In my last fitness blog, “What Impacts Your Motivation to Exercise?” I talked about how the weather impacts my drive to exercise or not to. Since its spring most of us can expect there to be up and down days, as far as temperatures and rain.
But as we are looking toward the constant days of warmth and good weather, we should be thinking more about what we can do to motivate ourselves. The way you go into a fitness plan can make all the difference as far as your drive and determination.
For instance, set realistic goals and expectations. Don’t think you will be ready to run a marathon when the most exercise you have done in the past few months is brush the snow off your car.
You can also make exercise more motivating by keeping in the back of your mind that you may end up falling off your plan. Sickness, vacations, and other circumstances may cause you to miss a day or more.
Don’t let that be a discouragement. Instead, prepare yourself ahead of time to expect missed days so that you don’t decide to scrap the whole idea of exercising.
Another way to motivate yourself is to keep track of your progress. If you don’t, it might seem like you haven’t gotten anywhere. Even being able to walk a further distance one week from the next is progress. There are a variety of ways that you can keep track of your progress, which I will talk about in my next fitness blog.
Finally, you can stay motivated by remembering to never compare yourself to someone else. I know…nothing is more aggravating than to go to the gym and see all the perfectly toned ladies working out.
If you spend more time comparing yourself to others, you will get discouraged and lose the motivation necessary. Instead, concentrate on what your personal goals are.
Do you have other ways that help to keep you motivated when it comes to fitness?
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Photo by eMuse Tess Heder in Flickr