| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 7:10:18 AM | I've always been really active my whole life with sports and the gym in general. The last year though, I've had a hard time keeping up my motivation to exercise. Life has gotten a lot busier, and there just doesn't seem to be the time to dedicate, or if I am free I'm exhausted and ready for bed.
I'd appreciate any advice. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 7:11:34 AM | | P.S. I know there are a lot of motivation threads out there, but I exercise to keep healthy. I am not trying or wanting to lose weight, so I apologize if I anger someone with the redundancy... | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 7:29:47 AM | HI...
Look at what you are busy doing. How are you busy? What is taking up so much time? So many people are stuck with the mind set that the only accurate exercise they will/can get is IN the gym. Ever think maybe the gym is there for people who don't already have an active lifestyle to begin with (and those of us who should have been active a long time ago and need to lose the results of that)? You could very well be getting the exact daily exercise you need through your day to day activities?
A good way to keep motivated for myself, is that I keep a pedometer on me on the days I can't make it to the gym and I calculate how much I have walked those days. The one I have calculates steps, heart rate, calories burned (though it only counts the calories from walking and not going up and down stairs or lifting boxes). At the end of the day I see I have walked about 10,000 steps... and that is BEFORE the mile and half walk to the bus. Suddenly, I don't feel guilty about not making it to the gym.
You should take note of what you are busy doing... you may realize you actually ARE getting a small work out. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 7:46:33 AM | | Do it first thing the morning...Also, for cardio....do short really intense workouts 20-30 so you aernt bored....probably should do that anyway... | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 8:06:55 AM |
P.S. I know there are a lot of motivation threads out there, but I exercise to keep healthy. I am not trying or wanting to lose weight, so I apologize if I anger someone with the redundancy...
The rewards of a healthy lifestyle should be motivation enough, but if that is not working for you I suggest the following.
Stop exercising and start eating as much junk as you can.
Repeat above steps of ~1 year and then see if you can find your motivation. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 9:05:14 AM | | Hahahaha. Not quite the advice I was looking for. What am I so busy doing? School, school, and more school (plus a little work on the side). I agree that early morning is probably the best plan, but it's hard to drag your butt out of bed to work out before work when you're working 7-7. I like the pedometer idea, but it feels so conspicuous. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 11:06:38 AM |
but it feels so conspicuous.
So does letting your body get lazy and/or feeling guilty that you aren't doing enough.
What are you doing at your job for 12 hours? Do you sit at a desk or are you constantly moving and on your feet?
Also, He is kind of right about the diet... but not the junk food part of it :P That's just silly. But change your calorie intake. If you are not as active as before, cut the calories.
... But I have a feeling you ARE just as active, but not "calculating" the time as you would a gym.
Another thing to think about is that most gyms have their machines set up so you can do each machine in less than a half hour.
And last but not least, Yoga... even home videos. I, personally really like the Crunch Fitness videos. They have several Yoga ones I like very much. And really, maybe a light yoga session at the end of your long day just might do the trick? | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 11:19:37 AM | | I walk around quite a bit at my job, but I don't think it's enough to qualify as "exercise". Like I said, I'm not worried about my weight, even with less exercise my weight hasn't increased, if anything I've lost weight (I'm not really hung up about what the scale has to say). It's more I hate feeling this apathy towards exercise. I used to love hitting the gym, going to yoga classes etc. but these days it feels more like a chore. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 1:20:16 PM |
but these days it feels more like a chore.
Probably because you ARE doing so much out side of it. You do so much out side of it and you think "I need to hit the gym" and your body and mind say "f that!! Go to sleep!" You are on your feet all the time at work? Do you go to school on a campus? A big one? How much walking are you doing there? Do you take the stairs in the buildings?
I understand you don't worry about the weight, but it sounds like you are feeling guilty for not going to the gym to get your exercise. But you ARE getting exercise. It's just hard to keep track of, because it is not all in one set time frame at one location. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 1:27:38 PM | It seems like there are two things going on: 1) you're busy; and, 2) you lack motivation.
