How to motivate yourself to get fit

It’s that time of year.

Dry January is over. How long did you manage to stay on track? You might have had an easier time with Jan-Hairy and avoided shaving with ease!

And what happened to those New Year’s Resolutions? Perhaps they drifted away with the melting snow?

Monday 21st January, known as ‘Blue Monday’ has been named as the most miserable day of the year in the UK, and it’s easy to see why; with overcast days and the long dark evenings, it’s tempting just to curl up under a blanket and blame your lack of motivation on your genes.  It’s tempting to hibernate.

But how about getting ahead of the game? Spring is definitely coming and summer will soon be here. And there’s a bit of you that knows for sure that any good habits you develop now will reap their own rewards with a slimmer, fitter healthier you that will be able to squeeze a bit more juice out of life when the sun finally comes out again.

Getting going

But we all do it. Any of this sound familiar?

‘I’ll start walking every day….tomorrow.’

 ‘I’ll take up swimming again….soon.’

‘I’ll get back on the exercise bike….when I have the time.’

Yes, there’s always a handy reason to put it off. There’s a project at work that’s taking all your time. The children haven’t gone back to school yet or you haven’t got the money for the subs at the gym. Many people make the mistake of thinking that exercise has to be painful to be helpful. They think they have to ‘go for the burn’. No pain no gain, right?

Wrong! We are exercising all the time; when we walk upstairs at the office instead of taking the lift; when we run for the bus; when we walk round the shops or play games with the grand children. If you start to think of exercise as everyday activity, it can become a part of a lifestyle which embraces movement as something normal, natural and healthy.

So, instead of being a couch potato, try getting your TV fix standing up or walking on the spot. Instead of taking your phone calls, sitting down, stand and move around while you’re talking. The person you’re talking to won’t even know they are part of your exercise plan!

You can burn hundreds of extra calories a day just by moving around more. You can turn fat into muscle by stretching, bending and lifting whenever and wherever you can.

This is the starting point. Once you get going you might find you are then motivated to raise the bar and really take action. Energy breeds energy and getting the rock moving down the hill is the hardest part. After that it’s carried along by its own momentum.

Here are some tips to get going…

Put off procrastination

If you think too long about it, you won’t do it or you’ll give yourself the opportunity to talk yourself out of it.

If you’ve decided 10am is time for a walk, get it in your diary. Make an appointment with yourself. This is something you are doing for yourself because you are special and you deserve it. Think of it as your time. What you focus on is what you get. Focus on how good you’ll feel when you’re really in shape, feeling and looking good.

Think of the alternative

If you’re looking for real motivation, try imagining two paths.

Along one path, you have let yourself go. You over ate, over drank and slumped around on the sofa every evening. As you look into the future, what does that person look like? How do they move, dress and feel about their body?

Along the second path, there is the you of the future where you took the time to really look after yourself. You ate a healthy, well balanced diet, enjoyed moving, walking, being active. As you look into that future, how do you feel?

The great news is that, you do have a choice right here, right now.

You can’t eat an elephant in one go

If you think about the big goal, it might feel overwhelming. Losing three stone might just seem too much or too hard. But nobody ever climbed a mountain in one leap. You have to break the task down into manageable goals.

Every journey starts with a first step. What can you do immediately to start to take you towards that long term goal?

To really motivate yourself, keep a list of all the proven benefits of moving and exercising, such as:

·        Better quality sleep

·        A clearer complexion

·        Younger appearance

·        A slimmer, more toned body

·        Better digestion

·        Improved heart and lung function

·        A raised metabolic rate which helps you continue to burn more calories even when resting 

More benefits

·        A brighter you: exercise makes you smarter, improves memory and all mental functions as more oxygen is sent to the brain. Water and nutrients through good diet will nourish and support all those important brain cells.

·        A less stressed you: people who are fit and exercise regularly have a lower resting heart rate. When the pressure builds, fitter people cope better.

·        A more confident you: being active and looking after yourself will send feel good hormones racing around the body. They will settle in the brain as raised confidence, self respect and esteem. Others will notice.

·        A happier you: one of the key benefits of being active is the boost you get from raised serotonin. This happiness hormone is produced as a natural by-product of exercise and has been found to lift depression better than medication.

Be your own coach

All the best athletes use visualisation for enhanced performance and to help them meet goals.

Try this technique:

Imagine you are watching TV.

In this show, you watch yourself as you walk, run, move with ease. You watch yourself living the active life you know will be great for your body and mind.

In your imagination, fast forward through several episodes where you are getting fitter, slimmer and healthier.

 Play this internal DVD every day. After a while, because the brain is neuroplastic,  it will replace the old, negative or unhelpful mind movies.

And repeat after me your motivational mantra:

‘I am slim, fit, healthy and active.

‘I am slim, fit, healthy and active…..

?

Affirmations, the Rewind Technique, Raising self esteem, suicide prevention, Mindfulness Based Mind Management (advanced MBSR), worrying well, solution focus, guided visualisation, resolving addiction, epigenetics, mapping the connectome, polyvagal theory, the reticular activating system (RAS), secondary gain, trauma resolution, coaching for kids, treating depression, worrying well, working SMART, therapeutic stories, insight, psycho education, positive mental rehearsal, imagery, dissociation, goal setting, new paradigms, reframes, fast track learning, perception shifting, self actualisation, positive psychology, reframing, metaphor, personal empowerment, motivational thinking, resilience and resourcefulness, human flourishing, anchoring, rewiring your brain, the STOP System, the SAFE SPACE happiness recipe, holistic coaching and working on the continuum of wellbeing plus many other professional theories, tools and techniques underpin the content of the fast paced, fast track, Fusion training programmes.