How do you get/stay motivated to workout?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

First, some background:

I work a full-time job (plus overtime).
I have a part-time job as a teaching assistant.
I am a full-time student.
I am a parent of two young boys.

The problem:

I am quite overweight and would like to do something about it, but I cannot get/stay motivated to go to the gym and workout. I realize that exercise both increases one’s energy level and increases the quality of sleep. However, when I get off work around 11:00 in the evening, the rational and well-meaning part of me gets hijacked by the part that says, “Screw it! I just want to go home and get some sleep.”

The questions:

  1. How do the lean-n-mean Dopers get and stay motivated to exercise?
  2. How do my fellow fighting-the-battle-of-the-bulge Dopers get and stay motivated to exercise?
  3. What diet and exercise advice would you give to someone who is fat as hell, but not going to take it any more?

Finals are next week, so this month will be relatively easy to get to the gym, but the spring semester starts January 10…

2

For me, part of it is finding something you enjoy, and part of it is associating the discomfort and time spent on it with the positive rewards you will reap down the road. If you ejoy working out and you can make the mental connection between working out and looking and feeling better, it makes it easier to find the time. If you just feel like sleeping or spending time with your family when you get home, you might want to think about exercising on your lunch hour and trying to center your longer workouts around weekends.

3

Seriously, this is how it works:

First of all, the idea that you need a certain set time and routine to work-out is just wrong. If your schedule is sparatic then you need to work with what you have. Sure, it would be nice if you worked a 9-5 job and you could get up a couple hours early everyday and work out before work. Then you’d have a nice little routine and it would be great.
But that’s not always your luxary, and it is NOT required.

With that in mind, the next step is to start NOW. Stop telling yourself that “Starting Monday, I’m going to set my routine and do such and such everyday”. Or, “At the begining of next month, it’s ON!! I’m going to start working out hard and get in shape.” This does NOT work. You need to start NOW! As a matter of fact, I really really recommend you go out for a brisk walk as soon as you finish reading this thread. Dont fucking put it off. Dont act like it is too late to go out. If you have time to sit your ass at the computer right now, you have 30 mins to go for a walk!!
So finish reading this and then go for a walk. Try to keep the pace up. Move as fast as you feel comfortable. Then move just a little fast then that. I’m assuming you’re not in ‘running shape’ at the moment. But don’t worry, you’re going to be in awesome shape!! Because you’re going to start right freaking now.

The second thing you need to realize is that YOU DO NOT NEED THE DAMN GYM. The problem with that mindset, is that the gym is always a place you have to go. You don’t feel like driving to the gym. And if the gym is 15 minutes away, that’s an extra half hour added to the time you need. So instead of only needing 30 minutes of spare time for some cardio, now you need an hour! And then you’d still only get 30 minutes of cardio. Does that make sense? You’re wasting time by going to the gym, and time is what you don’t have right now.
Once you’ve gotten into the habit of doing something every night, after about a month of that (C’mon, what’s 30 freaking days, you can do that!!) you will LOOK better and FEEL better. And then THAT is what will motivate you to keep going. You’ll WANT to work out. Then you will be fine with driving straight to the gym because you will want to. And if you happen to have a busy night, you’ll do something at hone. Because you still wont need the gym.

So starting tonight, starting RIGHT NOW, you need to start doing something everyday. If you have an hour to spare, go out for an hour. Walk super-fast in one direction for 30 minutes and then turn around and try to make it back faster.
BRING SOME WATER WITH YOU!!!

And remember, you are NOT on a schedule. You don’t have to wait until you get home late at night to do something. If you happen to be home at noon or something and you have 15 minutes free… do some sit ups. Do some push-ups. Just do something that accelerates your heartrate.
Stand in your living room with your hands and arms outstretched to your sides so that you make a T. Then clap your hands above your head, keeping your arms straight. Then bring them back down into the T position. Easy right? Do that 150 times, and you will FEEL it! And you will LOVE the feeling. Trust me. Do that everyday when you have 5-10 minutes to spare and you will see a difference in your arms. Mix it up a little by holding your arms straight out in front of you and making them go up and down, like a scuba diver’s feet but with your hands. Do 150 of those. Take a sip of some water, and then do 150 more!!

SEE?! Your day is filled with little gaps of time. And that is all you need. Take advantage of these little gaps. Is dinner cooking? How long is that chicken going to roast? 25 minutes? That’s pleanty of time to do some crunches.
But it IS NOT pleanty of time to drive to the gym to work out. That’s why you need to forget about this “gym” crap. Forget about it until you’re so Super-Pumped about looking and feeling great, that you end up finding time for the gym.

