Ways to Motivate Yourself to Work Out

We are now in that phase of the year where the snow melts and the flowers begin to bloom. With the start of spring and the nearing of spring break, some begin turn to workouts as a way to feel better about themselves and a way to hopefully look better for SB. If this is your goal but you’re having trouble getting started, here are some tips to motivate yourself to work out.

1. Put on your comfiest/cutest workout outfit. Now for girls, this is a huge piece of working out, because if you just recently bought a new workout outfit and are itching to wear it, now is your chance. Now for me, I always work out in a comfortable outfit like a t-shirt and leggings, but if I really plan on pushing myself, I turn to running shorts. It’s all about being comfortable and confident, because working out is going to make you uncomfortable mentally anyway, so you might as well feel good about what you’re in.
2. Reward Yourself. In my experience, this is probably some kind of food, as working out for me has never been about losing weight (it’s most likely that cookie that has been sitting on the counter waiting for me). Although I like to do food, some people might want to be something else to reward themselves, like getting to go shopping or getting a break from something that you hate doing. It just needs to be something that seems like a reward so it pushes you to run or drive to the gym.
3. Set Goals. Setting goals can be very simple or very complex. It’s whatever you want it to be. They can be big or small; but please, at least make some. Examples could be something as simple as “every time I go to the gym I’m going to run two miles,” or it could be something a little bigger like “I want to go to the gym every other day.” It’s all about preference.
4. Stop overthinking it. You need to stop telling yourself that working out is awful, because it’s really not. You can make it easy or you can make it awful, it just depends on the day and how you are feeling. Some days I go to the gym and think that I’m going to get a really good workout, but when I get there and I’m not feeling it I just work out a little bit and decide to go home, as I know that I’m not going to get anything done. If you go and just go with the flow of how you’re feeling that day, working out will be much easier on you.
5. Make it Fun. This, to me, is the most important way to motivate yourself. You have to make it fun or else you will never work out. This can be so simple. Personally, I bring my own music and jam to that. Going with your friends can also make it fun. They push you to go farther than you would alone and they update you on all the recent drama as you go.

Hopefully these tricks can help you get going in the gym, not only on your SB bod, but for as long as you want to be working out.