How to Stay Motivated to Exercise and Lose Weight

Exercise And The Yo-Yo

Maintaining a sturdy diet and exercise plan for a period of time, then dropping that plan is such a common cyclic phenomenon amongst people, that its gained its own term of the Yo-Yo or Yo-Yoing. The motivation to continue to exercise can be interrupted all too easily and to restart such habits are even easier to procrastinate. So how do we stick with our exercise and diet plan, how do we remain motivated and in effect, beat the yo-yo effect?

Keep It Easy And Feasible

Falling out of a fitness resume is like letting go of good habits. These habits will be a lot easier to maintain if they are not too difficult to begin with. So start of easy and don't let your fitness routine dominate your weekly schedule too much. You sessions can be a minimum such as a 30 minute walk or bike ride. Once you have started your exercise there will be times you will want to turn up the intensity and work up a sweat, pump that heart and go for longer.

Keep It Frequent

If you keep your exercise less intense and feasible, then you can do it more frequently. The 30 minutes of medium intensity exercise may not seem a big deal to you, so why not squeeze it in every second day? If you break up your exercise into more frequent sessions there is less of a lead up to the next time you will be exercising. The more time you have in the lead up to exercise, the greater the chance you have of dreading it. Furthermore, keeping exercise frequent incorporates it more seamlessly into your overall lifestyle.

Plan And Log

If you schedule in your exercise before or after other commitments for the week, it will integrate into your lifestyle more seamlessly. Putting pen to paper in your dairy or a schedule will help to keep you motivated and task driven.

Keep it Enjoyable

Frequency of exercise helps to avoid dreading it, but not pushing yourself to do something you think you will hate helps too. You don't have to do the exercises you planned to if you don't feel like it. If you're feeling flat and you planned to do weights but would rather go for a walk, go for the walk. Once you start walking, you may want to run or decide that you would like to do something else. It's still exercise and good for you!