Sudden bouts of energy and motivation that throw us into a frenzy of spending loads of money on workout gear and clothes are not a stranger to any of us. Sometimes these high times of motivation last long enough for us to actually begin our workout regime and continue it for several days. However, most of us inevitably fall back into our old ways, either because we get bored or simply because we lose track of our fitness plan. There is no dearth of motivation articles and stories about incredible weight loss journeys on the internet. However, what is actually needed for such consistency is a simple tool that helps us in keeping track of what we wish to achieve and what we have achieved so far in this regard. Here are five simple ways that can actually help you keep your workouts exciting and stick to your fitness plan.
Do It for Yourself:
The first thing you need to learn and remember is that it is not about looking better than your colleagues, or catching the eye of the cute stranger on the subway. It is about your own health and the quality of life. How many times have you bent down to pick up a fallen pen and gotten up with a hand on your back because it hurts? Or how many times you have wanted to dance to your favorite song but gave up because you got out of breath too soon or because you felt you will break your ankle? Maintaining a workout routine and a fitness plan is to live every day of your life in a fuller manner. It is not about the looks or dresses or appearing woke in other people’s eyes. It is about waking up every day and being ready to achieve all your aims and goals.
Take Baby Steps:
Another invariable consequence of sudden motivation is that we begin to think that we can do 100 pushups in a single day or run 5 miles on our first day or jogging. That is not only impossible but it is highly counterproductive as well. Doing too strenuous activities all of a sudden causes muscles to swell up and get inflamed. The pain alone from one day’s workout is enough to kill any chance of exercise for the next entire week. Same goes for completely denying ourselves of our favorite foods for several days until it gets too much and we end up eating lots more than we initially needed. Take it easy as you begin your fitness plan and slowly add more exercise and more diet control. Give yourself time to adapt to small changes in your lifestyle and occasionally reward yourself for your patience and resolve as well by taking an off day or a cheat day.
Mix It Up:
Think of your favorite food. Now imagine eating just that three times a day for an entire week. Notice how it immediately becomes less enticing in your mind. That is exactly what happens if we stick to the same workouts and same diet plans for too long. No matter how expertly drafted and how religiously followed, repetition will turn into redundancy and bore you into dropping the entire plan altogether. Instead mix up different types of workout. One of the easiest ways to do so is to target different muscle groups on different days of the week. Likewise switch between high intensity workouts, dancing and freestyle exercises, and indoor machine workouts and outdoor running and aerobics exercises. Same can be applied to food plans. Make your cooking and grocery shopping plans one week at a time and add new dishes and ingredients every week to keep the food interesting as well.
Befriend Your Critic:
When it comes to tasks that require discipline and long term action, we often find ourselves to be our worst enemy. So what if we ate an entire pint of ice-cream after working out for two weeks? It might have been a stressful day at work or the weather was simply too hot to not enjoy a tub of ice-cream. Guilt causes more fitness plans to get abandoned than any lack of motivation or high pressure work routines. To deal with such self-criticism, try a simple psychological technique – give your critic a funny name. Whenever you find yourself criticizing yourself, address that critical part of your mind with that funny name and have a quick witty conversation with yourself. You will be guilt-free and ready to hop back on your fitness plan in no time.
Keep Track of Your Achievements:
Having a well crafted plan of working out and diet control can go a long way in keeping you on the right track. Likewise, looking at how far you have come is one of the best ways to keep the motivation alive. Keeping a fitness journal or using a mobile application will help you easily achieve both of these objectives. Luckily, there is a day planner app designed just to help you do this. It’s called Papercode. All you need to do is to set the fitness goals that make your heart filled with joy when you think of achieving them. Jot down some affirmations and begin by mentioning the things that you are grateful for, and then simply use this app to keep track of your trips to the gym, workout routines that you plan to do and that you have done, include the cardio activities you wish to try, and document the goals you have already achieved. A single glance at this record, a couple of times during the day would work wonders in helping you maintain your workout routine and fitness plans.