Archive for the ‘motivation to exercise’ Category

July 9th, 2010
Comments Off

Exercising Motivation: How To Stay Motivated To Exercise By Focusing On On Consistency Over Intensity

If you’re struggling with your exercising motivation, the key is usually to focus on intensity over consistency. When it comes to weight loss one many people find it difficult to motivate themselves to exercise because most people associate a great deal of pain to getting exercise to lose weight. For most people, getting exercise brings up images of pounding the treadmill or “pumping iron” because most of us have been falsely conditioned to believe that in order to exercise for weight loss, you must force yourself to endure difficult high intensity workouts. This usually has a severely negative affect on your motivation to exercise. The truth however is that high intensity workouts are not necessary for weight loss, nor does exercising for weight loss have to be painful or difficult. In fact, you are far more liekly to stay motivated, lose weight and succeed in the long run by lowering the intensity of your workouts and making exercise as fun and enjoyable as possible.

Find Fun And Enjoyable Ways Of Exercising

The reason many of us believe that we must force ourselves to endure difficult high intensity workouts like hour long runs or marathon sessions in the gym is because many of us have been falsely conditioned by the “no pain, no gain” myth. The truth however is that ANY exercise you start to do – however small it may be – that is above what you are currently doing will increase your metabolism and cause you to lose weight. Anything that increases your heart rate above it’s normal rate by just a little bit counts as exercise. The key is to find ways of increasing the amount of regular exercise that you get that are FUN. You don’t have to pound the treadmill if you don’t like doing it, neither do you have to kill yourself every time you do a workout. Instead, find easy ways of increasing the amount of exercise you get on a daily basis that are fun and enjoyable. Going for a walk in the woods, playing soccer, joining a dance class – these are all things that increase your heart rate (i.e. exercise) and will cause you to lose weight. In order to stay motivated to exercise, look for FUN and enjoyable ways of exercising – don’t force yourself into painful high intensity workouts (UNLESS of course you really do enjoy exercising like that, but unless you’re a professional athlete most people don’t!).

Focus On Consistency Over Intensity

In addition to finding fun and enjoyable ways of exercising, the second key to feeling motivated to exercise is to focus on consistency over intensity. Once you’ve found a fun form of exercise – playing soccer three times a week for example, focus on getting exercising in this way consistently over the long term. It’s not what we do in the short term that ultimately determines out results, it’s what we do consistently over the LONG TERM. Going for a 20 minute walk each day for a year will result long term success – where forcing yourself into going for an hour long run each day, and then giving up after a couple of weeks because it was too difficult won’t. Because we’ve been taught to believe in “no pain, no gain”, we tend to think that exercise has to be painful in order for it to be effective. The truth is that when it comes to weight loss you are far more likely to succeed and feel motivated if you find enjoyable ways of exercising, and then focus on long term consistency instead of on the intensity of the exercise you are getting.

Before I finish I do want to make it clear that I am not saying you shouldn’t ever do high intensity exercise. What I am saying however is that in order to stay motivated to exercise for losing weight it is critical that you find ways of getting exercise that you personally find fun and enjoyable, and that you focus on consistency in the long term over the intensity of the exercise that you are getting. Getting more and more fit and healthy feels great, and if you want to you can of course build up to long and intense workouts if you want to. For the purpose of losing weight however, it isn’t necessary to kill yourself in order to lose weight through exercising. Any exercise above what you are currently getting, done consistently in a way that is fun and enjoyable for you, will ultimately lead to the achievement of your weight loss goal – while ensuring that you feel strong and motivated along the way.

For more tips on staying motivated to exercise and lose weight, please sign up for our FREE motivation tips newsletter below.

Technorati Tags:

Read More
June 20th, 2010
Comments Off

Exercise And Fitness Motivation: How To Use Your Focus To Increase Your Levels Of Motivation

In this article I’d like to talk about how to use your focus to supercharge your exercise and fitness motivation. Your level of motivation to do anything is largely a result of what you are focusing on in any moment. Therefore it’s important to control your focus and to use it in a way that increases your motivation to exercise and get fit.

We can only focus on a limited amount of things at any one time When we focus on things that we perceive to be painful, our motivation levels drop. Focusing on positive things increases motivation as it has the effect of “blocking out” everything else.

Here are some things you can focus on to increase your exercise and fitness motivation

1. Getting fit by exercising makes you feel great, decreases stress, and increases your general levels of happiness

Exercise realeases endorphins into the body which have the effect of making you feel great. It also releases built up tension in the body. The join effect of this is higher levels of both health and happiness in your life generally. While working out – or before doing a workout, it can be tempting to think of how “difficult” exercise is, which will decrease your motivation. Instead, think of and focus on the positive effects that exercise will give you both during and after your workout.

