Banish Excuses: How To Change Your Attitude Towards Working Out
Excuses are a huge part of why so many individuals hold themselves back from becoming fit, healthy, and achieving realistic fitness goals. Popular excuses include you don’t have enough money, not enough time, and you’re too tired or too busy. While these seem like mountains in the way of your fitness goal, they are not the problem, but rather your attitude is. So banish excuses and change your attitude, and your life, for the better. Now is the time to discover how you can say ‘NO’ to any excuse holding you back.
The Power Of Your Attitude
Although working out may appear to focus solely on physical strength, it also takes a great deal of mental strength to accomplish your fitness goals too. The attitude you project, whether it is positive or negative, can hugely impact your workout with the frequency and intensity of the exercises you decide to do. It’s incredibly easy to hear those defeatist words in your head telling you ‘I can never do it,’ or ‘it’s impossible, you may as well not even try,’ and to believe them. How do you change your negative attitude into a positive one? First and foremost, with anything in life, especially exercise, it takes a dash of dedication, a sprinkle of motivation, and an abundant amount of practice. If you don’t practice or train and begin at a lower level that is comfortable for you, how do you expect to improve and finally reach your fitness goals?
It starts with YOU. You need to look in the mirror and start saying to yourself ‘It’s time to change my attitude,’ and ‘I can do this, I got this.’ One easy suggestion to change your attitude is to keep a journal and document your progress every day, no matter how small or slow your progress is. You’ll see how you’re starting to change and therefore will want to keep going. It might be difficult at first, but it all comes down to a healthy attitude to at least start and keep going day after day. Sooner rather than later your ‘I can’t,’ will become ‘I can and I will,’ to I did.
The Reasons Why We Sabotage Ourselves
We make excuses for ourselves all the time, and it isn’t because we don’t have enough money, as we have opportunities to exercise for free, or we can’t make the time, as we truly can, and it is also not because you are not capable of reaching your goals, because you totally are. Then what’s holding you back? It’s because we lack confidence and faith in our abilities, but mostly in ourselves to achieve something different and great. Let’s face it: we fear the unknown, of being rejected, of failure.
It’s human nature after all. We live in a society obsessed with instant gratification we can see with social media, fast food, and online shopping, and we sometimes forget real results and achieving goals, especially fitness goals, take time, dedication, and hard work. With a positive and healthy attitude towards working out, or least the commitment, you will begin to really embrace your goals and the work you’re putting into it, and hopefully fall in love with the journey you are on to become a healthier, happier, and fitter you!
It’s Up To You
The beginning of a new fitness routine may seem daunting and downright challenging at first, because honestly, it is, but it does get easier with time. Truth be told, if you genuinely want something, you will work hard for it, and you’ll find the time, money, energy, and effort, which are essentially the motivation to keep carrying on. If you put in mediocre effort, you will get mediocre results.
Do you truly believe by hitting snooze on your alarm and missing a gym session, or skipping workout days, or even reducing a set of exercises because you ‘don’t feel like it,’ that you’re going to see the results you want? Simply put, no, you will not. You need to commit to your goal every single day and push yourself at every stage and work until you achieve losing that extra five pounds or just becoming more toned and defined. Was it easy? Not at all. But can you do it? Absolutely because when your attitude becomes more resilient than your excuses.
The Science Behind Changing Your Attitude
Psychologists at the University of Freiburg in Germany did a study that discovered adjusting your perspective on challenging tasks, specifically working out, can make exercising seem a lot easier to do. In this study, seventy-eight adults of different fitness levels rode a stationary bike with different conditions, as researchers wanted to know if the expectations on the difficulty of an activity can affect how strenuous it feels. Each participant wore a compression shirt and was asked how athletic they were before their stationary workout.
The research concluded those who displayed a positive attitude and who thought of themselves as athletic found the workout easier compared to the unathletic and negative participants. Overall, the study's findings concluded there can be a placebo effect when exercising or playing a sport, and what a participant thinks about the activity makes a significant difference. Generally speaking, if you believe in yourself, a product, or that the activity is beneficial, you are more likely to enjoy it, stay motivated, and make fewer excuses to achieve your goal.
The Right Attitude Brings Motivation
You might be excited before you start your new workout routine, as it is something different, fun and challenging, and thus be motivated to work hard and see results. However, motivation can easily dwindle if you’re repeating the same routines over and over, or if you’re not seeing the results you want right away. IKeep your motivation high and try a few different tricks. For starters, don’t overexert yourself, know yourself and your limits, and only push yourself to go further when you know your body and mind are capable of doing so. By having a fundamental understanding of yourself and your limits, you’re able to start at a doable pace and with appropriate, challenging exercises that will not hurt you or make you convince yourself it is too difficult. Another way to keep your motivation elevated is to celebrate your victories, no matter how monumental they are, as progress is progress after all.
For instance, when you start your training and find you can only run half a mile on the first day, but by the second week you can run a whole mile, celebrate that victory by rewarding yourself with something you want, such as indulging in a craving or doing something that makes you feel good. A protip is to try and not outdo your victory the next day, as losing weight and getting fitter is not a track meet, it’s a marathon and you need to pace yourself so you’ll remain motivated to reach your goals and go beyond them.
Make It Fun!
You don’t need to stick to the same fitness routine to lose weight, in fact, this often can lead to a weight loss plateau. One way to keep your workouts fun and your motivation levels high include making workouts a social event and find ‘fitness buddy’ or friends who have similar fitness goals, such as losing weight or toning up, and hit the gym together! This way you can keep each other motivated and push each other in a healthy way, while also having someone be there to be your personal cheerleader. Other helpful tips to keep yourself motivated include scheduling time for workouts so it becomes part of your daily routine and changing up your workouts by trying different machines at the gym, such as the treadmill, elliptical, or stairs, or start taking classes that the gym offers such as yoga or Zumba. You can also check out what small, boutique gyms have to offer such as boot camps, kickboxing, dance, or pole dance fitness.
Other ways to change up your workout include trying intense forms of workouts such as Crossfit and kettlebell gyms, which usually have supportive communities, or joining a specific fitness club, such as a Nike Run club, or a hiking group for a different way to get physical exercise. Stop living a life that isn’t meeting your true potential simply because you’re comfortable but yet want to become healthier. Don’t cheat yourself from achieving the body you’ve always wanted and becoming a healthier version of yourself simply because you let your excuses become your guiding light. Squash those excuses now and change your attitude, and just watch your journey onto the righteous path of health and wellness.