10 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

The problem with exercise is that it is like a bitter pill, one we must swallow if we wish to remain slim and in good health. However, lethargy and laziness make it increasingly difficult to stick to a workout routine, even one we enjoy once we get started on it. As the years go by, it’s harder to find the motivation to stay on track, and once you lose your resolve, you start gaining all the pounds you worked so hard to lose. The trick to losing weight and keeping it off is to find motivation in any way you can to continue exercising. You can start with these simple things:
1. Check your weight every week – you tend to stick to your exercise program whether the needle goes up or down. If you gain weight, you work out more; if you lose weight, you feel happy and stay on track.

2. Keep looking at photos of your slimmer days – when you know you can look better, you tend to strive towards it.

3. Don’t wear oversized clothing – when your regular clothes start to pinch, it’s time to step up your workout and step down your eating.

4. Take pride in the way you look – when you ensure that you’re perfectly groomed and look your best, it’s easy to stick to your exercise routine.

5. Rope in a friend or your spouse to workout with you – when someone else depends on you to show up at your workout session, you tend to be more responsible.

6. Look at exercise differently – view it as a license to eat all your favorite foods. Although it’s not wise to do this on a regular basis, you don’t feel too much guilt when you indulge yourself if you know you’re going to follow it up with a punishing workout.

7. Do a little every day – when you know your sessions are short, you don’t find excuses to avoid doing them. Around half an hour a day is enough when you follow power workouts like interval training and strength training.

8. Look around – I’m not saying you must judge people, but look at those who are obese and swear you will never become like them. It’s a way to motivate yourself by looking at the negatives in others and converting them into your positives.

9. Play a sport – it’s easier to stick to exercise when it’s not monotonous and when there’s competition to drive you to perform and succeed.

10. And finally, don’t worry about the results – whether you visibly lose weight or not, exercise makes you healthier, fitter and much more confident about yourself. So once you’ve started, keep going no matter what.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Rachel Davis, she writes on the topic of Radiology Degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email id: racheldavis65@gmail.com