Fitness: Tips for Working Out During the Week

If you're like me, it's hard to stay motivated to workout during the week when you're busy with work. Adrianne and I work a 9-5 desk job and sitting all day does not help our fitness levels. I've come up with a few tips that have kept me motivated throughout the week and wanted to share them with you if you're finding yourself in the same situation or just want to become more active. 

1. Put all of your workout clothes in a gym bag the night before. This will ensure you have everything you need and will be ready to go the next day. 

2. If you workout before work lay out your clothes right next to your bed and put everything else you need for work right by the door (don't forget some kind of breakfast!). I'm not a morning person so early morning workouts before work don't usually work for me. When I occasionally drag my butt out of bed I've noticed this trick helps a ton.

3. Write down your scheduled workouts for the week in your planner. If I see that I have arms scheduled for my workout of the day, I know skipping it will throw off my schedule for the week. It helps keep me accountable and keeps track of what I've done.

4. Go with a friend. Luckily they have installed a gym where I work so I can run down there for a half hour on my lunch. I usually go with another coworker to help keep me on track and motivated to actually do it. I've found that going on lunch really breaks up my day and gives me an extra boost of energy in the afternoon. If you can get away from your desk, even to just go on a walk, you'll notice a huge difference in your productivity later in the day.

5. If you start to try to talk yourself out of going to the gym remember this: the sooner you start the sooner it will be over and you'll never regret working out but you really will regret not going. That always gets my butt in gear! If I'm not feeling it for the day I cut my workout a little short. However, I've noticed that as soon as I get going, I usually feel great and get a boost of energy to keep going. 

Have I convinced you yet that you should go workout today? What little tips or tricks do you use to keep yourself motivated and on track? 

Health & Fitness: Motivation

I know it can be hard to get motivated sometimes -- especially when it's so cold outside! I have found what really gets me going is seeing motivational quotes and messages. Here are some of my favorite ones floating around on Pinterest right now. Seeing these has really inspired me and I hope they help you too! 

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And my personal favorite right now that could not be more true:

What gets you motivated? Do any of the messages above inspire you?

Motivation: It's Never Too Late

Last year, an Oregon man who dropped out of college in 1932 finally received his degree. This man, aged 99, decided that he wasn’t too old to finish something he’d set out to do many years prior. He’s the perfect example that it’s never too late.

There are few things worse than getting older and feeling like you’re not accomplishing the things you want or were meant to do. It’s crappy to feel like you have so much you want to do, but aren’t getting anywhere. Or, maybe you feel like your window of opportunity has passed.

I have a long mental list of things I’d like to do, learn and accomplish. Recently I’ve begun to tackle that list. I purchased a nice camera and have started to read about and practice photography. I’ve made it a priority to become fluent in Spanish. I’m trying to get better with several different types of software. Even this blog and the personal blog I recently started are examples of things that have been rolling around in my mind for a while.

There are so many other things on my list—many of which you’ll hear about on this blog. But the thing I want to convey right now is that there is no time line in life. I spent quite a bit of time building my mental list of to-dos and now I’m finally starting to do them.

It’s not hard to come up with excuses to prevent yourself from doing the things you want. Maybe you’re too busy or you think you don’t have the resources to accomplish your goals. The truth is that if something is important to you, you will find a way to do it.

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There are also a few other things to remember. Maybe you’ll think I’m a pessimist for writing about these things during what’s meant to be an encouraging blog post, but I prefer to think of myself as realistic. And I think perhaps sometimes I'm pegged as pessimistic, when all I really try to do is keep a level head about things. I don’t think that most people who accomplish their goals find it to be an easy ride. People encounter all sorts of problems and set backs on their way to achieving things. In the interest of not painting unrealistic expectations:

• Most things take some amount of work, maybe a lot of work. You need to get off your butt and actually DO something. 
• You need to accept the fact that you may fail. Just because you want something and work for it doesn’t mean that you will be wildly successful at it. 
• It won’t happen overnight. Just don’t become impatient. It might take years for you to be able to say you finally did what you set out to do.

With all that being said, wouldn’t you rather try and know how things turn out rather than be afraid or put things off? In my opinion, it’s better to try and fail than spend every day wondering what your life could have been like if you only tried. And what better time than now?

Share your goals with us – we’d love to hear them and be able to offer our encouragement!