How To Maintain Motivation

Everyone wants to look and feel fit and healthy all the time.

Unfortunately no matter how dedicated you are there are times when it becomes hard to stay focussed on your fitness routine. Use these simple measures to make it easier to keep going and maintain motivation:

Keep a fitness diary
Record what training you have done and any other facts relevant to you health, for example having a sly cigarette. Looking back on the positives makes you feel proud and shows you can do it. Seeing the negatives makes you more determined not to slip up.

Remember your goal
Remember why you are doing it and surround yourself with reminders. That may mean pictures on your fridge of people with the body you’re trying to avoid and someone with the body you are aiming for (cut them out of magazines). It may mean hanging a dress you want to look good in on the back of the bedroom door. Or you could stick the date of an event you are aiming for on the fridge.

Use a routine
An elite athlete was once asked what time they had to wake up at to do their morning run. They answered, ‘About a mile before I get back home’. Their habit was so well established they could get up and out the door without thinking about it. Try to establish good eating and training habits into your routine. When you are feeling keen set good but realistic routines. Train at convenient times, pack a healthy lunch.

Use a partner
If you have someone to train with you can encourage each other when you feel like flagging. They can serve as a distraction when training feels tough and when you are tempted by a heap of high fat food it helps to ask what you’d say to your  training partner.

Try something different
Don’t be a slave to what you do in terms of eating or training. How many types of fruit/veg can you name? How many of these have you eaten lately? Try something different. Likewise with the training. Run a different route or try a different class.

Get a schedule
Using a training schedule stops you having to think long and hard about what you want to do or should do today. You can just look at the schedule and do it. A good schedule will include variety and easier periods of training to keep you fresh and motivated.

Back off
Many people fall into the all-or-nothing trap. Allow yourself to eat a few treats. Base your diet on healthy habits and exercise and it is fine. A ‘treat’ is just that – allowing yourself something once in a while rather than having it all the time. Likewise with training. Do something easier for a day or a week. It is better to back off and keep the routine of doing something than to grind to a halt because you get physically and mentally tired.

 
Remember that everyone finds the going gets tough once in a while. Good techniques will make these times far more rare and enable you to take them in your stride.

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