The way I see it is: if you take care of #2 properly, #1 takes care of itself (if you really want to exercise, you'll find time). Some things I could suggest to get the motivation back up: remember what got you working out in the first place and remind yourself that the reason is still there, pick up a new sport or activity (something that you may have wanted to do or learn, i.e. racquetball, climbing) to break up the routine and get excited about, and goal setting (running a marathon, climbing a specific mountain/cliff, being able to lift a certain amount of weight, etc.)
PS: In reply to one of the above suggestions, activity != exercise. Walking about during the day does not qualify as a workout. Sure it burns energy, but so do other rudimentary things like blinking and even just being alive. Walking fast for an extended period of time can be a form of exercise, albeit not the best one. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 1:41:08 PM | You say that you dont need to lose weight...one of my buddies started a program after seeing his brother in law pound it on....so maybe find somebody in your office that you dont want to get as heavy as | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 3:55:01 PM |
PS: In reply to one of the above suggestions, activity != exercise. Walking about during the day does not qualify as a workout. Sure it burns energy, but so do other rudimentary things like blinking and even just being alive.
This is very true. BUT... if she is on her feet for 12 hours.... it explains why all she wants to do is sleep when she gets home.
What kind of job is it? Do you work with people? Emotionally draining?
maybe find somebody in your office that you dont want to get as heavy as
Instead of finding some heavy person to mock/laugh at/be glad you don't look like.... ask them if they would join you to the gym or for a Yoga class. Maybe seeing someone else get excited about becoming healthy might be a jumping point in your own motivation. You may just make a friend who you can help motivate too in the mean time. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 6:00:50 PM | | Work can be exhausting dealing with people. Also next year is going to be tough, I'm heading into what's called "clerkship" or "you live at the hospital". We have call 1/4 of our shifts and call = 30 hour shift (with sleep if you're lucky. No sleep if you're not!) I want to get back into good exercise habits before I have to tackle that obstacle. Also, it's next to impossible to commit to anything that is regularly scheduled, because you have no idea when you'll be on call... | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/13/2009 8:53:48 PM | It all depends.
In general I find that "I'm too busy" excuse is just that - an excuse, and a bs one at that. Most people who say they are too busy to exercise still find time to watch that reality TV show or their favorite series on TV, or bum around the house, or spend 2 hours chatting on the phone/gossiping/trying to find out which celebrity divorced in the past 10 hours. Those people just don't put daily workout on their agenda list, watching TV is just more important to them.
However, with that said, there are legitimate cases when people do not have enough time to exercise, I've been there myself, I was studying full time and working internship part time, and I really never had any free time around finals. The school workload would always increase around one month leading up to finals and I had literally zero free time to do anything but studying. Hell, at times I was like a walking zombie, there was one time at school when I simply collapsed in the lounge chair in our computer lab and slept for two hours, would have slept more, but my classmate woke me up for class.
I can't give you clear and cut answer. You'll have to analyze where your time is really going in a day and decide what's important for you. If you find that you're wasting time, well, you know what to do. If, however, you are legitimately busy with school, I'd say concentrate on the school as it's usually more important. I'm not saying let yourself go in the meantime, but if you can't find time to exercise, at least make sure you are eating right healthy stuff and only eat maintenance calories.
Hope that helps you. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/14/2009 10:05:23 AM | Is there a gym at the hospital where you work?
Watching the Rocky movies and NBC's Biggest Loser has been tremendous motivational material for me. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/14/2009 12:46:52 PM | | Take a break!...lots of top bodybuilders take months off at a time..ive taken 4 months out before,,it wont kill you ,you probably need it mentally,dont worry about it...in time you will go back,when your ready.. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/15/2009 7:54:31 PM | | Personally, I found that a partner helps. If I don't feel like working out, she drags me out of the house. If she doesn't feel like it, I extract revenge by dragging her out of the house. To date it has worked pretty well for us. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/18/2009 12:47:22 PM | | I find going for a run or throw in some quick sit ups and push ups early in the morning, I'm talking before coffee early. It works pretty decent for a busy schedule and it wakes you up too. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 7/18/2009 1:24:44 PM | Have you tried finding a work out buddy? It's hard to change your plans when someone else is already counting on you. I have friends that I hike with, and we make plans ahead of time. I would feel really badly if I canceled out on them if they were counting on going.
