So I have been off and on with my fitness and health goals for years. Sometimes you can not keep me out the gym and sometimes I rather die than workout.I never used to work out much and I always had an active lifestyle. I lived in a different country, all the food was organic (This is sure because I went into my back yard and picked it) the weather was always warm and running to the beach was a daily activity.
When I hit 20 I noticed I started gaining weight, I just started being a full time adult, lol; I had been in New York for 3 years and had just started my first full time job.
So there is no one way to make the gym a habit. It takes motivation and what you need to do is find out how to get yourself motivated and keep yourself motivated. If you aren’t able to stay motivated do not give up, keep trying to motivate yourself if it’s something you really want.
I am going to share with you my past struggles and successes on how I got motivated, stayed motivated and motivated myself again on different occasions and what happened when I became unmotivated.
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First Time Motivation
I was 20, lived alone and had a 9-5 job and my days were pretty uniformed. Making it a habit was easy because of how uniformed and structured my days were. All my coworkers were into fitness. I would listen to them talk about hitting the gym and lifting weights and how great it was. I already had a gym membership that I didn’t use, after hearing all about fitness for about a month, I got motivated and I started going to the gym after work and weekends.
Eating healthy then became like second nature, after working out so hard for 2 hours 4-5 times a day I refused to poison my body with junk food. I researched healthy eating, only ate whole grains, fruits, veggies and only drank water or alcohol when I went out. My work schedule also gave me structure so I ate at the same time every day, 5 times a day. Breakfast at 7, snack at 10:15 am, lunch at 1 pm, snack at 3:15 pm and small meal or protein shake at 8:30 pm after a workout.
Every time I made it a habit of going to the gym, eating healthy became a habit also. I didn’t want to kill a workout then punish my body with bad food and eating.
Take Away from this Experience: Surround yourself with the people you want to become like, in this case people who loved the fitness. Though I worked out alone, being around people who were into fitness 8 hours a day helped to motivate me to workout. If you have a job where the days are mirror images of each other, find a time you can go to the gym on one day, and you will be able to go at least 3 days a week.
When I became unmotivated
What made me stop working out and gave up on my diet: I moved, and changed my job so my coworkers were no longer there for motivation, the current gym I was a member of also didn’t have a location nearby.
Note: I did not learn this the first few times. But each time I moved was when I abandoned my fitness goals, and took forever to reconvene. I finally learned what to do whenever I was moving.
- Find out where the nearby gyms are and how to get there from your new address.
- Pick the easiest gym to get too but also the best gym for you. Easy to get to, easy to go. Do not be scared to cancel your current membership and pay the cancellation fee. Paying for a membership you don’t use is a bigger waste of money.
- If you’re not moving far away and you’ll be employed at the same location and plan to go to the gym after work, try going to the gym after work before you even move to start the habit.
Second Time Motivation
This was pure self motivation. I was no longer around people who were into fitness nor even cared really. I looked at my old body, thanks to Facebook Memories and just wanted my body back. I started working out, and looked at old photos of myself constantly. I then also had a gym buddy, we worked out together sometimes but we made sure we both went to the gym and at healthy.
Take Away from this Experience: Having a gym buddy or a friend to report to with your fitness goals is helpful. Using photos of what you want to look like also helps. If you are using a photo of someone else, do not get discouraged because your body is not exactly like theirs. Understand that your body is beautiful too. With Things like Instagram and Pinterest the Motivation is always there. (Be Sure to follow me on Instagram @purpleweapons)
Well would you believe I moved and stopped working out again. Yup. That happened.
Third Time Motivation
I joined a new gym, this gym has classes, sign up for a class, missed the class, you had to pay. My new insurance also reimbursed gym fees if I used the membership. I also stumbled upon a Fitlosophy Fitspiration Journal book at my local pharmacy. I was simply looking for a notebook to start a food journal. It had quotes to get you going, and allowed you to log your fitness achievements, your workouts and of course the food you ate.
Take Away from this Experience: If it costs you to not go to the gym, you’ll always be motivated to go. Try starting a weekly goal of hitting the gym and eating healthy. If you don’t meet the goal without proper reason you have to set aside $5-10. That money should then either be set aside for someone else or donated to charity. Try logging your workouts and food you eat into a notebook.
Fourth Time Motivation (Current)
This time I did not move. I stopped signing up for classes, felt hopeless and I realized that I needed a change, and I hit a physical plateau. I simply switched gyms, I now have a trainer who I see 1 – 2 times a week.
I have also taken other steps to keep myself going, as well as experiments I will be sharing all of this with you in future posts with the hopes of learning from you, I will also share my workouts, Season 2 of Cooking Bleary, is also somewhat my online food journal, season starts next week.