Lack of motivation to work out? No consistency of going to gym? Read on!

Keeping your gym routine is no easy task. Motivation is the initial drive, but consistency is the key. Visiting the treadmill once a month is not going to bring you any benefit but just a waste of your money. We’ve all heard stories about how one needs to be perseverant, determined, if we want to achieve any goal in life. But the reality is, we constantly blame ourselves for having that extra scope of ice cream after dinner, skipping that gym session we were supposed go last week, we dream of having the bikini body like Giselle yet trapped into habits that guaranteed to set ourselves for failure. Over promising ourselves and ending up under delivering are unconsciously creating negative feelings between your work out life and your brain, once this is established your body will feel rebellious about the idea of going to gym. It makes you feel you HAVE to go, well any “have to” in life is not going to bring us joy ☹

Luckily there are ways to avoid this whole dilemma. We are going to reserve the formula: under promising and over delivering. First and foremost, Under Delivering. Translating into reality, this means you set a goal that you know it is well under your limits, and keep repeating it. If working out 3 times a week is a stretch to you, start with something small: gym it ONCE a week. Pick a day where you feel most convenient and stick to it. Start going that Pilates class on Wednesday night, leave the gym straight afterwards, don’t try to stretch yourself for even another 20 mins on the rowling machine. Just leave. Go home and give yourself a pat on the back. Go back in next Wednesday, repeat it for 2 months.

This routine is to help you re-establish self confidence and discipline, it will give you a strong hint that You, are a capable person who can deliver a promise you made to yourself. Can you see the difference now? If you set a goal of going to gym 3 times a day and fail to do it from 3rd week onwards, not only you lose the motivation to repeat, you also lose the self-reassurance of your capability. You will keep telling yourself “nah this is too hard it is never going to happen”. On the contrary, if you keep meeting or even exceeding your small goal of working out once a week, you feel great about yourself, you will feel you are in control of your life and this helps tremendously building a healthy mentality. Below are the steps you can follow from doing something small and build your momentum from there:

  • Set a small goal - start working out once or twice a week, keep this low frequency for the first 2 months;
  • Shorten your time per gym session – during the first 2 months, make sure you spend no more than 45 mins per visit, or if you are attending classes, leave after class without any extra exercise;
  • Start with easy work out routine – get on a treadmill, rower, etc
  • Give yourself a reward once a week – at the end of each week, give yourself a reward for going through another 7 days without skipping gym. Have an ice cream, or a bag of chips, seriously.

All of the above are designed to make you feel more empowered and in control, which in return, from a psychological perspective, positive and happy feelings are now registered in your brain that is directly linked to your gym sessions. You don’t feel like you have to do anything, it has become your second skin. Try this trick for 2 months and tell us how you feel 😊

 

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