Why won't I exercise?

kenazfehu

O.k., I'll bite.

Why won't you?

Rachlmale

Work for your food, I don't have my evening meal until I've done my exercise, be it a walk or something more, I have to do something before I eat and then I veg and feel like it's well deserved.

When I get home from work I don't allow myself to sit down. I get the dog ready and off out I go.... sitting down is a bad move...

sho3girl

turn your heating off !!
lol

then you will have to exercise to get warm :-)

^^ this works too !

mschickiepoo

I've been counting calories, lowering carbs, and boosting protein intake for 3 months. I've lost 19 lbs. I am being monitored by a physician. I am supposed to be exercising but I have NO MOTIVATION to do it. When I get home from work all I want to do is eat my 400 calorie dinner and veg. I even have resistance tubes and a kettle bell which I basically could use in front of the TV. Last winter I worked out or treadmilled almost everyday for two months and I felt great! I know what it can do for me, the weight would come off even faster....I just can't seem to get back on the exercise train. Anyone have any earth shattering suggestions for me? Now, with the weather getting colder and drearier (winter's coming), my interest in exercise has waned even further. Thanks peeps!

I'm sooooo with you! I got to Taekwondo classes twice a week (my bf is the instructor - so I have no excuses that will validly work lol). Other than that though, I find it hard to get motivated. I travel 40 mins morning and night to get to work, and sit at a desk from 8-4. Go home, cook supper, homework with the kids, bit of light housework, prepare lunches for the next day, then I'm ready for bed. I've read all of your replies and most of them are very sensible.......... it's just getting that GET UP N GO! Wish it came in a bottle! Congrats on the weight loss, and hopefully we can both get motivation from SOMEWHERE! :huh:

lallaloolly

ok, this is coming from a place of well-intentioned motivation, because sometimes we just need to wake up the drill sargeant in our heads: stop making excuses for yourself, get up off the couch and just do it. promise yourself you will do it today, and keep your promise. repeat that promise tomorrow!!!! only you can do this, so do it!

you already said you know what exercise can do for you and how it can make you feel great, which means you also know that if you just start and stick with it for a week or two, you will be back in that zone and loving it again. and the zone is SUCH A GREAT PLACE TO BE! don't procrastinate something that makes you feel great anymore! don't choose to stay in a negative, guilty place. stop! get up, you can do it! as jillian michaels says: "Transformation is not a future event." it happens one day at a time, and that day is TODAY!

haylz247

Same here!

I did join a gym but it's a long story so i stopped going. I can't exercise properly for about another 2 months until i can afford a cross trainer.

I can't do workouts from youtube or whatever cause when i did, i gave up too easily!

But like someone else said, try working out in the morning!

Congrats on losing 19lbs already!

Ta2dchic20

I'd also recommend trying it exercise early in the morning. It really sets you up for the day and gives you great energy. Plus, once you're in the habit it just becomes part of your daily routine and you don't even think about it. Best of all, when the evening comes and you can't be bothered, it doesn't matter because it's already been done.

They're totally right. I never thought I would be a morning workout person, but every morning I get up and do it, try it for 21 days straight (21 days is supposed to make a habit). I have only missed a handful of days and that's because I was too lazy and figured I would hit the gym after work, guyss what? I didn't. I'm too tired after putting in a long day.

Colleen118

So here's the thing, doll.
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There is not really.....an easy way....to just start exercising again. I'm not being mean and I'm not being....well, mean. This is not to be taken in a negative way at all.
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The reason people say losing weight is hard is because it is. Whenever I want to exercise, I have to just take one step at a time towards exercising. Whether it be getting in a sitting position from my laying down. Standing up and moving around after having been sitting for a while.....getting off of facebook and whatever.....you have to learn to take that first step.....
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It's not something that just magically comes when you get the perfect advice, it's just something that you will yourself to do.....it's tough, but if I can, I'd love to add you and see how I can help you out.
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I'm sorry this came out really harsh. it's not meant that way. It's just....weight loss is hard...and there's never really going to be a day where somebody comes out with the breakthru advice about how to easily will yourself to exercise..... We just have to take encouragement and try to think into it more than we want to.
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When you want to go for a walk on the treadmill....try to just...hang around where the treadmill is. Get up from your sitting position and just....walk to the laundry room and do some laundry if that's where your treadmill is (that's where mine is)....wherever you treadmill is, try to find something to do that's near it....and think while you do that thing...(hey, I need to exercise...hey, I need to exercise)....I don't know. I should try it too because I go through the struggle of motivation to walk on the treadmill too....
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How about this? We should challenge each other to pick 3 days of the week to walk on the treadmill.... Maybe?
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I am here to encourage...I don't strike anyone down and I definitely don't kick people when they're down. I simply try to offer that hand that could just be the saving hand that lifts others up from their fallen position. Yano? Wow, I could have worded that better. Okay. Here goes.
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"I simply try my best to be that hand stretched out to lift people from their fallen position..." - Grr, maybe there isn't a good way to say that?
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Add me if you wish.

