How to Get Motivated to Exercise

How to Get Motivated to Exercise

Most of us KNOW exercise is good for us – it’s just getting the motivation to actually do it that is hard….

Every new year the resolution I will join a gym is heard all around the world by millions, but only a small few of us ever actually stick to it.

We all have stories of paying your gym fees only to find that you went once.  Don’t beat yourself up about it – we have all done it. But today is a new day – and we have 10 great tips of on how to keep motivated to keep going!

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1. Stop Exercising Purely for Weight Loss

Wondering how to get motivated to exercise? Well, you have to stop exercising purely for weight loss now! Joining a gym or just doing exercise to lose weight can feel soul-destroying, especially when the scale doesn’t reflect your hard work soon enough. Instead, use exercise as a way to socialise, or a way to improve your mental health. Let weight loss be a secondary want instead of the be-all and end-all of exercising.

2. Have a Buddy To Boost Motivation To Exercise

You are far more likely to exercise if a friend expects you to be there. Plus exercising with a friend makes the time go faster and doesn’t feel like so much hard work! Even walking around the block with a friend – you are both catching up and venting about life, and getting a workout at the same time.

3. Create the HABIT of Exercise

I have started a habit of going to my gym just after I drop the kids off at school. It’s a habit. It doesn’t matter when I get to the gym how long I exercise for. Most of the time I end up chatting for 20 minutes and only doing 30 minutes of actual gym work. But that doesn’t matter – because it is creating that habit of going.

It takes 30 days of doing the same thing every day to create a new habit. So even if you go to the gym and don’t exercise – that habit is being formed – and when you start – you will keep going.

4. Choose an Exercise You Love to Do

The gym is certainly not for everyone. And even if you hate exercise, there has to be some sort of activity that you love to do – purely for the love of it. Whether that is dancing, yoga, mountain bike riding or walking – choose something fun!

Here are some fun suggestions for exercise:

5. Make the Time to Exercise

All parents have very busy schedules but you ou need to MAKE TIME to exercise.  Make it a priority in your life as you are well worth the effort.  Try to fit in at least 30 minutes a day and it will have a positive effect on your body and mind. After a couple of weeks of regular exercise, you’ll find that laborious chores, whether they are physical or mental, are generally much easier.

Most Mums find it hard to exercise in the mornings due to getting the kids ready for school or daycare – so what about as soon as you get home?  Go dressed in your workout gear so you have no excuse.  Exercise with other Mums in the same position, you can motivate each other to keep going! Can’t afford a gym membership?  No worries – do exercise DVD’s or create a circuit at home.  Walk around the outside of your house, jump on the trampoline, go up and down the stairs.  Jump with a skipping rope.  There are so many cheap and free options – so lose the excuses and get going!

6. Give Yourself a Reward for Exercising

Set a reward for consistent exercise. Say you exercise every day for a week – at the end of that week you can indulge in a small chocolate bar, or buy yourself that cute new top you love.

Then set another goal – and another. You are much more likely to be motivated to exercise if you can give yourself something you love at the end of it!

7. Take a Photograph of Your Body to See the Results

If you are a visual person and needs the motivation to exercise, take a photo of your body as it is right now – do your 30 minutes of exercise every day and then take another photo after a week.  You WILL see a difference.  The positive difference is a great motivator to keep going! Keep a diary of how exercise makes you feel.  Sure, it’s going to be hard at first, but as your body gets fitter, you will feel stronger!

Perhaps keep those photographs in a photo vault so the kids don’t find them!

8. Change Up Your Exercise Routine

The same old routines, day in, day out, can get monotonous. It’s human nature to get bored with repetition so try to vary the types of exercise you do to get that motivation to exercise. Not only does it help make exercise more interesting, but it may also be more beneficial because you are generally working different muscles. Swimming, cycling and walking are all great forms of exercise.

9. Use Exercise as Quality Time with the Kids

Go for a bike ride with the kids after school, or a walk around the block. Spending time both exercising and talking to your kids is a great way of ‘killing two birds with one stone’.

10. Use Positive Punishments If You Don’t Exercise

This one may sound extreme – but it really works. So you miss gym class or your pilates session – you have to pay yourself a $20 fee for piking. Put that money into an account for the kids.

Having a penalty for not doing what you should just be the motivation to exercise!

These are our 10 tips on How to Get Motivated to Exercise!