How To Get Into A Fitness Routine & Stay Motivated.

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I always admired those girls who live to workout. Those kinds of girls who seem like it's second nature to them to get up early to get that 10K in before work and then hit the gym after. Well, that's not me. For me finding the motivation to workout is pretty hard. I may be lucky because I am quite good at being disciplined, but that doesn't mean that I actually enjoy an hour of sweating in the gym when I all I want to do is binging Netflix (I currently love Dynasty.. have you watched it?). So I have to be prepared in order for me to secure that those Netflix nights don't take over my life and I actually get my but moving... occasionally. 

Schedule 

If you are looking for only one thing to take away from this post, let it be this. Schedule your workout in as if it's an appointment. Do not wait for a timeslot to suddenly appear. This won't happen. Even if you have all the time in the world you will always find something 'more important' to do than working out. So I suggest you sit down on a Sunday and schedule your workouts for the week ahead. 

Treat yourself

I don't know if this is only a thing that women do, but I heard this a lot from others and it certainly helps me. Treat yourself! Treat yourself to some new workout clothes, some new trainers or some new earphones. I am always so much more motivated when I invested money in my new gym kit. It's too pretty and fun to just lay around. I recently got some new earphones from Sudio. These are completely wireless.. yes, no wire at all. The battery lasts up to 3,5 hours, which lasts me at least two workout sessions. The case itself has another 4 full charges ready for you. Honestly, I never experienced so much freedom when working out. Nobody got time for normal earphones anymore. My boyfriend always acts like he doesn't care about new workout goodies and they don't affect his motivation. But I can confirm that even he wanted to go out for runs way more often since getting his pair of Sudio NIVÅ. If you fancy treating yourself as well, you can use the discount code "LISAAUTUMN" for 15% off.

Do it for the health

I can't lie... of course, I want my body to change and that's definitely a part of why I am working out. But if you set your physical appearance as your number one priority I can almost promise you that your motivation will go out of the window pretty quickly. Firstly, physical results really take some time to show. So when you won't have that Kim KW body after a month you will be very tempted to give up. Try to shift your focus to your health. Do you want to be strong and healthy even when you get older? Then you simply have to move your body and take care of your diet. Once you put your health first, physical changes will come automatically. So please do yourself a favor and do not.. I repeat do not.. solely track your weight. Of course, tracking your weight is somewhat helpful, especially when you have a substantial amount of fat to lose. But don't weigh yourself more often than every week or better every other week. Your daily weight gain or loss has nothing to do with fat gain or loss, most of the time it's just water. Especially when you've gained 2 pounds over night.. trust me that just can't be fat. Even more important than weighing yourself is your body composition. So maybe invest in a good body composition scale and also take measurements of your body. That's where you will see the real progress. 

Forget about that 'all or nothing' mentality

This is probably one of the biggest mistakes people do over and over again. The 'all or nothing' mentality with workouts and diets will make you give up sooner or later. We all have been there. You remember that time where you have been eating so healthy for weeks and worked out regularly, and then you had that one day where you ate your body weight in junk food and sugar. Well, this is not the end of the world. It's all about how you go from there? Do NOT beat yourself up and think to yourself that everything is over now and the effort you made over the last few weeks are pointless. One day does not define your journey. It's just one single day out of 7 days of the week, 30 of the month and 365 of the year. Just pick up your healthy lifestyle the next day and this one day 'off'  didn't change a thing. 

Find something that works for you

Going running or to the gym are probably the first things that people think about when it comes to workouts. Even though this might be the right thing to do for some people, it is not for everyone. I started out with Pilates workouts at home. But I quickly realized that I need to actually go out to workout and home workouts don't do it for me. I then started running and absolutely loved it. I went from a couch potato to someone who could run a 5K without completely dying. But it just got boring to me after some time. The beginning was exciting and a huge challenge. After I became better and it got easier I just lacked the motivation. More than a year ago I started going to the gym with my boyfriend. I did a mix of cardio and weights, probably what most people do. And again, I absolutely loved it. But looking back at it now, I probably loved the first six months. I loved getting stronger and feeling more independent in my day-to-day life, like carrying all the groceries at once and not asking my boyfriend for help. But I felt like it got too monotone. This is when my boyfriend asked if I'd want to join Crossfit with him. At first, it was a huge joke to me. I thought I am far away from being fit enough to do anything that 'crazy'. But everybody has to start somewhere, right? So I tried it once, really believing that it won't be for me. Surprisingly I loved every second. Yes, it was intimidating and it was so much harder than anything else I have ever done and it still is most of the times I go. But the feeling after the workout is incredible.. you feel like you can conquer the world. To be honest, there are still so many things I can't do, but there is always a modified way for me to do a certain exercise. Don't be scared. 

x Lisa