How do you stay motivated?

I have a hard time balancing wife, kids, work, housework and whatever else ther is.

How do you do it? I need suggestions.

Thanks

That's a real tough one. I too have trouble staying motivated, and am still searching for the "magic bullet".

I've had some success with doing an exercise diary/journal and setting measurable/attainable goals. For me, short term goals are easier to do. For instance, I need to cut down on soft drinks (I'm a major Mountain Dew addict), so I logged how much I was drinking every day for a week. Just the act of recording how much I was drinking caused me to cut down, and now I'm down to one glass/can per week.

HTH

Good idea. Ive been told before that I should record all of my workouts, still slacking tho. I guess if I begin a journal I can keep track of not only my workouts but my health or unhealthy habits. Thanks for the advice. I'll start on it today. Baby steps. I measure my self across the board 1 week at a time. Untill I get control of my goals and work out frequentcy (spell?).

More advice? Im listening.....

Thanks!

Here's another idea I'm putting together with my friends - a weight loss "pool". We each will put in $5, and after 90 days the one with the highest % weight loss wins.

You could do that with other stuff as well - best improvment in pullups or something. It does require two things - 1) a little cash, and 2) friends .

It is so hard. You have the best intentions and then this stupid thing called life gets in the way. I have had a week of good workouts this week (been to the gym 3 times since last Wednesday and have used my wifes treadmill once. Two hours of basketball last wednesday as well as this). Now I have to really work on the eating thing. this morning I had two egg sandwiches (cooked in Pam with veggie cheese and canadian bacon on engish muffins) and am shooting for a veggie lunch.

Life does creep up on us now and then. Im gonna try the
$ pool thing. I just need to start recruiting. I also moved my gym in the house. Its shareing a room with my office, which got consolodated to a desk, small bookcase and chair. Now that I cant be in my house without seeing it I use it more. 9 days in the house 7 workouts!

Hey Code,

This may or may not help who knows. I have tried to do more activities that demand more physical output from me. I am taking up rock climbing with my kids for starters. I know it isn't a drastic leap but I plan to put some more time in on the golf course. To ensure there isn't no backlash from my wife I have talked her into taking up the sport to include my kids. I am getting into a Softball league with some of my Co workers. As far as the gym???? I find that getting up earlier (0500) and hitting the road (run 4 miles) or going to the gym (do Cardio and Workout) tends to help. By working out in the morning it boosts my metabolism and gives me more energy for the rest of the day. This leaves the evenings open for me and the family to do some kind of activity. (sports, board game, movie etc,etc,etc....) I also try to change my routine every 3 to 4 months. Different workout exercises, hit the pool instead of running, stuff like that. I've thought about even trying a mini triatholon (run 3 mile, swim 1 mile, bike 10 miles) just to change things up. Just some ideas, maybe they will help maybe not. Anyways....good luck and Beers and BBQ to ya

Leatherneck

The way I keep to my workout is to go to the gym right after work before I get home. That way I don't get caught up with all the father/husband duties when I get home.

I too found the "small steps" approach most effective. With a two year old at home and a job that never ends, it has been especially hard to get going. Exercise was one challenge, but I was also feeling uninspired about work.

My approach to date has been to think back to when I was in my twenties - what was I doing then that made me happy? Running to/from work was one of the big ones (plus I live in a very attractive city with running/bike trails everywhere).

We've also decided to move back into the city - enough of the burbs. I can leave my SUV (and its gas tank) at home and bike/run to my office. It's all still an experiment - but so far things have improved.

stand in front of the mirror naked everyday-that helps me!

Alright, come on over and stand in front of my mirror naked, I'm sure that will help me too... ] :^O

Upon reflection, this was predictable, crude, uncalled-for and embarassing.



What else could you expect?

Motivation is a problem for me as well. What works for me is to be involved in activities that require good physical fitness. I am a rock climber, I play on an indoor soccer team and I am involved in various other activities. I found that running and going to the gym for the sake of physical fitness got boring, but when I know I am going climbing in three weeks and mountain biking a month after that I have specific events I am training for and going to the gym becomes very high on my list of priorities since I want to perform well when I am outside.

Motivation is partly a matter of setting priorities. If your health is truly one of your highest priorities, motivation comes easier. Of course that's easier said than done. With work, family, friends, etc. it's sometimes hard to place our health ahead of those priorities. Those things are more immediate, whereas your health is longterm and improving it is easy to put off. It seems as if there's always tomorrow.

My motivation came from being diagnosed with pre-diabetes. If I didn't do something soon, I was going to have major problems. I had no time to put off changing my habits until tomorrow.

To help motivate, have an annual physical exam and make sure you have a doctor that will tell you what you need to hear.

Other ways to motivate yourself:

1. Schedule your workouts like you do appointments and meetings. Just like regularly scheduled business meetings, you have to have a very good reason to skip your workout appointment.

2. Measure and record your progress. For some people, long term goals work best, for others short term goals are the way to go. Figure out what works for you. Whatever you do, make your goals realistic. If you are trying to lose weight, remember, it took a long time to gain that extra weight. It's not realistic to think you'll lose it overnight.

3. Studies have shown that keeping a food journal greatly increases your chances of losing weight. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh recently reported that people who keep a basic food journal lose as much weight as those who record every bite. They found that dieters that simply wrote down the size of each meal (small, medium, large, XL) were just as succesful at losing weight as those who tracked the specific foods, calories, and fat they ate. Apparently the process of keeping a food diary may be more important than the information you record.

4. In case you do want to record your food in more detail, as well as log your workouts, check out www.fitday.com. This is a free web site that makes logging your food and exercise relatively easy. It has fairly large database of foods and their nutritional content (calories, fat, carbs, vitamins, etc.) and does all the adding up for you. You can also add your own "custom" foods. It makes it easy to see how many calories you've consumed compared to how many you've burned on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

5. Make sure you reward yourself from time to time. Your reward can be bying yourself something special or treating yourself to a bowl of ice cream, whatever works for you. If you are trying to lose weight, don't make your diet feel like you're being deprived. If you've done well, treat yourself occassionally. Just don't go overboard. My doctor has a good saying: half a slice of cheesecake tastes just as good as a whole slice.

I'm with you on this Gary - you have to set priorities and, darn, they are hard to set.

We (at my job) are going through a period of getting things set up for emergencies. What to do when, where to go, etc.

They also talked about making sure our families are protected by preparedness as well. And that got me thinking - how can a fat, out of shape, couch potato do anything helpful in a crisis?

So that's one leg of the motivation table. Another is getting into the Guard. I have to pass a physical, which includes weight/body fat standards. I've now lost enough around the waist to get in, but I'm going for a safety margin.

Another motivating factor is, like you, a risk of diabetes. My mom has it, and that increases my risk as well. So staying healthy is a must.

I guess I'm saying that motivation can be a multi-faceted thing. You don't need one big thing to be motivated, maybe several smaller reasons will do.