Regular exercise, like a weight loss diet, is not an easy task. It requires commitment, perseverance, working on good habits and also strength and dedication. Without this, we won’t maintain our natural fat-burning process; worse, we’ll fall back into old bad habits. In these situations, it’s good to know how to keep yourself motivated to exercise.
Motivation – good habits
When looking for our natural fat burner, we usually reach for training, diet and slimming patches. However, it is not uncommon for our strong enthusiasm to fade after a while. This is when it is worth looking for motivation, or … what exactly?
Many believe that motivation has magical powers and abilities, and that only a few people possess it. In reality, however, motivation to exercise is not some magical power that descends on us from the sky and suddenly makes us want to do something. Rather, it is the power of habit and iron self-discipline. It has to be developed by forcing yourself to train every day until it becomes a regular part of your daily schedule.
It therefore appears that, above all, the formulation of a specific goal helps to mobilise oneself to exercise. It is important not to raise the bar too high and not to promise yourself things that are extremely difficult to achieve, such as running a half marathon if you have never run seriously before. It’s also a good idea to find an activity you enjoy and to monitor your progress and results regularly. Below we will present some methods on how to keep yourself motivated to train and find your effective fat burner.
Rule number one – why am I doing this?
The most common reason we start exercising is to improve our appearance. We want to have a shapely silhouette so that we can show off in a bikini without embarrassment, or a sizeable musculature to arouse the admiration of our friends. To achieve this, we reach for slimming patches, diet and look for activities that interest us.
There is nothing wrong with that – after all, everyone wants to look good and feel good in their body. However, practice shows that this is not the only source of motivation. This is because many of us begin to accept our bodies with all their flaws. There is nothing wrong with this if we are in fact not overweight and our body can easily perform many physical activities. However, when it comes to being obese or even overweight, it is worth considering more than just appearance.
Research shows that without regular exercise, the human body simply breaks down, like a machine that lacks oil. The consequences of sitting on the sofa are serious and excess weight or breathlessness after climbing the third floor are just the beginning of the list of problems. The list includes diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes and all types of cancer. It therefore turns out that sport is not only an effective fat burner, but also a way of living a healthy life. This is worth realising.
Rule two – define your goal
Starting out in sport is not easy, but if we get past the first barrier, we will be able to see the first results quite quickly. Our body will take shape, become firmer and more limber. Seeing this, we begin to understand that sport is the best product for weight loss. However, later on, the first problems may arise.
However, many exercisers reach a wall at some point and stop seeing results from their activities. This is normal, because after a while the body gets used to the effort. The important thing is not to quit at that point, but to keep doing your thing, possibly with a higher intensity or load. Visualising your goal can help you get through training crises. It is worth defining your goal and the task you want to complete in a certain time. This will allow us to see the subsequent effects of our work, which will contribute even more to our motivation.
Third rule – find a sport you enjoy
Sport can be like a slimming patch for us, but what if we don’t like going to the gym, don’t like running, don’t like fitness and aren’t interested in most sporting activities. In that case, our motivation can be very shaken. Hence, it is worth remembering to find a sport that we enjoy.
In fact, we have so many options nowadays that you don’t at all have to fixate on running or going to the gym „because everyone else is doing it”. If you don’t like to sweat and tire yourself out, choose quieter activities such as Pilates or yoga. You can also go cycling or rollerblading, hiking, swimming, playing volleyball, dancing or Nordic walking. You can do it all! Of course, depending on the discipline, the effects will vary – for example, jogging promotes weight loss and Pilates strengthens muscles. But movement is movement and burns fat naturally.
Fourth principle – monitor progress and reward yourself
To monitor your development, it is a good idea to take a photo of your figure and measure the circumferences of your thighs, hips, waist and arms before you start your first workout. This will allow you to monitor the effects of your exercises later. Sometimes workouts do not bring visible results and at first glance we do not notice any changes. It is only when you compare photos and measurements that you notice how much your body is changing: your thighs are slimming down, your waistline is increasing, muscle outlines are appearing on your abdomen. And when this is achieved … let’s reward ourselves.
It’s important to sweeten your fulfilment of sporting resolutions a little, reward yourself for the result. Run your first five kilometres without stopping? Get yourself some new shoes. Persevered a week without sweets? Treat yourself to your favourite cake with your Sunday coffee. Conscientiously completed your third workout of the week? Take a hot, relaxing bath.
Fifth rule – lose battles not wars
The final rule of the process of successful fat burning is … not to worry about a single failure. There is no sport without failures and this also applies to champions. Forgive yourself for stumbling and do not let go. Just because you didn’t manage to lose weight today, doesn’t mean that it will be impossible in the following days. Don’t give up and keep fighting, because it is possible to lose a battle to win a war.
Sport can undoubtedly act as the most effective product for weight loss. However, there are moments of doubt for all of us, moments when we want to drop everything and go back to watching Netfix with a packet of crisps. In such situations, it’s worth looking for motivation to keep going, and the above prompts can help.