Do you really want to start exercising again, but are you afraid that you will drop out again if you don't achieve your goals? These 8 handy tips not only increase the chance that you will continue your sports routine, but you will also have more fun and want to exercise more often. Betting?
The first habit you need to learn yourself:don't feel guilty if you don't succeed! If we're kind and forgiving to ourselves after we don't keep our promise to ourselves, we're more likely to get back to our routine sooner. So don't get angry and don't drive yourself into the ground, but move on and commit yourself to just go next time. To change, you must make a change! The perfect moment never comes, so you better start now, right?
Read also: 'With these 7 tips you can no longer avoid sports'
Do you want to keep up your sports habits? Then building a small reward into your routine can work. Of course we don't mean that you can binge eat after every session, but you can, for example, reward yourself by watching an episode of your favorite series after every workout or do nothing for an hour before doing something again. If you link sports to an intrinsic reward – something that makes you happy and happy – you don't have to convince yourself to start exercising, but you will automatically feel like it.
We understand that it can be a challenge to get going if you haven't exercised for a long time. Therefore, set goals that you are 90% sure you can achieve. Think, for example, of parking a few blocks further away than usual or going to get groceries on foot instead of by car. These kinds of small changes ensure that you take more steps and that can already make a big difference. It can also make a difference if you change the number of times you exercise per week and the intensity with which your sport starts low, and then slowly build up. In the beginning you exercise once a week and you go for a 1 kilometer run to eventually build up to more sports and longer distances. Every little bit helps!
You can also come up with fun tricks to fool yourself and start exercising. Leave your make-up bag at the gym, so that you have to work out if you want to make up, for example. Or put your sneakers in front of your bedroom door so that you have to step over them when you get up in the morning. Bet that you skip your workout a lot less quickly because of this? Thanks to these smart hacks, your environment encourages you to exercise. Handy, right?
Cliché but true:everything is more fun when you do it together. So also sports! Research even shows that having a sports buddy ensures that you spend more time exercising. This could be because we don't want to be known during sports and are therefore less likely to drop out, since we think it's important what others think of us. By exercising with a friend (or even a group of friends) you not only make sports a lot more fun, but you also ensure that you have a big stick behind the door. After all, you really have to plan when you start exercising and you can work on your goals together.
You probably know yourself that it won't work if you start with a setting like “I think I'm going for a run tomorrow”. No, in order to achieve and maintain your goals, you need to be more concrete. So make a plan for how you will achieve that goal. Do you want to go for a run tomorrow? Check out what the weather will be like and get your sports outfit together. Think about which route you want to walk and find a nice playlist for your run. This way, exercising becomes a party before you even start and there is a much greater chance that you will actually achieve your goal tomorrow:running!
This may also be very logical, but that doesn't make it any less true:go do a sport that you enjoy doing. Of course, it becomes a huge challenge to keep dragging yourself to the gym if you don't feel comfortable in the gym at all. And of course you can't get ahead if you don't like running, but have forced yourself to put on your running shoes. So, find an activity that suits you and that doesn't make you feel like you're actually working out. Of course you are – because you are in motion after all – but you will enjoy it much more if you start doing something that gives you energy.
It's been mentioned before in this list, but it's definitely worth mentioning again:a motivational playlist gives you exactly the boost you need to start exercising. In addition, music also creates a memory, which can be very useful for motivating you. How nice is it to go running again with the same song as the last time you walked along the beach. Or how motivating is that dance music you danced to at that festival last year when you're showing off at the gym? Exactly:the right music is indispensable during your workout!
Source: Realsimple.com