But I would say to not even worry about the gym for a month or two. That extra half hour of driving could be spent walking (fast walk, now) and burning calories and being productive.

Oh, and dont use “but I’m clean and I’d have to take a second shower if I worked out now, and I have to be somewhere in an hour and a half”.
FINE!! Do something that makes you sweat and makes you sore and makes your heart beat. Do that for a half hour and then take another freaking shower. Water is cheap!!

Also, if you want to see faster improvement, which will motivate you even more, you HAVE to lower your caloric intake. I don’t know what kind of junk you’re eating now, but common sense will tell you what you SHOULD be eating.

And don’t think that a simple 30 minutes of cardio - fast walking- or Over Head Claps, or crunches or whatever, don’t think that you need more than 30 minutes for you to get something out of it. Granted, if you can turn that into an hour, then that’s twice as good. But don’t sit on your couch thinking that since you dont have an hour, you don’t have any time at all. USE WHATEVER TIME YOU HAVE.
It WILL make a difference. Trust me. You will see it. And you will feel it. Even after a week, you will feel it!!!
That’s one thing that keeps people from excersing is they think they need more time than they really do. Do something for any length of time is better than not doing anything at all.

So forget about the gym. The gym is a cruch. You have sidewalks, and a living room. That’s all you need. That… and a diet. “Diet” doesn’t have to mean ‘less food’, it just means ‘better food’.

So I don’t give a fuck what time it is RIGHT NOW. Go for a walk. Take the kids if they’re up. Take the dog if you have one. But get the fuck out of your house right now. Get out and go sweat!!! You will come back and feel great. You will feel like shit while you’re doing it. You will be sweaty and breathing hard and tired, and it will suck ass! But when you get back home, you will be like “Wow!! I feel great!! I am so going to do this again tomorrow morning!! I can get up a half hour early and powerwalk before my shower!!! That’s nothing! I’m going to do that!!”
So go!! Why are you even still reading this?
Go for a 30 minute power walk, right freaking now. Then come back and tell me how you feel.
And then you should start some rule about using the computer at your house.

The new rule, starting RIGHT NOW, is you’re only allowed to use the computer if you’re sweaty!!! So if you want to post on a message board or play a game or listen to Banana Phone, you have to do something that makes you sweat first!!!
Even 100 crunches can count. For now on, at least do a hundred crunches before you ever check your email at home. EVER. Starting now!!! Don’t wait until “the next time you check it”. Start it now.
And go for a freaking walk already!!!

Is this making sense??? You have time! You need to exploit it. Stop making excuses!!!

Please consult a physician before starting any diet or excersise program.
There’s the disclaimer. You can be a wussy and wait to talk to a doc, or you can get your butt out there and start creating the new, better, healthy, sexier, more energetic YOU.
Go powerwalk, now!! Bring some water with you. Sip, don’t gulp.

\Love
Good luck to you!!!

4

Also, find something you enjoy doing. I dropped out of a gym because weights and cardio machines were indescribably boring, and eventually took up Pilates (and am sticking with it), because I find it a lot more interesting.

As Bear_Nenno said, any form of exercise is better than no exercise, so find something that you’ll stick with, so you don’t end up going on a guilt cycle by starting a program you don’t like and then dropping it and feeling guilty about it. Pilates, martial arts, yoga, dance–exercise doesn’t have to be the traditional gym route.

5

The best part is, the more you work out, the better you look, the more motivated you are to keep getting more buff. :slight_smile:

6

Hi Evil,

I’m in a similar situation. email me if you want to start a little motivational e-mailing.

7

Chocolate.
It is a vicious circle, really.

8

First - set a goal. It has to be attainable, but should involve some effort. Make it realistic and definitive. Not “I’m want to look better,” or “I want to drop a few pounds.” This instead - “I want to loose 5 pounds by January 1,” or “I want to exercise 15 minutes a day, 3 x a week for a month.” Setting realistic goals helps with the motivation because you’ll find yourself saying “Hurray for me! I made it!”

Second - You don’t need a gym membership (as was pointed out). Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Go for a walk at lunch. There are many, many ways to raise your heart rate and burn calories. As you progress, you’ll have to work harder to see results, and that’s when you can look into a gym membership or classes offered through your local Parks and Recreation Dept.

Third - Treat yourself every once in a while. If, at the end of December, you’ve met your goal you can splurge.