As for the gym, I just get dressed in the morning for the gym. I don't give myself a chance to talk myself out of it. I get dressed and I go and it's just a habit. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 10/28/2009 10:59:27 AM | I figured to bump this thread since it seems like I am always "refreshing" my motivation....I have had a few weeks were I just looked to maintain and come back afterward and really made progress....
It actually gives me a lot of confidence to have periods were I am "just maintaining" also.... | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 10/28/2009 11:35:35 AM | This is going to sound weird - hopefully someone here will think it makes sense.
Getting bored with routine but loving exercise means you have to switch it up and find things that you enjoy but that also give you the workout you need.
However outside of that I have learned that whatever I do for a couple days, my body then wants to continue doing. So if I don't workout for a couple days, my body doesn't want to as a habit. If I do workout a couple days straight, my body wants to continue it as a habit. Same thing with my diet.
Sometimes you have to change what your body does consistently, or at least in my case I do. After three or so days of getting back into the swing of it, my body craves it daily. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 10/28/2009 12:27:11 PM | I go to the gym mon, wed, and fri. A 3 day commitment. I go at 4:00 - 4:30 am, then I go home, get ready for work, and bike to work for a 7:00 - 5:30 workday. Then I bike home, doing 12km on my gym days, 18km on my cardio days. I just don't want to go back to who I was. I find the schedule really works for me. By the time I'm done at the gym, ts the normal time I wake up at for work. I get ready, and I don't have to find the time after work to go.
Also I can leave equipment set up for a circuit as I'm often alone at that time or there might be 3 - 4 of us there total. When I leave at 5:30 -6am the place is really starting to fill up. I find the scale a
good motivator, feeling and looking good, is another great motivator. | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 10/28/2009 1:24:01 PM | bollocks!!
So if I hear ya correctly, you're working on call (so your schedule is unpredictable), and you work long shifts on your feet. When you get home you are not inclined to work out because you are exhausted.
Here are some thoughts, I hope they help:
1. It sounds like you are adjusting to being on your feet for hours. Perhaps you could get the weight off your feet during your breaks? Do you have a staff room where you can lie down? Or you could like on a yoga matt, with your legs on a couch or chair to move the blood from your lower extremities back to your torso? Are you eating lots of small, nutritious snacks throughout the day? Perhaps this will help overcome the feeling of exhaustion at the end of the day.
2. Can you get out for lunch-time walks? Being outdoors is always invorgorating!
3. My biggest motivator is music. I spend long hours at school...at the end of the day I drag my sorry a$$ to the gym and plunk on my headphones...I have a special mix of high-tempo music I listen to on the treadmill. Before I know it, I'm sprinting...and once my heart rate increases I feel more alive (and motivated).
3. Have you thought about consulting a personal trainer or a nutritionist? Nutrition is VERY important, especially when you are stressed from work. Eatting healthy can make a world of difference.
I hope this helps!!!! Best wishes with your future career!! | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 10/28/2009 7:28:15 PM | In the morning I often set my alarm to go off 20ish minutes earlier and I put on my stereo with some dance music and start jumping around first thing in the morning as I'm getting dressed and ready etc... it's a great way to get your engines started.
You could always pick up a cardio or pilates type DVD and do it for a few minutes a day. Boring I know... but it's something quick at home? | |
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| Motivation
Posted: 10/28/2009 9:22:40 PM | Re-think what being physically active means.
One sports med physician friend told me that if people simply parked further from the store or work, or got up and walked more at work, or walked around the block in the evening when they get up or get home they would realize good changes in their physical fitness. How often do most people who work at a desk, get up and walk around?
Have a friend who is a stay at home mom, homeschooling four children. The family is 'green' living which means between hanging our clothes on the line and then bringing them in when dry, planting, weeding and harvesting the vegetable garden, stooping and bending reaching and lifting to clean and cook, she realized she did as good a work out as I was doing at the gym I attended.
And once she and I both knocked off the Pepsi, and started drinking more water a five years ago, we also found we had more energy and were not getting that roller coaster high and then low, from the jolt of sugar and caffeine. Now we eat an apple, and then drink a glass of water. Which keeps our energy level up for hours and hours.
And I vary my interests. From skiing, kayaking, riding a bike badly, fishing, treadmill, walking around the area where I live.
~Beth~ | |
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