YOU ar a great person! just thought you should know!

And to you both: Motivation is hard. I always gave the "I don't have time to workout" excuse. It led to me becoming the biggest I had ever been in my life and looking back at all the things I sat out on while my kids have all grown up. THAT is my motivation, or part of it. I missed out on so much while my kids were growing, that I now have (a) grandchild and I want to be an active part of his and all the future ones to come lives.

I also have arguments with myself. Seriously! Not out loud where people could testify to my levels of insanity but I have my alter egos. Like the devil and angel on each shoulder if you will. There is "Chubbers" the food crazed, laxy, unmotivated, depressed (Old) me; then there is "Inner Goddess", the skinny, confident, energetic me. I let them battle it out every day over everything. Sometimes "Chubbers" wins, most days she loses. To start out I literally envisioned locking "Chubbers" away. it was my way of sying I'm better than me. When she'd cry in agony at a wanted food, "Inner Goddess" reminded me WHY I am doing this. When Chubbers argued the painfully tiring workouts that left me sore for DAYS... IG turned me to success forums to SEE what I was in the process of accomplishing for myself. I know I sound crazy, and I admit very happily that I am. My insanity has made me who I am, now I am using it as an advantage to losing weight.

Crazy works great for me! I make fun of myself now and joke about my weight with others here. We make losing fun and understand the challenge. Even when it's not fun, find the fun in the exillaration you feel after working out. Post workout delerium is a seriously natural high and if you make working out a strict part of your routine, it does become addictive. It really must be my addiction because I "Found my time to workout".... every morening at 5am. I hate it and love it all at once. once I "take those steps" I figure I might as well just go through with staying up and burning some calories since the alarm already went off and ruined my slumber....

tubbyelmo

Well done on the 19 pound loss!! I started to get back into exercising by going out for a walk in my lunch break, the first week the weather wasn't too bad, then the second week it turned, somehow I found myself getting into waterproofs and still going for my walk. I'm in Scotland so we get pretty mixed weather, I have not missed a day, I leave the office at 12.30 and now get back around 1.15. The first few days were only around 20 minutes. I find myself more alert all afternoon, and the sunny days I feel it lifts my spirits no end - today was a sunny day

I now have an exercise bike at home and pedal before I come to work a few days a week, nobody is more surprised than me, and it all started with escaping the stress of the office and going for a walk.

Good luck, add me as a friend and we can support and encourage each other!! :flowerforyou:

LordByproduct

I hate the thought of exercising some days too.

If I feel like that, I make a deal with myself, go to the gym for 20 minutes if I still hate it I can go home. Over the course of going to the gym 4-5 times a week over the past 3 months, I have gone home early exactly once. In most cases its not the exercise that is a problem, its just the motivation to starting.

i feel like this is good advise...thanks im going to try THIS

eve7166

It took me months with excuses to finally start the gym. The first week sucked...and the second one too! Now I have so much energy that the days I dont go to the gym (i take two days off) I sit around wondering why I didnt just go. Im only on week 4 now but I can feel the energy difference big time! And now it seems I can cook clean and still get my work out in and have time to watch some tv before bed! woohoo. (Gotta love DVR!)

xxcooneyxx

The more I exercise, the more I want to exercise. The less I exercise, the less I want to exercise. This is so true for me that on my rest days I desperately want to go to the gym, and the day after my rest day, on a workout day, I desperately don't want to go to the gym.

Think of exercise as an addiction. (It is for some people, lucky!) The more you "Use" the stronger your addiction becomes. Except in this case, it's good.

DawnieB1977

The hardest thing is getting yourself into a good exercise routine, but once you do it's really worth it because you start to feel bad if you don't go, so it's much easier to motivate yourself.

I started back at the gym last July when my baby was 7 weeks old, and that was hard going, as I also had a 2 year old, so I was often going off to exercise on sleeples nights, then going home to take care of 2 small kids, plus going out a lot too as you can't keep a 2 year old cooped up indoors. It was worth it though, and I also had that 'me' time which was amazing!