Fourth - Don’t look at exercise as work - integrate it into your life and make it a part of your lifestyle. Carve out the time for it.

Fifth - Have fun. If whatever you’re doing is a drag, you’ll quit.

9

I am in group #2 as defined by the OP, and I’ve made a lot of progess so far. For me, the trick to staying motivated was to find motivations that fit my personality. Frankly, “looking better” and “feeling better,” while attractive in theory, didn’t go very far in getting me up off the couch.

Some things that work fairly well for me:

  1. Material goods: Yes, I bribe myself. Not with food (having tried that in the past, it doesn’t work very well :smack: ) One of my rules is that if I get a new CD that I’m really excited about, I can only listen to it when I’m working out.

  2. Public Disgrace: Yes, I am a sheep. I loudly and smugly announced at work that I always take the stairs instead of the elevator, and now to save face, I always have to take the stairs instead of the elevator. I’m not sure if the stair trips are making a contribution to the weight loss (but hey, it can’t hurt), but I think it helps mentally – I’ll think to myself “gawd, I hoofed it up and down those stupid stairs twenty times today, I might as well work out for 20 minutes and actually have something to show for it.”

  3. Getting out of social obligations: This one started working like a charm after my weight loss got to the point where it was visible to other people. “Gee, I’d love to come over to watch the twenty hours of video footage of your vacation, but you know how it is (insert long-suffering look here), I have to keep to a strict exercise schedule to keep making progress.” I’ve found that most people are very understanding of the weight loss endeavor. Okay, I’m making this sound terrible, I’m not that bad. But seriously, I’m the kind of person who likes some personal time with myself, and I’ve found the exercise is a good way to reserve some alone time and think my thoughts in peace. I know some people enjoy having an “exercise buddy” or whatever, but know thyself and all that.

So that’s some advice from a shallow and anti-social person!

10

Evil-
I went through this exact scenario last winter when I realized my belly was starting to develop a hangover. My eye opener was a morbidly high cholesterol number, especially for my age. Wanting to live past 30 was enough motivation for me.
First thing I did was to go on a high fiber, low saturated fat diet. It meant eliminating a good amount of the foods I really loved, but it did work, and within 6 months, I had dropped twenty pounds. The inspiration you get from your wife telling you your double chin is almost gone can really go a long way!
As far as exercise goes, the gym is not the answer with your schedule. I was approximately the same boat you are, 2 jobs, going to school, kids at home, etc… To work out, I started walking on my lunch break, even if it meant going around the edge of the parking lot a few times, every day. Try doing 15 incline pushups over the vanity every time you use the bathroom. If you really want more of a “lifting” program, you may want to invest in a set of resistance bands. These offer a number of exercises, and require minimal space for set-up and storage, and they travel very well. usually you can get them anywhere from 10-25$ in your local sporting goods store or I’m sure online.
You definitely need to get some lifting in along with the cardio work to stimulate muscle growth. The more muscle you have, the greater amount of fuel your body will need, so those fat deposits you have in reserve will start being burned off. This will not only help you keep the weight off long term by increasing your metabolism, but will also help you feel stronger, and look more defined, which is great inspiration in itself.
Bets of luck to you, and if you need any inspirtaion, motivation, or advice, feel free to email me!

11

I did something similar to what Hunter Hawk suggested.

My view (and I realized this early on) was that I knew I would NEVER go out and just exercise for exercise’s sake. I tried a couple different things (Treadmill, exercise bike, etc.) and I realized that for me it’s just not fun. I don’t feel like I’m really getting anything out of it. Yes, I know that exercise is good for me, but in the short term, it just feels like I’m exerting and killing myself for no good reason.

So what I realized I had to do was to trick myself into exercising. I found that if I was doing an activity I enjoyed then I didn’t focus on the pain and tiredness. I did rollerhockey for 2 seasons that helped a bit, but then I got back into Karate, and what a difference it made. I go work out 3 times a week for a couple hours at a streach. Sure I still get physically tired out and still feel some pain, but I am learning some really cool stuff. In my mind, I’m getting some immediate benefit in the form of learning self defense. The side effect is that my body is getting physical activity.

12

For me it’s an inertia thing. If I stop working out it is very hard to start. Once I start I tend to keep going. If I start working out everyday, I feel like crap when I don’t. It’s just a matter of getting through that first week or two in the beginning.

It is different for everyone but I need the gym. If I relied on workouts at home I would never do it. Once I get my ass out the door I can go work out for a couple of hours. If I stay at home I probably won’t start. It is worth the money for me. Luckily I have a Gold’s Gym about a mile from my house.

