7 Ways I Stay Motivated to Exercise
As the New Year begins and January slowly rolls by, many people use this refreshing new start to create a list of resolutions in order to accomplish a personal goal or to break a habit. One of the most common resolutions people make is to live a healthier lifestyle, whether it is to eat a healthier diet, exercise more, or other minor or major changes in habit. In January, there is an increase of 12% new gym memberships from people hoping to be more active. However, by the second week of February, almost 80% of those new gym memberships are canceled for one reason or another.
Exercising frequently, whether it is just a couple times a week or every day, is tremendously beneficial for our health and wellbeing. Although most of us know that working out can be rewarding, it can be difficult to stay committed for a number of reasons. For me personally, my fitness journey has come a long way. I have gone from the middle-schooler who only ate fast food and never worked out, to a vegetarian who went through periods of working out but with no specific routine, to now, a plant-based vegan who weight trains seven days a week and incorporates cardio about five times per week. In my life today, exercise has become one of my biggest passions, but in the past, this was not so. It has taken me a long time to find out what works for me, and to stay consistently motivated. Now that I have found it, I want to share with you all my list of how I stay motivated in the gym!
Create a Good Playlist
There are some gym-goers out there that enjoy watching the T.V. while they workout, and while that is wonderful, I am not one of those people. For me, having a playlist of pump-up music to listen to as I exercise is incredibly motivating for me. Not only does the music give me adrenaline that enhances my workout, but by blasting music in my ears, I am not able to hear my huffing and puffing which allows me to push through my workouts. The application I like to use for my music is Sound Cloud because it is incredibly easy to find new songs, but many people also turn to Spotify as well.
Wear What Makes You Feel Confident
When you feel confident, you act confident. Wearing something that makes you feel comfortable and your best self is incredibly important! If wearing jewelry, makeup, sweatpants, etc. will bring you happiness and will enhance your workout, why not just go for it!
Set Realistic Goals
Getting into the habit of working out can be stressful. What can be more frustrating, however, is when I set an unrealistic goal for myself and am not able to accomplish it quickly. Creating goals to "become fit" or to "get abs" are incredibly broad and hard to tackle. What does it even mean to "be fit?" For each and every person that answer is different. Instead, creating goals within my grasp such as, "to complete a pull-up," or to "bench one hundred pounds," followed by a step-by-step plan to help me reach that goal is much more effective and encourages me to keep going.
Find the Workouts That Will Bring You Happiness
People tend to associate being fit with going to the gym and lifting a ton of weights or knocking out cardio sessions. While these are great forms of exercise, they are not the only way to live an active lifestyle. If you try weight lifting and you realize that you absolutely despise it, do not force yourself to do it just because others are! Finding the activity that brings you happiness while you do it, whether it be through dance, workout classes, following a program, sports, yoga, pilates, biking, running, swimming, or more, will make exercising much more enjoyable, and will make you want to continue it in the future. By doing this, exercising will become more of a fun activity to look forward to, rather than a dreadful "chore" that must be completed.
Exercise in a Comfortable Environment
Similarly to the previous point on this list, it is important to find the environment that makes you most comfortable when exercising. While I find the atmosphere of a gym to be motivating because I like to see others pushing themselves and because of all of the accessible equipment, for others, it can be anxiety producing or just plainly not enjoyable. Experimenting working out in different locations, for example outside, on a playground or a track, by the beach, and so much more, and finding out which ones make you feel most in your element, enhances your experience by an enormous amount.
Become Inspired
Inspiration is one of the main aspects that fuels my love for exercising. There are many ways to be inspired to exercise. For me, on Instagram, I follow many fitness models and learn and take ideas from them. By trying the new workouts I discover from their videos, I am constantly creating new and exciting challenges for myself. Additionally, by seeing these how far these natural fitness stars have come from the beginning of their fitness journey to now, I am motivated to keep going with my own journey. With this, however, it is important to not compare yourself to these models, but rather to use them as a form of inspiration. If you are curious, here are just a few of the many people I follow! :
Women
Men
Understand That This a Slow Process
Unfortunately, it is impossible to see any dramatic change overnight. It is important to note that this journey is a process, and that it can take a while to find the specific exercise that enhances your mood or changes your physique. It is important to keep this in mind while exercising, and to not be discouraged when you may not see results as quickly as you had hoped. Exercising should not solely be to "look fit," as there are so many beneficial reasons to incorporate it into your life. When you find what works for you, you will hopefully begin to love the way you feel both mentally and physically, and will love the journey itself!
There are many reasons why people choose to workout. It has taken me a long time to find what makes me feel my best when I exercise. Through time and exploration, I have found the methods that make me happiest and have made me fall in love with the gym. Exercising should never be a chore! While I love the way working out makes me look physically, as I love becoming stronger, it is ultimately the way it makes me feel that draws me back each and every day. Lifting weights and doing cardio challenges my mind and my body, is incredibly exhilarating, and makes me a happier person overall.