How To Get Motivated to Exercise
I have all of the best intentions when it comes to incorporating exercise in my weight loss program. I have an elliptical upstairs in my office, I have movies I can watch while working out and I have work out clothes. The main thing I am missing is the motivation to exercise.
Here’s my normal daily routine. I wake up, get my son ready for school and after he leaves I hop on the computer and go through a few emails. Then I head up to my office to work. More often than I’d like, I end up working a little later then the scheduled time off. When I get off work, we usually have dinner and then do whatever family related things and/or chores for a while. Once my son goes to bed, I watch TV and sometimes work on my blogs and answer email at the same time. Then I go to bed usually too late at night.
Before I know it, the day has passed me by and I didn’t exercise. I told myself at least a zillion times during the day that I am going to exercise today, but time after time I go to bed with no exercise under my belt.
My problem…I need more motivation to exercise.
Over at Discovery Health, they asked some fitness experts about the methods that keep others moving and motivated to exercise.
One suggestion they had is to embarass yourself. Well, I’m already doing that with this blog and my FitDay profile. You can see where haven’t entered any activities entered for the day. Perhaps it’s not working that well because it’s hidden in that link. I wonder if it would help if I have a little calendar that I mark that shows when I exercised. Hmm…something to think about.
Next up is to join a club. There is a fitness club not too far from my home and I could possibly join. Since I am trying to keep our expenses low, I’m not ready to spend money to join something like that.
What about working out with a neighbor? That wouldn’t work for me. We moved smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood full of older couples. None of them go out running to my knowledge.
Is there an event coming up? You could challange yourself to make that event. Committing to an event such as a race can help keep you motivated to keep up with your exercise/training routine. I can’t think of anything I would like to strive for here, but I’ll keep it in mind.
I like their suggestion to dance. When I was in high school, I was a dancing fool. I loved going out and dancing. As my weight started increasing, I danced less and less. The only problem is that I do not like dancing in front of others. I’m quite rusty at it.
Another suggestion is to don’t count calories lost. This one is hard for me to do. I do think about calories now since I am tracking them with FitDay.com. They say you should try to think about the overall effect the exercise will have on your health.
This one makes perfect sense to me. You want to find the fun. Working out doesn’t seem fun to me in itself. This is one reason I’ve been tempted to purchase a Wii game system. Because you move the controller around, I’ve heard that it can get you active. Combine that with some friendly competition and I can see breaking a sweat made fun.
Why not involve the family? That’s a good suggestion and we’ve been doing that on the weekends when we can. For a while there, we were going hiking on the weekends, but things took a turn for the worse when I kept getting injured and then the weekend weather lately hasn’t cooperated. But the next nice weekend day we are going out again because it’s fun!
I found it interesting that they suggested that you love lycra. It’d be great to have lycra because to me that is the perfect outfit for working out. I did purchase some workout clothes, but they consist of a second hand tank top and shorts. I’m on a budget, after all 
As a debt blogger, it peaked my interest at the suggestion to use money to motivate. Psychologically, this will not work for me. Since I’ve had trouble in the past to “reward” myself (and get into debt by doing it), I want to stay away from this one. Perhaps it’s a great idea for others, but not me.
Lastly, your timing is everything and I tend to agree. You have to be in the mood to exercise. Unfortunately for me, the mood usually strikes around 10:00 a.m. when I am swamped with work. By the time I get off work, I want to get out of my office as quickly as possible.
Wait a minute! Perhaps that’s one of the problems!
With my elliptial in my office, perhaps I am associating it with work. That makes sense. Once I leave my work for the day, I don’t want to go back into my office until the next day.
Hmm…I can’t move the elliptical anywhere else since we don’t have the room. Is there a way I can break the association? That’s something to think about. If anyone has suggestions, I’m open to them. I think I am onto something here.
In any case, the article gave a lot to think about and gave some great suggestions. Will all of them work for everyone? Probably not. But the beauty of the article is that it helps you to start thinking of what will motivate you. We each have to discover what can light that fire under us to get more active!
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Comments
Hi Tricia! I’ve been a pretty regular lurker over at Blogging Away Debt, and when I started my weight-loss blog last week, I had no idea you had one too! I’m sure I’ll be a regular reader.
As far as the motivation goes, I just moved across the country but in my last town, I got a membership to our civic center (kind of like a YMCA, it was only $16/month) and would walk for 30 minutes on my lunch break. The hardest thing was getting into the routine. Once my brain was used to the idea that lunchtime was time to walk, I didn’t have any trouble finding the motivation to go. Plus, I set goals for myself, like how fast I could walk a lap, and when I beat those goals it felt great!
Good luck! You seem to be doing great so far!
Hi Dan,
I’m curious, when you say, “just to get in my fix for the day”…how long did it take you to get to that point?
How about getting a room divider/screen to block off the desk/office area from the elliptical? Kind of separate the room into 2 distinct areas - one for work, one for exercise. Perhaps you can fit in 20 - 30 minutes on the elliptical during your lunch break - or take short breaks & get 10 minutes in here & there. Every little bit counts & next thing you know, it’ll add up. Good Luck!
