Sometimes it’s hard to stay on track and keep the motivation ‘juices flowing’. I decided to share with you my top 3 tips for staying on the bandwagon.
1. Watch Yourself
I recently received a fitness watch and it’s become my new best friend. I’m no expert on brands but I have a Garmin Vivoactive 3 and I’m pretty stoked with it. It takes my heart rate, counts my steps, I can log my workouts at the gym or in the group fitness classes, my weight training, cardio, even hikes or surfing. It seems to do everything and helps me to keep challenging myself.
2. Keep Track
When I am trying to lose weight or keep active, I print out a calendar month print out like the one here:
I’ll Blutac it to my bedroom wall and colour code it, noting whether I was active and ate healthy or not.
Choose your own colour code, and be diligent about filling it in.
The more “active/healthy” coloured squares you see on your calendar, the more you’ll continue to stay motivated.
NOT holding yourself accountable is the easiest way to let bad habits creep in to your life, so having a visual reminder of the great things you have accomplished can help you to strive to make lasting change to your lifestyle and eating habits.
3. Ease Up on the Scales
I’m not entirely against scales. For some people they’re not helpful and can make the person feel worse. It depends on you.
For me they’re helpful, but only if I weigh myself once per month. At the start of the month I’ll weigh myself and then use my calendar to keep on top of my healthy eating and fitness.
I won’t weigh myself again until the start of the following month.
Our weight fluctuates so much that weekly you can either not lose a lot, or at times even put a little bit of weight on (especially for menstruating women) and this can be disheartening. Weigh yourself less regularly to avoid potential frustration!
Having a positive mindset, and taking small but measurable steps towards your goals will make achieving them so much easier.
Give these tips a go yourself and see if they help you to stay motivated, even when the going gets tough!