10 ways to stay motivated with your fitness routine

^ Sound familiar ^ If so it's okay, it happens to the best of us!

We start off with the best intentions, but for one reason or another, end up quitting. Usually because we are bored of the plan, feeling unmotivated and not seeing the immediate results we were expecting. But fear not, for I have compiled a list of my Top 10* ways of staying motivated in your fitness routines. These have helped me personally in sticking it out, not only for my training, but my clients' as well! * No particular order

So here are the top 10 tips: ---------- 1. Stop expecting PERFECTION. Focus on PROGRESS! It's no secret, that fat loss goals take time to reach. Everyone knows this. Yet it's one thing that everyone seems to ignore. Instead they focus so much on their end goal and the fact they haven't got a six-pack yet that they lose sight of their other progress so far. The fact they're 6lbs down, doesn't matter when all they can think about is they're still not exactly where they want to be. I slightly blame social media for this, the fact a Hercules-like body or a model is considered the norm. But let me tell you, this is far from realistic. What is realistic? A guy who is healthy and building muscle but also spends time with his family. A sized 16-18 girl who is doing their best to get a fitter version of themselves. Or roles reversed, of course...it is 2021 after all! My point here though is, aim for progress - week by week - rather than your perfect end goal. You'll enjoy the journey that much more! 2. Monitor your progress in your workouts. Seeing numbers and results is so important in pushing your limits each week. It's no good going on guess work, as you won't push the weight higher, you won't push for extra reps, you'll end up in a plateau and hitting a wall with your progress. This no doubt, will destroy your motivation! I write my workout into the 'Notes' section on my phone and write the beginning weights underneath so I know where I've started. Then each week that I up the weight or do more rounds, I write that in next to it. This is a great visual that gives me motivation, the second I see it and allows me to focus on progressing the numbers on a weekly basis! 3. Take Before/After photos & Measurements. People love to get an unhealthy obsession with the number on the scales, as if that is the be all end all to your fitness journey. And if that number goes up by 0.0001 of an amount, they shut down and quit the process. When in reality, an increase in weight is very normal. Fat loss will make you lighter, yes. But if you are gaining muscle too, you will weigh more, as muscle is more dense (so weighs more) than fat. So for more accurate results, it's better to take photos and measurements of parts of your body at the beginning of your journey along with the weight. Then at the beginning of every month, retake them and compare to your beginning numbers. This will allow you to see whether the weight is due to fat loss on different areas of your body, or whether it's from an increase of muscle mass. 4. Focus on YOU. Not what others are doing. Ever had that feeling of lifting a weight you feel is pretty decent and heavy...only to look over at the person next to you who's lifting double the amount with ease? It's OK! They would have been in your position at one point too, everyone has a start point. Don't ever compare your chapter 1 to someone else's chapter 10. The fact you're even trying to get better makes you a winner! Same thing goes for stalking profiles on social media. This links back to Number 1...you look at the guy with six-pack abs or the girl in the gym leggings and wish you were them. But you're not. You're you! So focus on your own goals and motives to get YOUR best results. Everyone's body is different, so what works for them, may not work with you and vice versa. 5. Find exercise that you enjoy. Who says the gym has to be your only way of getting fit? If you don't enjoy it, you're not going to feel motivated to be doing it! I covered this subject recently in my emails* Instead, find what you love doing. This could be anything from football, running, swimming, kickboxing, HIIT classes. If it builds up a sweat and you feel good doing it, do it! (see Gif at bottom of this page). You're much more likely to be motivated and keep it going. * Subscribe to my email list for daily content straight to your inbox!

6. Start with a warm up. We all get those days when we just cannot find the energy or the motivation. But your fitness journey is all about pushing through boundaries and finding a way to keep going when you're at your least enthusiastic. So get your workout clothes on, put on some good music (see Tip 8) and just get warmed up, just a light jog or some stretching. From here, you'll likely not feel like stopping as you've started. Some of my best workouts have been when I really didn't feel up to it. I just got started and it snowballed into some of my best stuff! Give it a try next time you're feeling like skipping a workout. 7. Have rewards in your plan too. The reason people HATE working out and sticking to plan when it comes to fitness, is because they eradicate and cut out everything bad for them. (FAD diets suck!!) ^ The result of this ^ FAILURE. Not to be blunt, but a bit of a hard truth pill to swallow (also avoid fat loss pills!!). If you're cutting out everything that you love, chances are that 99.9% of the time, you will fail. Your cravings will get the better of you, you'll 'naughtily' snack on things that you're not supposed to (noone likes a cheat) and you'll end up feeling depressed and low about the fact you broke your promise to be abstinent from food. So what should you do? Just like I give my clients, moderation of their favourite foods, as long as they keep up with their workouts. We all love pizza and chocolate. It's a crime to even consider cutting them out of your life. But...what if...you still eat it, but as a portion controlled part of your diet! That's all it is, we have 2 'craving' meals a week, where you get your favourite foods and adjust your daily calories to suit this. Eat your nice stuff. Get results. Stay motivated. SIMPLES 8. Create a playlist. "Everything is better with music" - Awen You can use this step for so many aspects of your life to add motivation and a sense of get up and go to your day. - Big job interview coming up? Create a playlist with songs with an upbeat vibe to remain positive - Recently had a break up? Create a playlist of sad songs as well as powerful, liberating songs. Get through the crying phase and build yourself up to realise you can move on and be a better version of yourself. - Trying to vent your anger without physicality? Create a playlist of angry, loud songs and crank it up! Trust me, it really helps you get anger out in better ways But back to motivating you for fitness - whatever your music taste is, find songs that make you get up and go and want to move. Whether that's songs that make you want to dance, or want to lift heavy weights, or even go for a long run. Whatever it is that suits your goals and your music tastes, add them into a playlist. Below are some good genres for different types of exercise based on their Beats Per Minute (BPM): POP - Warm up/Cool down DANCE - Strength and weight training RAP - Stretching and running 9. Celebrate little wins to improve your mindset. Otherwise known as Short Term Goals. These will boost your motivation on a daily basis. Everyone wants to win, so creating mini goals that still challenge you but are achievable to reach on a daily or weekly basis will really help boost your mood and feel good about yourself. You could lose a certain amount of weight that you were aiming to achieve for the week. You could complete a full workout that you've been working towards. You could even just start a workout plan and give yourself a high-5! (that is the hardest step after all) Just make sure if you are celebrating these small wins, you don't go and scoff a large takeaway meal each time. There's celebrating with a small treat, then there's just reversing what you've just celebrated! Be sensible, but make yourself feel good and acknowledge how far you've come already. 10. Have a support group.

And finally, one of THE most helpful tips I can give you, is to have a support group. A network of people who WANT YOU to succeed and be the best version of yourself. This may not even be your friends and family sometimes, but people on a similar journey to you to a similar destination. Nothing motivates you more than someone (or people) telling you to get yourself in gear and get it done! You feel like you're letting the team down otherwise and want to succeed alongside them. As well as this, if you feel like you're struggling, you can send a message for loads of support and motivation. I'm a little biased when it comes to this, but I think, I personally have the best support group. Everyone in it wants everyone to do well and helps each other out. We share recipes to try. We share things about our personal lives. We have made new contacts without having even met! If you'd like to join my support group of Online Coaching clients, simply fill in your details below to get started:

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Thanks for reading my 1st blog. Please feel free to message me or leave a comment with any feedback or things that you find help motivate you.