13

Well, now I feel bad about the bacon sandwich I was stuffing into my gob. :frowning:

14

Endorphins, baby, endorphins.
Hurting yourself is FUN.
Not the bad kind of hurt, but the good kind. When you get home and your muscles ache. It’s the best feeling ever.

My own advice? Keep a journal.
There should be enough routine to what you do that you can SEE the improvement. For example, when I lift to gain strength, I do 4 sets of 8 of each lift. When I can do 8 at a certain weight, I up the weight. There’s nothing better than looking back at the month before and realizing how much progress you’ve made.
You can do this for anything. Even if all you’re doing is walking/jogging/climbing stairs. The faster you do it, the better you’ll feel about yourself.
Oh- and don’t use weight as an indicator of progress. You’ll be losing fat, but gaining muscle, and the latter is denser than the former. So you might look better and weight the same- so forget the scale and let the mirror be your judge.
Finally- don’t get discouraged. Making a lifestyle change is a big step and comes in fits and starts. You don’t just decide to be an athlete and then you are one. It takes time, so be kind to yourself.

15

Thank you for saying that. I emailed that to my I-never-have-time-to-work-out-excuse-giving BF. You said it much better than I could and it’s better to have it coming from someone other than the GF anyway. Besides, I can’t figure out how to say it in a way other than “get off your fat lazy ass and get going!”

16

One thing that hasn’t been talked about - getting started is relatively easy. You seem more worried about keeping going once you’ve made an initial start, which I agree is difficult.

But what no-one has mentioned yet is the real killer - the number of people who go out, get a gym membership or start running or whatever, and work out too damn hard and hurt themselves, which disencourages them from doing it! It’s a vicious cycle, truly.

So my biggest piece of advice is this - **START SLOWLY AND EASILY! ** Do not think you can jump off the couch and run 5k; all you will get is sore legs and back and not wanna go again for quite a while cause it hurt! Keep doing this sort of stupidity and you won’t get anywhere, and you will be psychologically reinforcing the ‘exercise is hard’ mantra and making it painful to boot!

Start with walking, maybe no more than 20 minutes. Use this time to think about things, maybe think about work, maybe think about the wife and kids, whatever. Partition this time for just you, doing a little introspection. Or maybe just think of nothing - that’s what I do when I exercise. But the point being, don’t think of it as ‘work’ or it will become something you try to avoid. I use it to decompress from the day, work off tensions from my evening commute, whatever.

Gradually, over the course of a couple of weeks say, gradually up the time. When you reach the point where you’re walking quickly for 30 or so minutes, then you can start alternating running and walking, like run for 1 minute, walk for 2, etc. Gradually up this running time, until you’re running more then walking. Then up it some more.

I would combine this with some solid ‘core strength’ exercise. Targeted weight loss is a myth - you can’t loose weight from one body part without surgery. But what you can do is crunches and push-ups. Start with only one or two, or as many as you can do without soreness or pain. Do crunches rather than old fashioned sit-ups, they are less damaging on back and neck. This shouldn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes more. Pilates are fantastic for increasing core strength. Get a book from the library for how to do them properly, or if you’ve got the time / money book a session with a physiotherapist or personal trainer - one session should do it to teach you the fundamentals of how to do it right for maximum benefit with least risk of injury, and doesn’t cost nearly what most people think. And the reward is pretty darn fast - you’d be surprised how much you use your core muscles and don’t even know it, and these exercises are targeted to make this better. It also changes your body shape really quickly as well! :slight_smile:

The point being, GO SLOW! Your body is not used to exercise at all, and will take some time to adjust. But it will adjust, over time, and adapt and start giving you the results you want.

BTW - My trigger was a photograph of me on a dive trip, reading a book - I had folds, man! I didn’t recognize myself! Who is this fat bastard in this photo?!? So I started getting serious about exercise 2 years ago, and with only limited changes in my diet I have lost 20 kilos (almost 50 lbs). Luckily, I worked a job at the time that allowed me to skip out during lunches, early, etc to go to the gym, and I had the cash for a personal traininer to help me design workouts and such. But here’s the trick - my trainer taught me all sorts of exercises and routines, and NONE OF THEM REQUIRED THE GYM! All sorts of isolation things, standing on one leg and squatting, windmills, push-ups with variations, etc… but none of them reqired specialized equipment. I like going to the gym (I get to see lots of cute chicks in spandex, so it motivates me!) but I don’t have to and if I don’t have the time on a day I don’t.

