1. Figure out your catalyst
One of the biggest factors that you need to get right when it comes to motivating yourself to be fit and healthy is figuring out your catalyst. This is something that can help you considerably when it comes to improving your motivation and keeping up with your fitness.
2. Decide what appeals most to you
Figuring out what appeals most when it comes to health and fitness is so important to keep you going, as there are multiple options open to you. Whether you’re running, swimming, cycling, lifting weights, or taking body combat classes, there are a wealth of choices available to you to help you actually enjoy your fitness journey.
3. Develop a fitness plan
Being able to develop a fitness plan is something that actually plays greater prominence in your journey than you might think. Mapping out and planning your daily or weekly fitness plan can help to give you structure and routine, making it easier to stick to the plan and less tempting to ditch the mission as it takes the daily mental load off.
4. Work with a personal trainer
One of the best ways of staying on top of your health and fitness is to work closely with a personal trainer. It’s an investment, but it’s the best way of ensuring success with your fitness routine. The accountability of a personal trainer makes sure you are disciplined and driven when it comes to working out, near enough guaranteeing a positive outcome.
5. Join the gym
When you’re looking to make the best decisions to help motivate you into keeping fit, joining the gym is one of the most helpful (if obvious!) steps. The gym gives you access all to the equipment and machinery you need to get into shape, surrounded by people with similar goals. The best thing about it is that it is weatherproof too, so you can go all year round.
6. Buddy up
Buddying up is one of the best ways of being able to improve motivation to keep fit and healthy. By working out with someone, you are more likely to stick with it, maintaining that initial interest and focus. Being accountable to another person is the perfect way of being able to stick with it, and keep yourself motivated as much as possible.
7. Change your diet
Whilst exercising is important, changing your diet is one of the biggest things that you need to keep on top of with regards to fitness and weight loss. There’s a saying that losing weight is 30% gym and 70% kitchen. Perhaps unfortunately, there’s a lot of truth to this, so make sure your diet is on point and balanced wherever you can.
8. Baby steps
A big mistake a lot of people make when it comes to motivating themselves to get fit and healthy is that they try to do too much too soon. Baby steps, taking things slowly and gradually is one of the best approaches you can take, and is absolutely essential for maintaining interest.
9. Get the right gear
Making sure you have the right gear is something that is going to make the process of losing weight and getting fit considerably easier. It can be a vulnerable process, so you need to feel comfortable! On a practical level, the right gear will maximize ease, regulate body temperature and prevent injury moving forward.
10. Set yourself a goal weight
Setting yourself a goal weight is a great way of being put a concrete focus to your motivation, but this is something you need to get right. Anything too ambitious and you’ll find yourself consistently disheartened by the process. Try to figure out what your ideal BMI weight should be and use this as your goal weight, setting yourself smaller milestones in between.
11. Reward yourself
Rewarding yourself for your health and fitness goals is a great way of becoming more motivated overall. Whether it’s buying that top you’ve been wanting for a long time or booking an amazing vacation, there is a lot of value and sense to rewarding yourself. If you’ve got the self control in portion sizes and won’t binge, you can even incorporate treat food into this process.
12. Understand the health benefits
Understanding the benefits of great health is really important for being able to maintain motivation long term. This sounds obvious, but a lot of people don’t actually take the time to do this and set disheartening, superficial goals without understanding the bigger picture. Do your research – it can really make a big difference to the way you are able to motivate yourself.
13. Read horror stories about poor health
One of the best ways to motivate yourself into getting fitter and healthier is to read health horror stories. There are people out there so unhealthy that it becomes dangerous for them, and scaring yourself can be a surprisingly effective motivator. It’s a great opportunity to help ensure you don’t fall into bad habits and that you stay on track for life.
14. Be realistic
It is important to try to be as realistic as possible with your health and fitness goals, as not to leave you disheartened and more likely to give up. Do your research into what goals will actually suit, and be possible for you. Even if you want a huge transformation long term, smaller checkpoints in between help you remain motivated by prompting a sense of achievement.
15. Work this around your life
One of the biggest problems people encounter when it comes to health and fitness is that they struggle to fit it around their daily lives. These days, our hectic, action-packed schedules make it difficult to find time to keep fit. Working out at the office gym on your lunch break or exercising at home with a virtual program are just a couple of the great ways of achieving this.
16. Join like-minded online groups
Finding like-minded online groups or communities is a great way of being able to stay motivated. Being able to interact with other people who have the same fitness goals, issues, and worries as you is really great for helping you to stay inspired and encouraged. This way, you can share both your successes and struggles with a supportive community.
17. Understand that setbacks are part of the process
Every journey comes with setbacks, and your fitness journey is no exception to this. So, it is important to understand that this is part of the process, and looking for ways of overcoming your fitness setbacks is essential for being able to enjoy long-term success moving forward.
18. Use a celebrity as inspiration
In this day and age, us normal folks aspire to be just like our favorite celebrities in all kinds of ways. Whilst many have unrealistic, overly intense fitness regimes due to expensive personal trainers, nutritionists and an abundance of free time to focus on how they look, some are more realistic. If you’re mindful about who you choose, they can be a great source of inspiration.
19. Go easy on yourself
When it comes to weight loss and motivation, one of the key things to keep in mind is making sure you don’t lose your sense of drive. This means you need to go easy on yourself, and stop beating yourself up in the event that you don’t hit all your fitness goals as quickly as you expected. It’s a lifestyle change, not a quick fix.
20. Diversify your weight loss
Diversifying your workout routine is one of the best ways of staying motivated, and this is something you need to pay close attention to to prevent you getting bored. There are a lot of different ideas you can use that will help you here; a combination of gym equipment, fitness classes, weights, swimming, and running are all great ways of achieving this.
