Stick to Your Fitness Plan
Everyone has occasional trouble making it to the gym. Follow these 34 tips to stay motivated.
by Ben Kallen
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Quick, what's the most difficult aspect of your fitness program?
If you're like most guys, it's getting to the gym regularly and eating right every day, even when you don't feel like it. You're a little tired, the dog needs walking, they're rerunning The Sopranos, etc.
It's easy to slag off once in a while. Unfortunately, it's the little slips that can really eat into your progress, or even stop it.
To provide ideas about keeping a fitness program afloat when the going gets tough, we turned to the real experts in the subject—guys who've been following this advice themselves for months, years, even decades.
In addition to a number of fitness professionals and experts in the field, we asked readers to tell how they keep themselves motivated week after week, and they responded with some great suggestions. So the next time you're tempted to skip a workout or gorge on a bucket of tater tots, keep these real-life maxims in mind.
Have a Purpose
1. I write down time-specific goals in my diary,
so I can see whether I have attained them when the time is up.
—Gary Lee, reader
2. I write down what I want to achieve for the
day, how I will achieve it, and check it when I have accomplished it. And I
keep the list posted on the mirror in my bathroom.
—Jason Sablan, reader
3. What helps me the most is setting up short-term
goals—I always make sure that I have certain points along the way that
I can track my progress with. This keeps me going when times are tough and I
don't feel like working out.
—Kevin Valluzzi, in-home personal trainer and triathlete in Bergen County,
N.J.
4. I keep a daily journal of my cardio/weight-training
workouts as well as everything I eat. This holds me accountable and allows me
to chart my progress in a specific way.
—Barry Cook, reader
5. I have to make a million decisions during the
week, both at work and at home. Working out may be hard, but it's also
an hour when I can relax and focus on one thing.
—Michael Arens, reader
6. My cross-country/track coach has told me to
pick one guy on the team and set my goal to beat him. You have to constantly
think, If I don't work out today, ‘so-and-so' is going to get
ahead of me and have a greater advantage.
—Demetri Limberis, reader
Make Exercise a Habit
7. I make lunch hour on Tuesday and Thursday my “workout
time.” If someone wants to schedule something for those times, I'll
say, “Sorry, I'm busy then.”
—Lee Carlsen, reader
8. Working out and eating right can be a habit.
Establishing a regular routine and following it for two or three months will
condition the body to do it.
—Jim Wilson, a 69-year-old personal trainer (and retiree from the oil-refining
industry) in Denver, CO
9. I find it helps to start thinking of my next
workout immediately after I finish my current workout. This way, when I get
in the gym I know exactly what I will be doing, and I'm totally prepared
and ready to go.
—Gordon Jack, reader
10. A little planning will go a long way. During
the workweek I pack my own lunch and bring my own snacks. And I pack my gym
bag every night with the essentials…. It's always waiting for me in
the front seat after work.
—Aaron D. Sudduth, reader
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