If you want to lead a healthy lifestyle, you truly need to love your fitness routine. So many times we find motivation and have good intentions, yet a few weeks or months in all efforts go amiss. Why does this happen to so many of us? It’s easy to put everything else in life ahead of ourselves. When we aren’t loving exercising, we accept every excuse in the book to forego what we need. However, if you flip the situation to when you LOVE exercising, you’re more likely to put it first and manage everything else around it.
- Find meaning.
The first step in transforming your love of fitness is to determine what working out actually means to you. Find positive motivation of why you want to work out (how good it makes you feel afterward, how it helps you relieve stress, the friends you see at the gym, etc.), and you’ll suddenly look forward to your workout time. - Forget about weight loss…for now.
Jumping into a fitness routine just for the sake of losing weight isn’t going to be enough to entice you into loving exercise. Having unrealistic expectations for quick transformations or simply going through the motions because you feel like you’re overweight isn’t’ going to cut it. Instead, work your way into a regular routine by making changes that you can be proud of. Going from couch potato to exercising two hours a week is a huge accomplishment. Embrace it. Switching your routine and attitude from hating your daily run to having fun at kickboxing class gives you something to look forward to. Once you find the things that make you happy and get into a routine doing them, the weight will start to come off and you’ll be able to hone your new habitual routine into an effective fat burning rhythm at that point. - Use extrinsic motivators.
Ultimately, you want to develop a deep intrinsic motivation where your inspiration to exercise comes from within. But sometimes when you’re just getting started or are struggling a bit, a little help won’t hurt. Here are a few extrinsic motivator examples that’ll help get you moving:
- A dog holding a lead in his mouth giving you “the look”
- A friend who will hunt you down if you try to skip out on her at the gym
- A personal trainer who will make you feel accountable
Having a little push in the motivation department like this is just a little kick start. In time you’ll look forward to your workout and you’ll become someone else’s inspiration.
- Give yourself permission.
Exercise is more than simply keeping your body fit. It can help you reduce stress, lift your mood, enhance your sleep, and boost your energy levels. If it does all of that, then why don’t people stick with it? Because they are too busy putting everything else in life first. Of course, we can’t throw our daily tasks and obligations to the wind, but we can give ourselves permission to dedicate an hour a day – or even 30 minutes – to ourselves. By giving yourself permission, you will no longer struggle between yourself and the rest of your obligations, because you’ve come to the realization that it’s okay to set aside time dedicated your wellness. - Keep it fresh.
An active, consistent fitness routine is a fabulous habit to have. That said, it’s very important to mix up the routine now and again to avoid becoming bored with said routine. If you absolutely love your current routine, there’s no sense fixing what’s not broken. But if you feel like you might be starting to lose interest in what you’re doing, change things up a bit by incorporating other types of exercise or activities. By doing what you enjoy and changing up your routine you’ll keep yourself interested and engaged in your workouts, and you’ll never want to miss one!
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