21. Support on social media
Social media can be a really great resource of fitness motivation, provided you use it correctly. Gaining support and advice on social media, from either influencers or friends, plays a big part in allowing you to stay fit and healthy. You could even join social media fitness groups to interact with a likeminded community.
22. Record your starting weight
A great way of keeping you motivated is by recording your starting weight. This is important because not only does it provide you with a starting point that gives you something to work from but you can also track how far you’ve come. Knowing your starting weight is also important when trying to determine your goal weight, which is essential for early success.
23. Plan a ‘before’ and ‘after’ photo
A before and after photo is also a great source of motivation for you when it comes to health and well-being. There are loads of great reasons to do this, and it will show how far you have come on your journey. Taking a ‘before’ photo, knowing you’re planning an ‘after’ photo, keeps you driven and motivated.
24. Be positive
Positivity is one of the biggest components of keeping you on track with health and fitness – but it’s also one of the biggest hurdles for many. It’s going to be a hard journey and negativity will only make it harder. Whilst a sunnier outlook will naturally come from increased dopamine after exercise, taking steps to maintain it overall is also vital for success.
25. Tell your family
Telling your family that you are hoping to lose weight and observe a strong health and fitness plan is really important. They will be able to help keep you on the straight and narrow, and they can be invaluable for accountability and inspiration. They might even offer to work out with you occasionally as well!
26. Get a dog
Getting a dog is great for so many different reasons, but one that often goes overlooked is in health and fitness motivation. A dog is going to require a lot of physical exertion when it comes to keeping it happy, healthy and active. In being responsible for this, the dog will also help you do the same! Countless walks and games will no doubt keep you both fit.
27. Multitask
Being able to multitask is absolutely essential when it comes to improving health and fitness, and working it around your life. For instance, if you’re a stressed parent, you could combine taking baby for a walk in the buggy with going for a run. You just need to make sure you secure the right buggy that will allow you to do this.
28. Keep a journal
Keeping a health and fitness journal is something that can really help your motivation. Not only does it hold you accountable, but it’s good to have some kind of record of what you’ve been doing, to see the progress you are making and identify anything holding you back. Keeping a journal, either physical or digital, is one of the best things you can do to be successful.
29. Don’t compare and despair
One of the biggest problems we encounter when it comes to health and fitness is comparing ourselves to others. No matter how good you think you look, there will always be a person you think looks better. Striving for perfection is a dangerous road to go down; instead just try to be comfortable with who and where you are on your journey.
30. Healthy snacking is important
Snacks can be one of the biggest problems in your quest to stay fit and healthy, and this is why you need to do some research into healthier snacks. If you make the time, you can easily plan out your meals and snacks for the week, which plays a big role in helping keep calories low whilst making sure you aren’t hungry all the time too.
31. Stay active during the working day
Staying active during your working day is essential, as this is a key part of improving your overall fitness and health. If you can integrate small periods of activity into your working day, it’s going to instantly help you on your journey, making health and well-being second nature, forming part of your daily routine.
32. Write down your plan
Having a fitness plan is all well and good, but if this is only in your mind it’s going to be easy to forget and go wrong. As such, you need to make sure you write it down so that you have something tangible to be able to use to keep you motivated and organised. A written plan gives you structure and is another way of ensuring success.
33. Use apps
Using apps is a simple, practical way to make the fitness journey easier for you to keep track of in day to day life. There are a number of fitness apps out there, covering everything from inspiration and planning to tracking your nutrition and movement. Finding the ones that work best for you can help you prep workouts, develop meal plans, and stay motivated to get healthier.
34. The way you feel is important
Focusing on the way you feel when you work out is absolutely essential, and you need to take notice of this feeling as much as possible. Whilst aesthetic goals are all well and good, the best way to stay motivated is by focusing on the positive feeling that you get when you work out as this will improve your life long term.
35. Consider investing in a smartwatch
Smartwatches are a popular way of tracking fitness and health habits. They are a great indication of how active you are, how many steps you’ve done, and the number of calories you have burned. It is important to make sure you keep a record of all aspects of your fitness journey, and technology is an easy way of being able to achieve this.
36. Buy a piece of clothing you love that doesn’t fit you… yet
Something that can work very well as a source of motivation is to buy an outfit or garment that you really want, but to buy it in a size that doesn’t fit you. This gives you a goal size to work towards, and the reward at the end will be amazing.
37. Join a running club
Running is one of the best ways of being able to keep fit and stay healthy, and joining a running club is a great way of motivating yourself to stay active whilst still socialising. This is one of the leading options you can use to stay on top of health and fitness, and a great source of motivation.
38. Walk or cycle everywhere you can
By opting to walk or cycle over other transportation options where possible, you’re instantly incorporating exercise into your daily routine. There are loads of health benefits to this, and it’s a super easy switch to make if your lifestyle is super busy. It’s like a free gym pass!
39. Do fun stuff that burns calories
Doing fun stuff that burns calories is something that will help considerably when it comes to maintaining motivation and sticking with something as it makes the whole process a lot more fun. This could be as simple as signing up to play sports, such as hockey or soccer, or being active with things you enjoy like swimming.
40. Don’t weigh yourself every day
Weighing yourself every day might seem like a good way of keeping up with your fitness journey, but it will do very little other than drive you mildly insane. Because of how much your weight can fluctuate, weighing every day might see a spike in your weight that isn’t actually true. It can also lead to you obsessing over your weight loss in a negative way, taking the fun out of the process.