QueenB's Ways to Stay Motivated

I'm excited to share with you on http://www.queenbsays.com/ my very first GUEST BLOG post

from http://www.noexcusesfitclub.com/. Enjoy!

There are so many reasons to work out: weight loss, long term health, bone strength, endurance, keeps you younger, allows you to eat things you want, you feel better, you look better, it's fun.  The most compelling reasons I have seen came from a book called "Younger Next Year". I highly recommend this book to learn about what we can do now to age better in the future.  Here are a few quotes:

• You may well live into your nineties , whether you like it or not. But how you live those years, on the other hand, is largely under your control.
• 70 percent of premature death and aging is lifestyle-related. Heart attacks, strokes, the common cancers, diabetes, brittle bones, most falls, fractures, and serious injuries, and many more illnesses are primarily caused by the way we live. If we had the will to do it, we could eliminate more than half of all disease in women and men over fifty. Not delay it, eliminate it.
• First Rule of this book: Excercise 6 days a week for the rest of your life.

This dude is 94 years old and still runs marathons.

And research shows what you need to do:

• You need to do aerobic exercise 4 days a week at 70-85% of your heart rate for an hour.
• You need to be able to do long, slow aerobics at 60-65% of your heart rate for 3 hours without getting exhausted. This is a long walk or easy hike.
• You need to be able to do anaerobic excercise, 85-100% of your heart rate for 2 minutes.
• You need to do strength training 2 days a week. Osteoporosis is bad, do this.

I get that it is tough to stay motivated to go workout 5-6 times a week. Arguments I hear are: there is not enough time, you have other obligations that are more important, it's boring. If you use those excuses then I'm not 100% sure I can help you... my answers to those excuses seem obvious to me: you have to schedule it, you have to make good health a priority and take care of yourself in health as you would if you had the flu, and you just haven't found the right workout.

For those of you that do enjoy it, you do feel better when you do it, and you know you look better when you do it... you just lose the drive after a few weeks, I think I may be able to help.

Lots of things can motivate me, and honestly I have to switch it around a lot to stay excited. In the past year, here are the things that I have found motivating:

• I joined a bootcamp class. It was 6 weeks long and I loved it so much I signed up for 2 more sessions. This one kept me motivated for 18 weeks.
• I download new music on my iPod. Just a new playlist works wonders for my energy level on a run or on cardio.
• I worked with a nutritionist to get my diet on track.
• I lost a few pounds. Um... huge, huge motivation. But that one will never last as long.
• I get new gear. Just this week I finally got the Nike + iPod running chip. Cannot wait to use it this summer. Get a pedometer or a heart rate moniter for other ideas.
• I found an awesome race I want to do. Check it out: http://www.warriordash.com/
• I am going to do a 14er in August. This makes me want to hike for training.
• I signed up with a trainer for a 5 week TRX training class. This is a new type of training for me and I love it. I just signed up for another round.
• I get new workout clothes. Just having a new sports bra plus short combo makes me feel like working out.
• I get new shoes. Same idea as above.
• I cut out a picture of the hottest body I've seen in a long time and put it in my workout journal. I want to look like this!

• I focus on a number. It has been my weight, number of consecutive pushups, how fast I can run a mile, and how long I can hold a wall sit.
• I download a new cardio workout plan. Here is a great example of some you can try.
• I compete with someone. I would always try to push myself as hard as Luis in bootcamp and it became so much fun to see who would do more reps or go faster or longer.

I want to look like this.

When these motivations aren't enough, I plan to try P90X and get a work group together to do lunch runs to kick start it again.

Steal my ideas and please tell me the ones that work for you! But only if you really do them yourself...

...QueenB Says