get good results. Don’t look too far ahead. Just get to the end of the week and work from there.
• After every 3 weeks take a ‘down’ week. For physical and mental rest every 3 weeks you should shorten your total workout to 30 minutes and only do 3 sessions that week. Just aim to maintain your weight for that week!
• Reward yourself when you get to a new weight level!
• If you don’t feel like exercising on a particular day, then aim to do just one item, say your weights only or your treadmill only. Promise yourself that you will stop if you still feel unmotivated at that point. However 99 times out of 100 you will feel fine and continue on.