Hi Tricia,
A few suggestions for you…
It might be worth it to ask around your neighborhood for a walking partner. Lots of older people take daily walks - it’s what keeps some of them in shape for life. You could go on lunch breaks.
For many people, the only way to regularly work out is to fit it into the same time every day. Mornings are ususally best because you have fewer excuses than in the evening. So, you could get up a half hour earlier, or you could do it after you send your son off and then start your work day a half hour later.
Also, I got a great series of exercises from Oprah’s magazine. They work out the whole body and can be done in 20 minutes at home with no equipment. I bet you can find the same info for free on her website.
Hey Tricia,
Another suggestion I’ve read from fitness experts is to think of exercise the same way you think about your morning shower or brushing your teeth. You wouldn’t skip those things — You just go in and get them done.
Also, have you considered Dance Dance Revolution? I have the same problem of not being able to exercise unless I’m having fun, and DDR is definitely a great video game for exercise. It is an initial investment (you’d have to buy a PlayStation or XBox if you don’t have one, and then the game, and a dance pad, but you can probably find these things used, especially now that people are buying XBox 360s and PlayStation 3s), but it’s a great workout and so much fun. Plus it goes with your love of dance 
One other thought - sometimes it helps to “consolidate activities” to fit in working out. So, skip your lunch break and go on a walk. Then just eat your lunch quickly as you resume working. Or, skip your breakfast time to exercise and then eat breakfast while you start work.
I schedule my workouts. Just put them on your calendar along with your meetings and such. That makes them difficult to forget and it helps block out time for them.
Gal
I was going to say the Dance Dance revolution as well, but it seems someone beat me to it! But another thing I would recommend is listening to music instead of watching a DVD. Since you like to dance, music is related to that, so it might help. Plus, music usually gets me motivated to do things I don’t like to do — like cleaning!
Be careful that you don’t kill one problem and create another. If you’re just starting to eat healthfully, and you’ve had trouble with mindless eating, skipping a food break and eating while you work may wreak havoc on your diet. Normally it’s a good idea, but you just have to be careful. I’ve gotten myself into loads of trouble diet-wise by doing exactly that.
The thing you have to do is make it a priority. If it’s not on your list of things to do, just like a work assignment, you will push it off to work on things that are a priority, like making more money so that you can reduce your debt. That’s important too, but balance is key.
Just my $.02.
my motivation: good health
I had to make daily exercise a life time habit.
my plan: MIT
= exercise will be the
” most important thing” of the day
my action: rise 1 hour earlier for 1 month
follow my excercise plan…before going off to
work.
my target: after 30 days excercise has become
a daily habit
my result: I can exercise at the planned time
because I
schedule my workout now …and my day
would be empty without it!
n@nce
Since I work at home too I will jump on my wind trainer in the office every hour on the hour for 2 minutes.
If you were at the office there would be at least that much time spent at the “water cooler” so I don’t feel guilty. My work gets me with a clearer head and I get a little bit of blood flow going.
Tricia -
At first you might not have motivation to exercise that is why it is important to schedule the exercise - otherwise you might never do it. If I remember right it takes 7 or 10 days to form a habit so sit down and work out an exercise schedule into your daily ritual - so that it becomes a ritual. I think after you loose more weight and start feeling better you will feel motivation to exercise.
Since you seemed to get hurt with the hiking maybe try something less taxing - walk on more level ground or go bike riding with your family. Find something else you enjoy - as you get in better shape try the hiking again. You could also try badmittion or some other kind of racket sport.
As far as the Wii goes I would be weary of getting one for the purpose of loosing weight. My fiance talked me into purchasing one under those assumptions. Yes, it would seem you would move around a lot and loose weight however that’s not necessarily the case. You can still stand there with the remote and just swing your arms or you can move a step or two and swing your arms. Not really that much of a work out unless you make it more than moving a step or two. Nintendo is working on making more exercise focused games so until than I wouldn’t recommend it.
My suggestion for you would be to schedule exercise and find other exercises out doors in place of the hiking until you get in better shape. The motivation will come.
Wow! These are some great suggestions! I am going to have to bookmark this post on my sidebar for easy reference. Thanks everyone!
Hi, I’m a lurker from Blogging Away Debt.
Here’s an idea- since you say you end up staying at work past quitting time daily anyway, why dont you shift your schedule by a half hour? Fit in a half hour of exercise in the morning, after sending your son off to school, and finish up around the same time you end up doing so anyway. I wish I could do that, but if I moved my work schedule, I’d just sleep later.
-dasha
Hey Tricia–
I love DDR, and you can also buy one that plugs right into the TV. (Search on Dance Dance Revolution TV on Ebay, and a whole bunch will pop up.) Around $20. No video game console.
I totally agree with the first thing people. If the gym isn’t the first thing I do, I don’t do it. Like any habit you have to make yourself at first. I love working out now. I never thought I’d say that.
I’ve found its usually difficult at first to get going. But once you start working out 4 or 5 times a week for 3 or 4 weeks it gets easier to work it into your day. I’ve even found my self working out at 10pm just to get in my fix for the day. Keep up the good work, it only gets easier once these daily goals become habits.