Are you bored with your workouts... yet?

Posted by:
Maya Mohan, Department of Public Health

Maya is the Physical Activity Coordinator for DPH 

I know we’re only 3 weeks into the New Year but I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s getting harder to stick with our original resolve to move more.

If you’re anything like me, reality has started to set in and all the good intentions in the world don’t mean squat at 5:15 am, when it is way easier to yell at my alarm, hit the snooze button and go back to bed for another 9 minutes (and then repeat for a few more cycles until I actually get up).  And I’m a morning person, to boot!

It is important for me to be active regularly - but I’ll admit, it’s hard to stay motivated all the time.  I try to limit the number of things I have to do in the morning so I have no excuses - I pack my gym (and lunch) bag the night before; I set my clothes out so it’s one less thing for me to think about in my semi-comatose state at 5:15 am; I even learned how to use the auto-brew setting on my coffee maker so I wake up to the (delicious!) smell of coffee brewing!  Truthfully though, none of those things really help me avoid the inner battle that begins when my alarm starts shouting at me.  (I suppose I could change my alarm to something more pleasant sounding, but I worry I won’t wake up!). 

Because I can feel my resolve starting to slip, I did something yesterday that I can honestly say I’ve never done before: I planned out all of my workouts for this week.  I looked at my calendar and decided when it would be easiest for me to work out this week, and literally wrote it into my calendar.  Instead of broadly committing to working out at the same time every single day for the rest of my life, I looked at when I knew I would have conflicts this week, and planned my workouts around them.  This has helped me create a reasonable plan that I feel like I can stick to.  I know it sounds so obvious, but I’ve taken away the power of any excuses that I can make by setting aside this time in my schedule.  I love having a plan!   

How are you staying motivated?  We’d love to hear your tips! 

Share on Facebook

Comments

Never bored with my fitness regime. Just wanna to say that if your needs fit the regime than you are certainly going to enjoy your workout sessions. Try to change your workout regimes after 30-45 days. This will increase your interest.

[Chaya]

My roommate is excellent at fitting the gym into her daily routine but it's so hard for me because I'm just not the type of person who easily sticks to a routine schedule. Scheduling it into my calendar sounds like a great solution for me. I'm going to try this!

[Liz Morin]

I do this too, it is amazing how it works! I plan my dinner meals as well as my workouts on Sunday for the week ahead. They are all written in my calendar so that I will see them everytime I look in there. I know that sometimes I will need to make adjustments but for the most part it helps me get these things done. The meal planning is also helpful because there's nothing worse than getting home from work and being tired yet starving...and having no plan. In that case we are so much more likely to grab takeout or eat something else that is not ideal. If the healthy meal is on the calendar then I know before I even get home that I've got a healthy (and simple) meal to create before plopping down on the couch for the night.