Motivation to Exercise

It is a pretty well-known fact that in order to be healthy, you need to exercise. There is no magic food that can instantly make you fit, although we all wish there was. You will also not get any healthier by simply pinning to your Fitness board on Pinterest. Those calories are not going to burn themselves, no matter how bad you want them to.There is a process to getting healthy, and the two factors that can show the most results are exercise and a healthy diet.  It is not enough to lay on the couch and think about exercising.  So, now that we have that covered it's on to the hard part... how can you get motivated to exercise?

One way to motivate yourself to exercise is to make plans to exercise with a friend (or multiple friends). Whether you want to go to the gym together, go for a jog, or play a pickup game of basketball, it is always good to have an exercise buddy. For one, it makes it harder for you to back down once you have already agreed to exercise someone. Make plans in advance so that you have a scheduled amount of time to get your exercise in.

                                                 image source: purepowerfitness.com.au

Another way to motivate yourself to exercise is to reward yourself when you do. Of course you will want to make sure this reward isn't food or a special treat that will just negate all of those calories you recently burned while exercising! One way to reward yourself by exercising is to make an exercise jar. Every time you go to the gym put one dollar in your exercise jar. Once you reach $100 (100 trips to the gym), you can reward yourself with a little shopping spree to spend your money. If you are a little less patient, another way to reward yourself by exercising would be to treat yourself to a manicure or maybe a new tshirt for meeting your weekly or monthly goal.

One other way to motivate yourself to exercise is to reward others by your exercise. In other words, exercise for charity. There are a couple of ways you can approach this. One way is to make the same exercise jar that you would make for yourself, however once you reach your desired amount of money, you would take that money and donate it to your favorite charity. There are also an abundance of races and walkathons that are for charity that give you a great calorie-burning benefit as well. So why not go participate in your local 5k race; it's good for both you and others in need!

source: http://www.livestrong.com/article/540771-what-are-some-ways-to-motivate-someone-to-exercise-with-you/