Staying motivated?

Calorie tracking actually helps keep me motivated, because as long as I'm being honest about it, I can only "afford" those extra treats (chocolate covered almonds instead of biscuits, for me!) when I get my workout in! The other thing that I find helps is having a schedule of what workout I'm doing which day -- if it's planned in advance, I know I have to either do it on time or swap days to get them done. Similarly, I schedule one day a week where I don't work out at all - apart from my daily commute, I can sit around and be a lazy lump all I want! I didn't used to schedule a day off, but I'd find myself getting burned out after a couple weeks and making more and more excuses. Now I work hard 6 days/week and relish my lazy day.

Telling other people what I'm going to do for my workouts helps, too, because there's potential that they'll ask me the next day how it went - and I don't want to have to admit that I didn't do it!

As a runner, I have an event to train for; the competitive side of me wants to beat all the other people I know who will be running it. I know I won't be able to show off if I don't practice!! :laugh:

Good luck, and ABSOLUTELY let your dog guilt you into running!

Get rid of the biscuit tin!!! Biscuits provide nothing you need nutritionally. They may be yummy but they are an instant gratification.
Look at this study. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ
It looks at instant gratification and the ability to resist it. If you can resist the short term pleasure you will gain twice as much in the long term.

For motivation i use a "Motivation Tool Box"
In it i use:
VISUALISATION: Visualise the better you, the fit you, running outside and loving it...anything that you find is a powerful image. Visualise getting home and getting ready for a run.

SELF TALK: Make deals with yourself. Tell yourself that you will go running when you get home. learn to cheat yourself in good way. Say to your self" i'll go and run for 10mins" and then stay out for longer. Tell yourself that your strong, motivated, that you CAN do it....Whatever works but talk to yourself in a positive way.

EXTERNAL MOTIVATION: Use external factors such as what people will think of you when you say you went for a run. Become a role model to your children, friends, family. Show them what you can do.

INTERNAL MOTIVATION: Do it for yourself, think about how good you'll feel once you achieve your goals.

SET GOALS: Set specific goals and write them down. have a dress you want to get into, a photo of yourself that you want to make the "old you". Set specifics about the goal, a time line, how your going to measure it (photo, scales, measurements..), how you'll fell when you achieve it and why you want to achieve it.

TRIGGERS: Use triggers to get you going. This is like self talk. Little sayings or things you can do to trigger good habits. Everyone is different in what triggers their good habits. Find what triggers the bad habit of going to the biscuit tin and change it for a different trigger that takes you in a different direction.

hope this helps.