K, So You Want to Get Active. Here are Some Practical Tips to Motivate Yourself:
1. Aim for 10 reps of 4 exercises a day.
Ex: 10 jumping jacks 10 push ups 10 alternating lunges 10 sit ups/crunches Do this format daily. Done this consistently for a week? Then let’s talk.
2. Walk for 20 minutes a day
3. Find a playlist that really fires you up.
Aim to increase intensity during the beat drop/chorus. Follow my go-to endorphin boosting playlist:
4. If you’re working on cardio, try running for one full song.
Every week, add another song to run consecutively to, until you build up to 10 minutes. Once you progress- and this may take 4-6 weeks!, aim for 10 minutes straight running, 1-minute walk. Note: on a treadmill, a light run/jog is 5-6-7.
5. Ridiculous but so effective: buy a set of workout clothing you feel really cute in.
After trying every single brand and style on the planet, I now only wear the @lululemon Wunder Under Full-On Luxtreme pants, length 7/8.
6. Create a touchstone challenge you can refer back to weekly-
This is a challenge you make for yourself where you write down the results. For my kids, I write down 3 exercises with 10 reps each and put on a 2-minute timer. Each week, I record how many times they got through it, or if only once, how many seconds were left until the timer buzzed.
7. I cannot stress this one enough: you need to find what you LIKE to do.
No, that doesn’t mean it will be easy- but what it does mean, is that we play to our strengths. By feeling like we enjoy it, and maybe can actually progress in that style of training, our chances of sticking with it rise a LOT! It’s 2020: there are so many kinds of movement, so much available online, and even the apps that require membership often have free trials.
8. Resist the internal talk that has you overthinking it, overwhelmed by the fitness options, or procrastinating.
YOUR MIND IS YOUR GREATEST MUSCLE! Just tell yourself that 30 minutes is literally akin to a quick social media scroll- and just get up and mooooooooove! Quiet the internal chatter. It’s the biggest one for me.