So, I've been doing this for 15 months now, and I recently started to get a bit bored of the gym, so i started doing classes too, and I now do aerobics and spinning once a week at the gym, and also Zumba once a week now too as one of my colleagues wants to be an instructor and has started teaching it after work.

So I do 4 or 5 lots of exercise a week, and only 1 or 2 of them are in the actual gym, so it's more varied and fun. I book classes in advance so I have to go to them, no excuses! I have to fit classes/gym round my husband's shifts, or put the kids in the crèche. I work part time.

Before I had kids and I worked full time, I used to keep my gym clothes in my car and go to the gym straight from work so I couldn't go home and get comfortable first!

So, just force yourself to go a few times a week, and also go for walks, and in a few weeks there'll be no going back!

brendasteve

Try getting an awesome playlist to listen to, that has always motivated me in the past just to listen to the music with no interruptions and doing something that is solely for yourself! It is hard, I have put my health on hold for a year and it has gotten me 50 + pounds heavier and unhappy with myself for letting it go that far. Today will be my first day back at the gym and all i can think is what a great way to tune everyone else out! Try the music thing

tishacannizzo

Find a friend, someone you can count on and who you don't want to disappoint. Whether she's standing in your drive-way at 6 am to walk/run or meeting you at the gym at 5 pm, you'll do it if you know she's waiting on you. Also, consider giving yourself a reward. You can have that 400 calorie meal just as soon as you finish a 30 minute walk. 30 minutes is easy once you get your clothes changed and outside.

JennKie1

Maybe try something "fun" so it doesn't feel so much like work???? Zumba, maybe? (I haven't tried it, but have heard good things). Indoor volleyball league? Bowling? Just about anything to start....I have a friend that takes a belly-dancing class twice a week......it's what gets her off the couch. I'd venture to say that most of us don't "love" exercising. I don't. I also don't love giving up Snickers bars, but I have to do that too.....(sigh)

mfpcopine

Try starting with 15 minutes of exercise early in the morning five times a week. For some people, and I include myself, exercise can be hard to arrange.

Colleen118

I can't exercise properly for about another 2 months until i can afford a cross trainer.

I can't do workouts from youtube or whatever cause when i did, i gave up too easily!

First, you don't need a cross trainer if you have walls, a floor, and your body. IF you can't do these because of "I give up too easily" then STOP THAT!!!

DON'T GIVE UP ON YOU!!!

I just completed the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. It was a challenge I found on MFP groups. IT was HARD!!!!!! Even my hubby said that he got a kick *kitten* workout doing that with me when he did. After 30 fantastically grueling days, I dropped a pant size and inches! I will post my new stats later today but it works if you give 10% MORE than you think you can - because then you are really giving it everything.

When it gets hard, take 5 to 10 seconds and get right back into the routine. When your muscles start to burn with fire, you are changing for the better I say "BURN BABY BURN!!!" and push until I feel that burn because I want to see the change that is causing me so much pain. I know it will be worth it. And it is! My legs are looking pretty damn fine and my girls... well lets say they look pretty damn nice in lower cut tops than the single mass they once created.

"I'M BETTER!"
"I DESERVE THIS"
"I WILL DO THIS!"

These three stements need to run through your brain as if being played on a player piano during a good workout. IF you make them a part of your vocabulary and BELIEVE in them, therefore believing in yourself, you WILL succeed

Good luck to you both!

TeaBea

You don't like what you're trying to do. Find exercise you like.

^This! Keep trying new things.

I used to get Netflix by mail for this very reason. They have hundreds of workout DVDs to choose from. Something new every week. After a bit I figured out what I like (and what I hate). Collagevideo.com has video clips & reviews so you can pick and choose what videos "might" me appropriate (fitness level, equipment required, etc).

Your local library has videos available as well. I have a treadmill .... I got burned out & had to change things up.

Do you have a Wii or XBox? ...... Redbox has a few fitness games available.

mausi2012

Hey hon.
Congrats on your 19 lbs weight loss! That is awesome.
When it comes to exercising it is definitely self motivation. But how I motivate myself is that I feel amazing after I work out. On days I don't work out, I feel like a slob and feel like I accomplished nothing. It is hard to drag myself to the gym everyday, but as the pounds keep shedding, I feel like it is the right thing to do.

Good luck with everything!

Jasmin