It really becomes a habit, you just need to get the bug in the first place. And trust me, it’s definitely worth it. I am less stressed out, don’t get angry about stupid things as often, feel better, look better, have more energy, sleep better, get more done during the day, and all with the added benefit of a body I actually kind of like rather than one I avoided showing to anyone ever if I could help it! :slight_smile:

17

I never had much luck motivating myself to exercise until I found a sport I really enjoyed. Showing participate in a group sport, knowing thatif you don’t, you’ll be letting the other players down is incredibly motivating. And I’m driven to make myself healthier to get better at my chosen sport. Plus it’s a great social outlet as well.

You sound horribly busy, so it may be hard to find time for an organized practice (although you might look into it, lots of cities have tons of recreational teams at all sorts of skill levels). You coudl also try to find a workout buddy. It’d be easier to coordinate your schedule with one person and you’d feel more responsible about showing up if you knew the other person was waiting for you.

Oh, and I guess the other thing is, gyms aren’t for everyone. I get bored in gyms and didn’t realy stick with exercise til I started exercising outdoors. So do like Bear_Nenno says and try exercising outdoors and see how that goes.

As far as diet goes, I think the best advice is to write down everything. It’s really educational to track everything you put in your mouth and you’re much less likely to get mini powdered donuts from the vending machine if you actually have to write down how many calories are in 'em.

Also, take an active interest in your health. Find sites and read up on nutrition. Get a decent nutrition (not necessarily diet) book from the library and learn what foods are good for you. I find the more I learn about food and nutrition, the less I want to eat crap…

Anyway, hopefully some of this made sense. GomiBoy has good advice too; most beginners do start out too fast. When I finally got a heat rate monitor, I realized that I was really pushing myself too hard when I ran. I tried a slower pace (which felt glacial compared to the runners that passed me) that lowered my heart rate and I was finally able to actually run a mile.

18

Motivation, schmotivation. Think of it as part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth or going to work. Don’t play mind games with yourself about whether you feel like you’re in the mood or if you have enough energy. Just go do it. That’s pretty much it for me.

Everything everybody else said works, too, just to a lesser extent–goals, enjoying the exercise, enjoying looker better, etc, but they’re not what gets me off the couch on really god-awful days when I feel like crap and I’m fed up with life. On those days, I just go because I went yesterday, damn it, and I don’t let myself rationalize my way out of it.

19

Friends. The more the merrier.

This doesn’t work for me (my best friends think of me as cold, distant, a little bit psycho, but I digress) but it works for a lot of people I know.

Get a group together and set a time. Do aerobics, jog, whatever. If you don’t
show up, you’re letting the whole team down. Use that as motivation to go out
regularly. There’s a group here, for instance, that runs ever day at 5:30 AM,
no matter the weather. Others hit the gym at noon, play basketball or vollyball,
etc. It won’t work if you don’t make it an important part of your life.

20

This is moi. Disclaimer: I sometimes fall off the workout wagon and go a couple of weeks without exercising, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Doing just a little is better than doing nothing. I can often get myself to exercise when I’m really pooped with the promise that I’m just going to do 20 min on the elliptical or take a 20 min walk. Well, guess what? Once I get going, and the blood and endorphins start flowing, I usually think, “Damn, this feels good!” and end up doing a full workout. But sometimes not, and that’s okay, because I’ve spent 20 minutes doing something instead of 20 minutes sitting on my butt and I’m maintiaining my exercise habit.

Try new things when your motivation is flagging. I recently switched from doing the elliptical every night to running on the treadmill. I’m currently doing 2 minutes of running to 3 minutes of walking and am trying to work my way up to running the full time. I’ve surprised myself by how excited I am to get to the gym each day, to see if I can run 2:30 instead of just 2 for some of the segments.

Respect your rut. Everybody says that ruts are bad, and that’s probably true if you’re trying to improve yourself. But, ya know what? My goal is to work out regularly for my cardiovascular health, and if I can get my HR up for 30 minutes at least 3 days a week, I consider that a victory. For a very long time, I went to the gym every day at the same time and did the same workout. My heart rate was in the target range, and I liked what I was doing. Was I making “progress”? Not really. Was it better for my body than just sitting around on my butt? Hell, yes. I had a good habit going, and I wasn’t going to beat myself up about not losing the next 5 lbs or increasing my endurance. (My warm up and cool down and included quite a bit of stretching, though, and my flexibility did improve considerably, so yay me!)