How Do you keep motivated?

My photo from when i just started my journey to losing weight and the photo after ive lost 35lbs with 24 lbs to go.. it makes me feel motivated because its already this far, i dont want to have to start all over again..

and doing exercise that i really enjoy. It makes me look forward to every session.

Rather than overthinking, just go out and head for my session and just do it. Focus more on how great you feel after every workout (everyone is a warrior after a great workout! all the sweats and red face..lol.)

I changed my focus with exercise. I don't exercise specifically for weight loss or aesthetics. I have exercise goals, like being able to do X amount of push ups or deadlift Xkg. I set goals that are challenging for me and I get a sense of achievement as I get closer to them. I stay away from mirrors in the gym for the most part and try not to concern myself with what other people are doing. I log my workouts in a journal so I can compare and see that I am improving.

I used to go to the gym and focus on my reflection and how much I hated it and wanted it to change while doing exercise I didn't enjoy. That approach didn't work so well for me.

Short and long term goals. Love a challenge and am self-competitive.
Enjoying my training/exercise.
Feeling of wellbeing from being fit, strong & healthy.
Setting an example to my children.

Plus I make it a habit and a priority.

Fear of an unhealthy and restricted old age (like my parents).

I just do it. It's a not a question of wanting to go or not, it's part of who I am and just gets done. Because I have big tangible goals that can only get hit if I get in the gym and get the work done.

Plus, even without the big tangible goals, having a long term chronic injury that only feels good with constant movement helps. I took a week off between Christmas and New Years and it took three weeks back for the affected area to feel normal again.

It's simply a matter of knowing why you're doing it and deciding how important that reaching your goals is to you.

Something else that helped me enormously was changing how I viewed exercise. We refer to it as working out (I suspect that stems from the concept of replacing manual labour with pretend work in a gym) I consider it a grown up form of play time, it's not a chore it's a little slice of me time.

Motivation is a mind thing and something that will usually fail you. Think, commitment. Like the emotional commitment you have with a spouse. Are you committed to better health and fitness? Then you show up. Since this is such a critical part of getting health and fit, I did a full podcast on it at http://traffic.libsyn.com/40plusfitness/EP01_40PFP.mp3. I hope this helps.

Allan Misner
NASM Certified Personal Trainer (Corrective Exercise Specialist, Fitness Nutrition Specialist)
Host of the 40+ Fitness Podcast

How about a workout buddy. Someone to keep you accountable! Also change that workout up frequently. I go to a different group fitness class every day... I love the variety plus you are not always working the same muscles!