Five Tips That Help You To Get Back Into Working Out

I need to get back into working out! 

I lost x pounds last year, I worked out, ate better and felt so much healthier, but then I fall off the wagon… And I can't get back!

How do you do this? I wish I had as much willpower as you do!

I hear these sentences quite a bit. People start working out, but for some reason or another, stop doing it. Getting back to it is not the easiest thing.

How Working Out Makes You Feel Better

If you have worked out on a regular basis, you remember how it made you feel so much better. Here's what you probably did and how you felt:

• You had more energy. Isn't it funny that burning energy by working out actually energizes you? But that's exactly what happens. When you workout consistently, you see how it's easier to get up in the morning, everyday chores aren't as annoying and tiring as they used to be, and you realize that you actually crave moving and you have energy for it.
• You ate better. It's a ripple effect: Once you start doing something great for your body, you want to do more great things. Makes sense? For example, the chances that you turn to fries and cake are way smaller when you're constantly working out. When you move your body regularly, you want to eat better. You don't want to let all the hard work go waste, and in some time after practicing eating better food, you'll actually crave fresh and vitamin rich meals instead of junk.
• You slept better. Many people who change their routine and add some movement into it say that they sleep better, especially on the days when they workout. Being physically active helps them to fall asleep easier and they also don't wake up that often in the middle of the night.
• Your clothes fit again. For most people, losing weight is important. While there are many, many benefits that you get from working out, there's no doubt that fitting in your old jeans again is one of them. Seeing a bit of muscle definition is awesome. You like what you see in the mirror again.It adds confidence.
• Your overall health got better. There are so many people who could significantly improve their health by simply starting to move more and make more conscious choices in what they put on their plate. I've trained people who have reduced and finally being able to stop taking their blood pressure medicine after starting regularly to work out and dropping weight.

There are many more ways how working out makes us feel good. Yet so many of us still “fall off the wagon” and really struggle to get back to it. How to make it easier?

Five Ways To Get Back Into Working Out

Here are some things that you should try if you've taken a long break from exercise but really want to get back to it.

1. Think How Working Out Makes You Feel Afterwards

The chances are that if you've stopped working out, you feel crappy. If you didn't, you wouldn't care to get back into working out, would you?

Try to think ahead: Yes, getting your butt up from the couch is hard. Staying on the couch and eating comfort food is easy. Which one do you choose?

Try to think about it that way: What makes you feel better in one hour, tonight or tomorrow? You're just one step away from making the better choice. How you feel later today or tomorrow depends on that choice that you make right now.

You can choose whether you want to feel good for fifteen minutes while you're eating this ice cream on the couch and feel like crap later, or get yourself through a 30-minute workout and feel awesome afterwards.

2. Do It For Your Health

As already mentioned, so many health issues are caused but could be prevented if we only moved a bit more. Diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and other diseases caused by poor lifestle are not only killing people, they're also very expensive to treat! People say that eating healthy or buying workout clothes is expensive, but is it really, compared to dealing with the health issues later?

You can do so much to avoid those diseases. Don't wait before you have to deal with any of these. Start taking care of yourself. Get back into working out. You also have other people around you who need you and who you have to be a good role model for. You can always find excuses, but those excuses never take you closer to your goals.

3. Make One Change at A Time

I can't stress the importance of this one enough. Putting too many things on your “fitness plate” simply drives you crazy.

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Don't put too many things on your “fitness plate”, or you'll never achieve your goals.

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That's probably also the reason why many people don't start working out or never switch to a healthier diet at all–they think that they have to workout 7x a week and eat only lettuce.

That's not how it goes.

If you're trying to change all things at once, I can promise you that you finish your “get healthy and happy project” rather sooner than later.

Pick one goal and start practicing that every single day, or three times a week, or once a week, but stick with it. It could be something like working out three times a week or taking a 20 minute walk every day. You can't accelerate from zero to hundred miles an hour in a second. If you haven't worked out at all, don't try to do seven crossfit workouts a week.

Making changes one at a time may seem like a long route to health, but it's faster than quitting and starting over again for 100th time–which will never take you to your goals. 

4. Surround Yourself With Positive, Energizing and Like-Minded People

You are the sum of five people you spend the most time with. If those people don't share your interest in healthy living and working out, they try to tell you how it's not worth it or they simply couldn't care less of your healthy lifestyle, your good intentions won't last too long.

One thing that helps you to get back into working out is spending time with like-minded people.

Where to find them? Go to a bootcamp, for example. Join a Zumba class. Try spinning. People who go to these places love moving, that's why they're there. If you enjoy working out on your own, that's absolutely fine, but if you're having hard time motivating yourself to do this, surrounding yourself with a group of other fitness junkies is a great idea.

5. Stop Complaining

Last but not least, stop complaining and regretting. “I shouldn't have fallen off the wagon!” Okay, right, but it's not going to change anymore at this point. Taking action will. 

Also, complaining and beating yourself up is not making you any healthier or leaner. Positive self-talk matters, because you are what you think. So think what you can do to make things better, how to get back to where you left off.

[tweet_box design=”default”]Positive self-talk matters, because you are what you think.[/tweet_box]

You know that there's only one way to get back into working out–by just taking action. Get back to your fitness class. Just go and sign up now. Plan a workout date with a friend, so you can't flake out. Or just put your running shoes on and leave the house, right this moment.

Conclusion

It may be hard to get back into working out if you've taken some time off from it. But I'm sure you want to do it, because you remember how good it felt and how much more energy you had. And this smaller dress size didn't hurt either, right?

Try these simple tricks to get back to exercising. It pays off!

 

Do you ever struggle with getting back on track with exercising? What helps you?