Motivate Yourself Past Exercise Blocks
Be a good coach. Use positive self talk ("I feel proud of myself for doing this today.") while exercising and afterward, Dr. Welch advises. This helps improve your psychological experience of being active and encourages your decision to repeat the activity later. For more on how a positive approach can help you, go to http://www.healthywomen.org/wellness
Take charge for yourself. Plan one do-able physical activity you think you might enjoy—a five-minute walk, say—and put it on your calendar. Or simply walk out the door and do it right away. Record it on a chart or planner when you finish. Then, if you feel good about that walk, schedule another of the same length for whenever you can next do it. Continue with that pattern of scheduling one activity session at a time and recording your successes.
Cut yourself a break. If you fall off of your schedule, don't waste energy agonizing over what you "should" have done—just begin again with one activity session.
And don't think that you must join a gym or an exercise class to achieve motivation. Those external forces do little to sustain long-term physical activity for life.
"Saying I'm not motivated" is often a smoke screen for what's really going on—that I'm not motivated to do the type of exercise I think I'm supposed to do, in the way I'm supposed to do it," Dr. Segar contends. "The fitness boom marketed high-intensity aerobics to us, and we've been hit over the head with that…brainwashed to think that only certain things [types of exercise] count."
"You have to create your own physical activity," she says. "Then you're more likely to do it."
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