Motivation to Exercise?

Here's the thing about motivation and exercise...You must motivate yourself.

For years I would start a routine and stop, start and stop. My husband would try to motivate me and I just got mad at him and became even more unmotivated.

Then one day I just got sick and tired of being tired and grumpy and hated looking in the mirror. So I joined MFP. I started my routine slow. I would just do simple things like riding my bike with my DD or having little mini relay races with her. I just got myself moving. Then I found some quick 14 minute exercise shows on cable (On Demand so I could do them when I wanted). I worked out after my DD went to bed. I would NOT allow myself to sit down and do anything else until I did my workout.

Then I found a thread on MFP that was doing the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I thought, "I will give that a try". I found Level 1 on cable (On Demand, again). I loved it so much that I bought the DVD ($9 at Target) and I have been doing it for 26 days now. I even added Wii Fit Zumba every night after the shred. I like Zumba cause it's fun and I use it as my reward for getting through Jillian.

Get moving and you'll get motivated, that is how it works. It will become an obsession and you will see results.

If you need motivation send me a message (we are friends).

It is very hard to get motivated to exercise, but everyone is right, you have to motivate yourself!

I wake up at 4:30 AM to get ready for work and get my 2 year old ready for daycare. I drop her off around 6 - 6:30 and work until 4:30. I make time after work regardless. I go to my local YMCA and exercise at LEAST 20 min, usually 30.

I tell my husband I need ME time to work on myself. I think of it as a nice break away from the little one, or in your case little ones.

Another hint: I personally cannot exercise without a TV! It's awful, but it works! I just keep chuggin' away on the elliptical watching a movie or a show and before you know if those 30 min are up. Sometimes I find myself continuing after the 30 min just so I can finish what I am watching! Sounds crazy, but that is my dirty secret to exercise.

Do something you enjoy (or learn to enjoy it), I love running and I use it as me time and Amelia time, Amelia is 3. For me and her it is important that we have some time apart, I drop Amelia off at nursery and she tells her friends and the staff that Mummy is going running. I am also doing it for her with all the talk of fat, lazy children I want to set an example to her that exercise is a normal part of everyday life.

But I cant fit in everything without her, not with the cost of childcare! She also has a scooter which she can go quite fast on, it needs quite a hard flat surface so I run and she scoots along the seafront. I have also taken her to classes since she was about 2months old she loves going especially to boxercise she now sits in her pushchair punching her hands and laughing when we all are in pain - the teacher thinks she will make a great personal trainer because she laughs at the sight of the attendees in pain!

I have a forward facing seat on my bike which she loves and she makes me work harder staying faster, faster! But I have seen ones you can tow which may help?

Swimming is a more difficult one, at the weekend we all go and my husband and I take in turns to swim and look after Amelia we end up in the pool for about 2hours but she loves it and we get some exercise!

Hope some of it may help, for me finding something I enjoy was the key. I am very lucky the South Downs national park is a 5min run from my front door and the town has a great running club which has members from 8 to 98, the 98 year old runs the local 1/2 marathon each year, they are a really fun club.

Good luck :flowerforyou:

My exercise motivation was pretty much non existent until I decided I wanted to do race for life 10k, I followed c25k programme and went from running never to being able to run 30mins non stop pretty easily now! I really pushes to get to the next level and really enjoyed te challenge! Since then I've been really motivated and gone onto use the gym 4/5 times a week doing cardio an weight training. If I could go more I would I'm really loving it!
If I can't get to the gym I'll cycle with my youngest son on the back or walk miles with the pushchair. I always try and find some way of moving around!

I agree the only way to motivate is to actually do it! You'll be amazed at how good you feel after a short time!

I have a 1.5 yr old and a 3 year old. I use EA Active 2 for the ps3. I work out about 35 minutes 4 days a week. I find its a lot easier for me to do it because my 3year old also sees it as a game and actually asks to exercise with me. It changes up every day so I don't get bored and its the most I've stuck to working out since I've had kids and I've been doing it for over a month now consistently. Also, it yells at me if I were to skip a work out Lol.