Finding the Motivation to Workout

Last night I celebrated the 4th of July in San Diego’s Gaslamp District with my brother Danny and his girlfriend Desiree, who as I previously mentioned, are in town for the week:

The combination of booze + little sleep left me feeling sluggish and sleepy today. Going to bed at 4 am when you need to get up the next morning and get work done isn’t ideal (well, duh), but it was worth it!

I have to admit, I’m pretty good with being diligent about my workouts, as I make it a top priority to get a sweat session in most days. Even though I wasn’t feeling like it, I wanted to get a workout in today. There are several things I do to get myself more in the exercise zone when my motivation is lagging.  Although the majority of the time I like exercising, there are days like today when I’m not into it. Here are the things I did to get myself more into the workout groove:

• Pump it up:  While I was changing into my exercise gear, I blasted a few of my gym playlist tracks that always make me feel like moving. This immediately ups my energy levels.
• Just get moving: Harley needed her daily dose of exercise, so I first took her for a long walk. After working at my desk all day, it felt good to move my body and be outside, and it definitely made me feel more alert and awake. Sometimes a bit before I want to workout, I’ll stand up while I’m finishing up with work and just kind of move around. It’s good to get the blood flowing and it’s sort of a warm-up to my actual warm-up.
• Quotes, quotes, quotes: I read a few of the inspirational quotes hanging around my place to put myself in a positive state of mind.
• Set a small goal: Today I told myself that I’d exercise for at least 30 minutes. At that point, I could decide if I wanted to stop or keep working out. I think that setting a smaller goal than what you’d usually do (my workouts are typically 60-90 minutes) makes it seem more doable. As it turns out, I got to 30 minutes and decided to do 30 minutes more. Sometimes that happens; sometimes I get to that small goal and have had enough. I think the important thing to remember is that doing something, even if it’s just 10 minutes of exercise, is always better than doing nothing.
• Reward yourself:  “If you exercise, you can take a short nap afterwards.” This was what I told myself today. Giving yourself permission to be rewarded after a workout will help push you to just do it. In the end, I felt more energized after my sweat session and didn’t even wind up taking a nap, but promising myself the option to do so helped me just suck it up and workout.

You know what they say — you never regret a workout!

It’s going to be an early night for me, good night!