A few people have said to me “how do you motivate yourself?” with regards to my little weight loss journey. My response is usually “it is always hard but I have to do this” and it really is a bit of a battle. For weeks I had zero motivation and I was freaking myself out a bit thinking what should I do, I don’t want to go backwards again.

In the end I decided that I just had to get back into the routine I had in Darwin, it worked, I had motivation and I lost 20kg in weight.

Below are five things that make my work out routine a little easier.

Work Out Time

When we lived in Darwin I always went to the gym, came home and got ready for work. Then when we moved to Brisbane, the first gym I joined was near work which I thought would be so good but I couldn’t really justify going to the gym before work and coming home to get ready before work because it wasn’t practical. I tried going to the gym after work instead but I found it hard to get motivation.

I joined a new gym in Brisbane a few weeks ago and now I get up between 5.30am and 6am Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, get to the gym for 6am ish and work out between 35 and 40 minutes before driving home, having my shower etc. I also try to go to a Bootcamp style class on a Saturday morning as I find its a good motivator and means I do push myself and also aqua fitness classes on a Saturday morning as well.

Preparation

I also prepare for the next day, the night before. I will fill a bottle of water, make up my breakfast and lunch, pack my bag and lay out my work-out clothes, shoes, headphones etc and work clothes to make my morning before work as easy as possible. I then just pick up a bottle of water, my keys and headphones and walk out the door to the gym for a 6am start.

The Soundtrack

I used to listen to music at the gym, and that did work but I found I was getting bored of listening to the same music over and over.

I really love reading but can never find the time to sit down and read. On Groupon there was a deal for a 3 month subscription to Audible where you could download one book a month for three months and I had also recently read an article where a woman had started listening to Podcasts when walking and she found herself walking more and more so I thought I would give it a try and it seems to be working.

I also try to make sure that I only listen to the audio book when I am at the gym to give added motivation because I want to know what happens next.

FitBit Step Challenges

I have had a FitBit for some time now and quickly discovered the various daily, weekly and weekend step challenges. My step goal per day is 8,000, I know it should probably be 10,000 but 8,000 is achievable and I am also happy to hit the 10K mark.

I am also in competition with my friend who also has a FitBit. For a long while my lack of motivation meant I didn’t pose much of a threat in the step challenges. However re-finding my motivation has made it a bit more challenging and now I find myself walking as much as possible.

I may also fit the Meme which goes around about walking around the house to hit my step goal and/or beat my friend, especially close to midnight on the last day of the challenge.

Apps

I use a few different apps for my fitness routine, I dip in and out of some and use others every day.

FitBit – this is used daily to monitor my weight loss, record my steps and monitor my progress in the challenges.
MyFitnessPal – I have the basic version and use the App to record my food and water intake every day. The calories etc are then fed through to the FitBit App.
Lifesum – Like MyFitnessPal I use Lifesum from time to time to record my food and water intake every day. I found it onerous to use more than one App to do this but keep the App as I like the recipes.
Health – This is an Apple App. I don’t use it that often but have authorised it to pull health related data from my other Apps.
Record – I use this App to record my work outs. I can record the type, time and distance using this App and the data feeds through to Fitbit.
Strava – This App is used when we go on walks or hikes to track the distance, speed and incline of our walks. I have the premium version and it will also send a text message to your nominated friends or family which provides the GPS information to locate you if needed in an emergency.

I have a lot of the Apps linked so that the information in one will be available in the others e.g. my steps will show in MyFitnessPal and my diet will show in FitBit.

I am not a fitness expert and my email is not intended in any way to be fitness advice, the points listed are just things that work for me personally. I am also not sponsored by any of the businesses mentioned and am not promoting those services. I just use and enjoy using the projects as part of my fitness routine