Lose Weight For Life: Motivation 1 - How to Get Motivated to Workout

How to Lose Weight For Life: Motivation 1 - How to Get Motivated to Workout

The hardest part of any journey is just getting started. The end may seem impossible and the road long. Therefore, it is important to get motivated and stay motivated throughout this journey, one step at a time.

The Most Important Factor in Getting Fit

The most important factor in your fitness journey is CONSISTENCY. Consistency, in your exercise and the consistency to keep eating healthy. If you are NOT consistent, you will be constantly taking one step forward and two steps back. While no one is perfect and no journey is a straight line, the goal is to keep stepping forward one small step at a time.

How to Get Motivated: Enjoy What You Do

One of the most important things to do is enjoy what you do. Exercising is difficult, it will be a challenge but challenges keep you motivated. Exercise should NOT be dreadful, you should not be scared and avoid going back. If this is the case you may need to switch what you are doing. There are many different types of fitness and it might take some time to find what motivates you to go back every day. There may be a bit of trial and error but trying different types not only will give you broad exposure but learn the benefits of each. Find out what you enjoy, not everything works for everyone. 

As an example, if you want to be a competitive bodybuilder, you will need to go to the gym and start lifting weights. But for the other 99.9% of people, if you want to gain muscle you do not need to log hours under those weights. Research has shown that building muscle occurs through all resistance training, functional training (CrossFit, F45, Orange Theory, Hyrox, etc.) might be a better option for you with a class environment and different movements. Each avenue will build muscle, but the one that keeps you going back is the one for you.

Today there are so many options to stay fit and challenge yourself, try a few before saying working out isn’t for me.

How to Get Motivated: Learn Something New

Learning something new is a great way to find motivation. Also, learning new things is a great way to overcome many cognitive and emotional boundaries that could be created around working out. People will often put less emphasis on their social image when they are engrossed in learning a task new task. If this describes you, you might want to get out of your comfort zone into something new. Try rock climbing, pilates, or boxing, these are all very technical and challenging but you will see progress every time you go in. This challenge may help you forget about the end goal and focus more on the process along the way.

How to Get Motivated: Lone Wolf or Wolf Pack?

Some people are focused on individual goals and prefer training alone. That is their space and if you enjoy exercising in that space, there are many avenues to take. Others prefer the motivation of people around them. If that is your space then there are also many spaces for that. Both have positives and negatives, some people love the social aspect and the extra push a group will give them. Others may thrive on focusing just on their own goals and their tasks each day.

How to Get Motivated: Set Goals

You should always start your journey by setting the destination. But setting realistic, smaller goals along the way is a great way to stay on track. Losing weight is a very common goal, but we recommend setting smaller goals that are not based on the outcome but rather on the process. Setting the destination of losing a certain amount of weight is the end goal, but you need to take the steps to get there. The steps along the way could be exercising 5 days a week until you get there, and/or nailing your diet 7 days a week. Everybody loses weight, gains muscle, etc. at different paces, focus on the goals you can control and get there at your correct pace.

How to Get Motivated

You must enjoy the process, while physical health is something everyone needs to focus on. This is not something that saves people time and money, in almost every case it is the opposite. Find something that you enjoy and something that will motivate you to keep coming back. It is not the same for everyone and there is not one solution that fits all. Getting motivated is a little easier than staying motivated read Lose Weight for Life: Motivation 2 to learn how to keep it going.