Motivation?

epona08
epona08 Posts: 39 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How do you motivate yourself to get to the gym? Especially those of you who work a lot and/or are not a morning person? I *really* want to lose this weight and have seen some good results so far. Most days I do really well with the diet portion of my weight loss and just generally being more active is going well too. Thanks to the weather getting nicer and the days getting longer, I've been getting to ride my horse and play with my dog in the yard more which helps a little here and there.

However I'm really trying to go to the gym and work out 2-3x a week and for the past two weeks I haven't made it once. The only place the gym fits into my crazy hectic schedule is 5:30am-6:30am. The issue is I am NOT a morning person and given the option to sleep in for another two hours or go to the gym, nine times out of ten I will take the sleep. (I only average 6-7 hours sleep on a good night and it's not really reasonable for me to go to bed before 10pm). I know that I need to be the one to motivate myself, but I would love to hear tips on how you guys get yourself going. I was doing really well for a few weeks and now I've gotten in a rut and need help/ideas to get back out of it.

Replies

  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    Personally, I've never been able to do gym workouts unless the gym was part of my workplace -- the extra driving just took too much out of my day. And don't get me started on morning workouts -- even in the days I was a hard-core triathlete I couldn't do morning workouts -- they were all after work.

    What does a gym workout offer you that a home workout using body weight doesn't? I can understand if you're into serious weightlifting that you'd want a gym, but for general fitness home workouts are generally just as good (and, frankly, a 30 minute workout every day beats the heck out of a 90 minute workout once or twice a week).

    Sorry if this isn't helpful...maybe someone else can help with your initial question. However, I would recommend that you seriously consider ditching the gym and working out at home.
  • epona08
    epona08 Posts: 39 Member
    I appreciate the feed back! I'm better at staying on task at a gym than doing a home work out I've found. And I might be able to break myself of that with more work at it however at the moment I'm locked into a gym contract until December, so I want to actually get the best use out of it. I do actually like working out at the gym...once I'm there. Getting me there seems to be the hard part for some reason. Some days when I missed the gym, I do a quick 30 minute at home to make me feel better about my day and health.

    I thought about switching to after work for gym days, however I'm worried that I will be too pumped up to sleep. By the time I'm done with dinner and it has had a chance to digest, its already 9-9:30pm. By the time you add in drive time, workout, cool down and showering, it would be 11-11:30pm. Which means if I went immediately to sleep I would be looking at a possible 7 hours of sleep (which actually isn't bad). However then I have no time to relax except for the 30-60 minutes I'm eating/digesting. I just see myself looking for excuses if I try that.... =/
  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    ...Getting me there seems to be the hard part for some reason. Some days when I missed the gym, I do a quick 30 minute at home to make me feel better about my day and health.

    Yeah, getting there is the problem for most folks, I would guess (certainly was for me).

    And that 30 minute workout can be quite useful, especially if it's a HIIT workout -- high intensity for a short period of time has been proven to be extremely beneficial.
    I thought about switching to after work for gym days, however I'm worried that I will be too pumped up to sleep. By the time I'm done with dinner and it has had a chance to digest, its already 9-9:30pm. By the time you add in drive time, workout, cool down and showering, it would be 11-11:30pm. Which means if I went immediately to sleep I would be looking at a possible 7 hours of sleep (which actually isn't bad). However then I have no time to relax except for the 30-60 minutes I'm eating/digesting. I just see myself looking for excuses if I try that.... =/

    Does your blood sugar (or some other health issue) require dinner before working out? A light snack (just enough to keep the tummy from scaring people at the gym), then workout, then dinner always seemed to work better for me. Just drive straight from work to the gym, and have your snack, workout clothes, etc. in your gym bag. Depends on how long it takes you to wind down...I can sleep 30 minutes after a workout, no problem, but I know other guys that are wired tight for hours and hours after a workout.

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