2. Being Fit And Healthy Increases Your Energy And Productivity In Every Area Of Your Life

Increasing your fitness levels impacts every area of your life. When you’re fit and healthy, you have higher

levels of energy at work. You’ll get more done which is likely to make you more successful and effective – both in work and in your personal life. Therefore focus on all the benefits you’ll get in every area of your life by exercising and getting fit. As a result of focusing your mind in such a way, you’ll see how exercise and fitness fits into the bigger picture of your overall life and feel more motivated.

3. Increasing Your Fitness Levels Makes You Feel Strong And Powerful
We all have a need to feel strong. When we feel strong inside, we feel more confident and our levels of self esteem are high. Exercising consistently and increasing your levels of fitness therefore also increases our inner strength, because we grow stronger every time we do something that it’s important to us, but that isn’t necessarily easy to do. Health and fitness is important to nearly everyone, but many people don’t take care of it because it’s not always easy. Focus on how exercising and increasing your levels of fitness will make you feel stronger inside every time you do it and you’ll feel more motivated to do it each time.

Directing your focus onto the benefits you will get in your life as a result of exercising and getting fit is the key here to increasing your levels of exercise and fitness motivation. The above are three examples – ther are many other ways you can direct the focus of your mind in a way that increases your motivation. The main point here is to remember to control your mental focus. Use your focus consistently in a way that increases your motivation, and your levels of motivation will continually grow.

For more tips on how to increase your exercise and fitness motivation sign up for our motivation tips newsletter below:

Technorati Tags:

Read More
March 24th, 2010
Comments Off

10 Top Ways of Getting Motivation to Exercise

Making the decision to exercise and get fit can often the easiest part of losing weight. It is a few weeks down the road when the excitement is gone and the process has become grueling that it can become easy to forget the promise you made to yourself. Believe it or not this is a scientific fact, proven by research that shows 50% of people that start a new exercise regime give up within the first month and another 25% will quit within three months.

You don’t have to be part of that 75%, you can be in the elite 25%. There are a few simple things you can do to help you find the motivation to exercise, get in shape and achieve the body you have always wanted.

Tip One: Figure Out Why You Exercise

The reason that you decided to start exercising can have a dramatic impact on whether or not you stick with it. You may be exercising “to lose weight”, but what other other positive reasons do you have – or COULD you have for exercising? Increased energy? Releasing stress? How good you feel after your workout? Being a positive role model to your kids?

Tip Two: Get a Workout Buddy

Sometimes the most motivating factor in working out is having that one person there working out with you that pushes you to stick with it. When that last mile of the run seems impossible, your buddy is the one telling you that you can do it. It also gives you a little competition; healthy competition is good for everyone.

Tip Three: Set an Exercise Time

When you are doing something for yourself, it’s important to make sure you have time set aside for it each day. Just like you go to work from 9 to 5, you can work out from 6 to 7 – for example. Having a time set aside for makes it far easier.

Tip Four:  Set Goals

Yes, setting goals are important and setting the right goals are vital to your continued motivation to exercise. You need to be realistic. Don’t just focus on longer term goals like losing 20 pounds, because that is going to take time and waiting to see those results can be frustrating. Instead focus on fitting into your clothes comfortably, or getting into that new dress or suit for that big event that is coming up.

Tip Five: Eat Right

Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand. It is really difficult to work out after eating a Big Mac and fries… or half a bag of Cheetos. Your body goes, “Yeah right!” Eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, pick lean proteins or plant proteins to help keep you feeling satisfied. Your carbohydrates should come from complex sources and they should be whole grain.

Tip Six:  Keep a Journal

This is a favorite tip, not because it makes you keep track of what you are doing, but it shows you how far you have come. Remember when you started working out, how hard it was to get through 5 push-ups… and today 7 weeks later you can do 20 pushups with no problem! It’s all about the progress.

Tip Seven: Reward Yourself!

If you are taking the time to work out reward yourself! Buy that new outfit or those new shoes. You can reward yourself with a bubble bath. Splurge and have that small light latte.

Tip Eight: Take Pictures!

Yes, take pictures of yourself. Sometimes when you look in the mirror you don’t see how far you have come. If you have something to look at and compare you can smile at the big difference there is in you.

Tip Nine: Read!

Yes, reading up on the latest exercise trends or the positive impacts exercise has on the body, inside and out, can be motivational.

Tip Ten:  Pick an Exercise You Like

There is no point in doing an exercise routine that you don’t like. You won’t stick with it. If you don’t like aerobics don’t do them. Yes, cardiovascular activity is important, but that can come from running, swimming, jumping rope and so on. Pick activities that you actuallyenjoy doing, and you’ll no longer struggle to motivate yourself to exercise. If its something you love doing, why would you not want to do it? Find ways of exercising that you enjoy, and the motivation will come easily.

Technorati Tags:

Read More