Top 10 Steps to Staying Motivated With Exercise

by Heather Hogan

Get more out of your fitness routine!
10 LeVel Five steps to staying motivated...

1. Visualize Your Success
In order to achieve your fitness goals, you need to practice blocking out any negative thoughts. Be aware that they will surface ("…I should have been here twice already this week…I really slacked off the last time I was here…") and be ready to let them go. Work on mental images of achieving your goals, enjoying your work out, being proactive. "With each stroke/curl/crunch, I am getting stronger and stronger!"


2. Expect Setbacks
Acknowledge from the beginning that you are not perfect. There will be weeks where you lag behind in performance and commitment, and that is completely normal. Instead of using these bad weeks as personal proof that you can't stick to it, try turning it around. Just one more hurdle BEHIND you. It was nothing more significant than a bad week, and it's over. This week will be great!


3. Try Something New!
Don't resign yourself to the same old routine for every workout. How long can that possibly hold your interest? When you start to feel your enthusiasm ebb, try something new. We at LeVel Five are proud of our innovative approach to your fitness goals. Look at all your choices — from Pilates and Swiss Ball classes, to Fight Club and Spin Yoga. Try using a stability ball for your triceps instead of a free weight. Our options are endless…so you can keep it interesting!!


4. Routine, Routine, Routine
What are some of the things that get you motivated for a trip to the gym? Is there a CD that gets you pumped? A particular outfit you prefer to work out in, or a favorite power bar? Use all of these cues as little pre-workout rituals. They'll help get you into a more focused headspace. Develop special habits that will carry you to the gym on those days when mind is elsewhere.


5. Focus
Once you've made it to the gym, don't let your mind race with all the other things you've got to squeeze into the rest of your day. You've made the effort to be at the gym, so make your workout count and enjoy it! Focus on what you're doing — breathing, flexing, strengthening, etc. — and let all the internal babble ("don't forget to…I still have to pick up…how am I going to…") melt away as each movement brings you closer to your fitness goal.

6. Have a Plan B
If you know there are certain times, in any given month, that your home life and/or job will build up and begin to take over, have a secondary schedule to fall back on. If you normally aim for 3-4 visits in one week, acknowledge ahead of time that your life is crazy at month-end, or when the kids are on Spring Break, and switch to your "Plan B", aiming for 1-2 visits per week until things settle down. When your goals are unrealistic, the only thing you'll accomplish is self-defeat.


7. Remain Confident
Make sure you are on the right track. As your routine evolves, your physical needs will change, as should your approach. This is where personal trainers can help. Whether you need an introduction to our equipment, a personalized fitness routine, or simply one-to-one support and encouragement, personal trainers ensure that you learn how to meet your goals.


8. Treat Yourself
You're working your butt off, you're getting out there and you're doing it. So when (on occasion) you splurge on a big bowl of Fettucine Alfredo, or a creamy chocolate éclair, be kind to yourself. Be proud and enjoy it. You've earned it!


9. Watch Yourself
Are you still waiting to see the benefits? Check your form! An exercise done without attention to posture and form is a waste of your time. Movements are meant to target specific muscle groups for specific results. You need to be sure that you are isolating the proper muscles, and not relying on larger muscle mass or momentum to help propel your movements.

Consider this — a set of 30 sit-ups that leaves you're abs unable to continue is a set done in good form. A set of 60 push-ups that leaves you with energy to burn was a waste of your time. You can fool your ego, but there is no fooling your muscles! Listen to your instructors, and ask lots of questions.


10. Believe In Yourself!
All the strategies, rituals and time-honored clichés in the world don't amount to much if you can't muster a little faith in yourself. Try telling yourself that you CAN do it, that you WILL do it, and that you believe in yourself. "Who you believe you are and what you believe you can do will either stop you in your tracks or inspire you through the tough times." The choice is yours.

Friday Health and Fitness Tips
COUCH POTATOES DON’T REST AS MUCH AS ATHLETES

What Covert Says:

Rest and recuperation occurs when the heart beats at less than 50% of its maximum. This is the time when muscle glycogen is replaced, aerobic enzymes are built, and muscle growth takes place. It does no good to design the perfect weight lifting, wind sprinting, or aerobic exercise program if recuperation is not included. You can exercise all you want, but if you don’t give your muscles rest, your fitness won’t improve.

Fit people have resting heart rates as low as 25% of maximum (40-50 beats per minute) which gives them a very wide zone in which to recuperate. The resting heart rate of fat, out-of-shape people is often as high as 45% of maximum (75-90 beats per minute) so that their recuperation zone is very narrow.

Very fit people have two advantages when they rest. First, their wide recuperation zone enables them to handle physical or emotion stress better. When a fit person gets the flu, for example, his heart rate may increase up to 35% of maximum but he is still in his recuperation zone. When an unfit person gets the flu his heart rate pushes him out of the recuperation zone so that tissue repair is jeopardized.

Second, very fit people can be active and still be in their recuperation zone. When fit teenage Johnny gets a cold, his mom wants him to rest. For her, rest means inactivity. For Johnny, playing Frisbee or shooting hoops in the driveway may be rest. It takes a lot of running around to drive him about 50% maximum heart rate. Fit people rest and recuperate while having fun doing active things.

Don’t overlook the significance of this – it may be the most important thing you’ll ever learn about fitness. Fat, out-of-shape people often complain of how hard it is to get fit again. They try to exercise religiously, but something always seems to go wrong causing repeated setbacks. Their recuperation zone is so narrow that it’s hard to stay within it. They have to start slow and gentle and build slowly.

Even if they exercise perfectly, monitoring their breathing and heart rate, the slightest cold, muscle strain, or stress drives them above that narrow zone, thus decreasing the time spent in recuperation. Fit people, on the other hand, appear not to need rest. When they’re doing gentle activity they’re still in their recuperation zone, repairing tissue, replenishing glycogen and building muscle.

Hamburger $46.95

It looks like meat and potatoes are here to stay and if you can eat the Bunda's Big V8 - a ten pound burger with 8 pounds comprised of meat - and do it in 90 minutes or less, you can win $500

See picture of the burger, here

Small Meal

Today I discovered (by complete accident) that 6 crackers, half an ounce of cheddar cheese and 4 olives, are a meal.

That's the small snack I decided to hold me off until dinner time in a couple of hours. As I haven't eaten anything since yesterdays dinner, I knew I could splurge a bit....or go off the deep end completely later on by binging until my stomach is ready to burst.

To my total amazement and surprise, I found this snack to be quite sufficient in substance to completely illiminate any and all signs of hunger.

I feel more encouraged today about my gradual weight loss as the scale indicates I lost an additional three pounds and once I lose another single solitary pound, I will break a milestone that will place my weight at ten pounds more than my previous "ideal" weight..

Seems my hubby is right when he tells me only twenty more pounds to go......the new ideal weight I am aiming for is ten pounds less than my previous good-weight.

I'm hoping to include these little tidbits in my new book......who needs to starve or deny themselves the small pleasures in life, for the sole purpose of looking fit. I certainly don't! A sensible alternative is out there and I'm hoping to be the first one on the market offering it.