How to Stay Motivated with Keeping Fit

Written by Tikiboo Staff

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Posted on September 29 2017

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We get it – we are submerged in fitness for a living, but some days even we would prefer to sit at home chowing down on a cronut with a glass of wine than go and lift.

It’s the UK. It’s cold, wet and miserable outside 85% of the time, so peeling yourself out of bed in the morning to go for a run is tough when ‘Why am I doing this?’, ‘I think I’m having a cardiac arrest!’ and ‘Am I done yet?’ pass through your mind before you’ve even finished your first mile.

But there are ways to help you stay on track. There are many tips, tricks and tools to help inspire you to hit the gym again. We’ve put together our top 10 ways to get motivated and – most importantly – stay motivated.

Organisation is Key

We could say this until we’re blue in the face, but organisation really is the backbone to your success. It’s imperative that you organise your time, workouts and goals in advance.

Always in back-to-back meetings? Schedule your workout in your diary like a meeting – if you wouldn’t cancel a meeting with a colleague, why cancel a workout with yourself?

At first it can be tough to establish a routine, but once you’ve scheduled all your time in and organised your workout week, you’ll be flying through without realising.

Plan Your Workouts

Find the time on a Sunday or Monday to plan your workouts in for the rest of the week. Consider what workouts you’ll be doing, how many reps and sets and for how long.

Then pack your bag with the right workout gear the night before and pop it by the door – that way you know where everything is and what you’re on your way to do.

As well as getting your stuff in order the night or week before, prep meals around your workouts – it’ll be invaluable for you to actually plan what workouts you’re going to do and when.

Set a Goal

This one sounds obvious, but we come across so many people that are training without having put goals in place. If you regularly train to stay fit, active and healthy that is completely fine, but how do you know if you’re improving without having goals in place and regularly assessing your progress.

It can be as simple as completing a particular run in a certain amount of time, increasing your weights, losing fat or feeling healthier, but try to make a note of where you started and where you’re heading – it’s a great motivator to see numbers moving.

Take It Slow

Hands up if you’re guilty of hitting the gym hard for a week and then getting injured or upset that you’re not seeing results, like, yesterday!? Join the club.

With fitness, it’s really important – albeit hard – to see it as a lifestyle change and commitment. For that reason, you’ll need to take things slowly to maintain any sort of change.

It’s a tough one to take, but changes are coming.

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Don’t Beat Yourself Up

Okay, so maybe you didn’t get to the gym five times this week and instead fell onto a pile of peanut butter cups. What’s wrong with that? Peanut butter is good for you, right? Well, we all do it. In fact, we happily dive into naughty treats! However, if you struggle with loosening the restraints on snacks, you may find yourself feeling guilty if you give in to temptation.

This may be one of the hardest things to overcome, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having the odd treat, so try not to beat yourself up.

If you go a bit overboard, just start the next day afresh. Don’t over- or under-compensate for it. Drink lots of water and keep your head up – it happens to us all.

Set a Challenge

Hitting ten thousand steps a day has never been more popular, so why not set up a challenge between you and your friends.

If you have fitness watches, you can track each other. If not, create a WhatsApp group to keep each other accountable. Seeing your friends reach their target will spur you on to hit your own.

You could even start your own fitness Instagram account. Thousands of these accounts are started daily and they are a great way to keep yourself accountable and motivated whilst helping you make friends with like-minded people and gain support from thousands of people worldwide.

Reward Yourself

Avoid rewarding yourself with food, as a healthy relationship with food is paramount for a successful lifestyle change. You should be able to eat what you want, when you want – within reason.

Instead, why not reward yourself with something that’s actually a treat: a pamper night at the end of a successful workout week? New workout gear (cough cough, Tikiboo ranges) at the end of a full month of workouts? Remained on track for a whole year? Why not treat yourself to a fitness and wellness retreat? Not only do you get a holiday; you can keep up with your fitness whilst away and meet some more like-minded people, making invaluable friendships.

Variety is Key

So, you may have a routine that is really working for you, but overtime it’s easy to get into a slump and not challenge yourself. If this is you, then you could rev up your workouts and supercharge your motivation by trying something new.

Whether that’s a new class, getting a PT, or switching to morning workouts instead of evening workouts, subtle changes will have a big impact on you.

Make Fitness Friends

Finding your groove is hard and keeping yourself accountable isn’t easy, so if you’ve got a friend that can tread this fitness path with you, you are more likely to stick to your routine. Especially for those early morning classes. You might find it easy to roll back over in bed if it’s just you going to 6 am spin, but you’ll find it harder to hit snooze on your friend waiting in the weights room for you.

Make an Attitude Adjustment

Here at Tikiboo we are big into the mindset of making fitness fun – that’s why our activewear is bursting with colour and patterns. So, surround yourself with positive and supportive people who will only lift you up – not tear you down. Repeat positive affirmations to yourself and have faith that what you’re doing is going to bring you loads of rewards, both physically and mentally.

Finally, fitness is meant to be enjoyable – remember when you were active as a kid because you loved it? Working out shouldn’t be a chore and it certainly shouldn’t be a punishment.

Keep your head up, find what you love and soon the motivation will come.

For more info, help and advice on working out, fitness, motivation and health, check out our blog.

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