It’s interesting how the weather seems to affect my motivation to exercise. For nearly two weeks, the state I live in (Wisconsin) has been experiencing unseasonably warmer temperatures. In fact, I believe we broke record high temps on at least two days.
It didn’t even feel like spring, it felt more like summer as we hit the 80’s. It was invigorating and got me outside taking a walk nearly every evening.
Then this past weekend the temperature started to drop. As of the writing of this blog, we are only at 37 degrees, which is still considered to be pretty good for Wisconsin in March. But I noticed that as the temperatures have plunged, so has my motivation for exercise.
Now all I want to do is be inside my house. I happen to also be on vacation and despite now having extra time to exercise, I am using it as an excuse not to. Who wants to exercise on their day off and who wants to do it when the weather is back to being colder?
Yet I know that I will only feel worse if I continue to skip exercising. The colder weather is enough to bring me down, so adding to it several days of laziness certainly isn’t going to help.
It does get me thinking about how important it is to recognize those triggers or factors that
influence my mood when it comes to fitness. Because once those are recognized, a plan can be put in place to overcome them.
You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge is a famous saying by Dr. Phil. But it’s really true. If I can’t acknowledge that weather impacts my motivation, I can’t do anything to change it.
So now that I have gained this insight, I guess it’s time to get off this computer…get off this couch…get out of my pajamas and into some workout clothes.
What impacts you most when it comes to your motivation to exercise?
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Photo by kk+ in Flickr