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One of the hardest things about eating healthily and going to the gym, is managing to keep it up and being consistent!!

Everyone has days when they just don’t want to go to the gym, or just want to eat chocolate and McDonalds all day and sit in bed, and every now and again that’s okay, we all NEED to do that sometimes, but here are some tips that personally keep me motivated to go to the gym and keep my diet on track!

1. Use Instagram!

If your feed is full of beautiful, fit, healthy people, eating healthy food, showing off their perfectly toned body, you’re a lot less likely to eat that second serving of desert. There are inspirational quotes flying all over the place, and you can also get some great new workout ideas.

Some of my favourite fitness accounts are:

linnjacobsson
linnlowes
taychayy
amandafinniee
thefoodmedic

There are soooooo many more and there’s a lot of people such as Nikki Blackketter who’s journey I have followed for years, and many accounts are motivational for different reasons, but these are girls with bodies that I personally aspire to so are the people which motivate me most to work hard. This will be different for everyone however because your personal preferences and goals are completely individual to you, find whatever look you’re going for and that motivates you!

2. Make A Gym Playlist

Music is such a great motivator, it can help you push for one more rep during your set, or if you’re not exactly feeling up for exercising one day, stick on whatever type of music it is that gets you pumped up, start getting ready, and I can guarantee it will put you in a better mood, and you’re likely to actually manage to get yourself to the gym!

If you have Apple music, this is my current playlist, don’t judge!

I tend to update it weekly, it gets boring having the same songs playing each workout, but also means I end up with some random stuff on there!

3. Take Photos!

Taking photos is the best way to track your progress, there are no numbers to obsess over, and you can physically see the results, which is what a lot of people are ultimately looking for! They can be for your eyes only, but if you’re having a particularly low and ‘fat’ day – we all have them – looking through some photos from your past, at times when you perhaps weren’t very happy with your body, can give you the boost you need to keep going, if you’ve come this far, it would be a waste to give up now! It can also highlight progress you didn’t even notice you were making, and there’s no better feeling, trust me! 🙂

Here is a photo taken a year ago, next to a photo taken a couple of days ago (the same vest was actually a coincidence but makes a good comparison), I really find it hard to lose fat from my upper body, and I hadn’t really noticed any change, so although it isn’t a dramatic transformation I was really pleased! (Sorry about the bad Snapchat quality).

4. Track Your Weight?

I am always a little torn on tracking weight, I do weigh myself fairly frequently, and I wish I did less, but like a lot of people I do find it hard to COMPLETELY forget the numbers, and it can be very motivational if your main goal is to simply lose weight, which for some people is the best way to start living a healthier life. Although I would say it is important to have an idea of how much you weigh, how you look says A LOT more about your body, and the happier you become with how you look, the less you will care about the number on the scale. This is the same for anyone looking to put on weight or gain muscle as well as losing weight, although weighing yourself can aid you in tracking your progression, measuring your body fat and muscle percentage gives a much better idea of your body composition, and is the bit that really matters, so if numbers are your thing, I’d advise that!

Taking note of your body measurements, ie. waist, hips, bust etc, is also a good way to track!

5. Plan Your Food

Personally I find that planning everything I’m going to eat at least the day before, if not two, helps me stick to my macros 100% more effectively. If I already know what I’m eating all day, I’m less likely to grab something on the go and make bad choices, or over/under eat, and it can be easy to do both!

I use myfitnesspal to track my food and this method works well for me, HOWEVER you need to remember to be sensible, it can be easy to fall into the trap of just trying to eat as little as possible, this is not healthy and can be seriously dangerous and damaging to your body, you won’t get long term results this way because your body cannot maintain it and can cause you a whole world of problems with both your physical and mental health! I tend to not actually worry about my calorie intake obsessively as long as it’s within reason, and focus on my macros more!

6. Set Yourself Goals

It is great to have a long term goal that you’re working towards, there might be a particular occasion you want to look your best for, have visible abs, a certain weight you want to achieve, or a certain weight you want to be able to lift, and these will ultimately be your motivation, but it’s the short term goals that keep you going. Whether it’s to be able to up the weight by 5kg, do 12 reps instead of 8, do an exercise you could never manage before, +/- 4lb this month, these little achievements are what make it all feel worth it and keep you on track.

If someone said to you that in a years time you had to run a marathon and right now you couldn’t run for more than two minutes without having to stop and gasp for air, and after two weeks of training everyday you still hadn’t made it past 3k, its likely you’d eventually lose motivation, lose interest and give up. If your goal was to run 3k after two weeks of training, you’d probably have managed to push yourself for that extra few hundred meters, and you’d be really proud of yourself, and feeling ready for the next challenge.

It’s all about the little victories, you won’t have your dream body overnight, but everything you do is helping towards it!

7. Invest in Your Gym Wardrobe

If you’ve spent money on some new leggings, or a new sports bra that fits amazingly, you don’t want to put that to waste!! It also gives you something to feel excited about and look forward to, and having something new to wear makes getting yourself up and out that little bit easier. Everyone likes to look good, and it is 100% true that if you feel like you look pretty good (or your clothes do), you feel pretty good about yourself too!

Being able to watch clothes start to fit better and eventually down/up a size is also SO motivational, and seeing physical proof your work is paying off is the best!

8. Build the Gym into Your Weekly Routine

Just like you allow time to get up, have breakfast, go to work, make the gym or whatever your exercise of choice is a part of your day. It’s great if you enjoy going to the gym and are looking forward to going, but that isn’t always the case, and sometimes it takes a bit more will-power to get yourself there. If the gym is a part of your life just like your work, or job is, it just becomes habit, and something you don’t have to think about doing, you just go because thats what you’ve planned to do, whether you’re feeling up for it or not!

It’s important to remember that you should still go out and do the things you want to, enjoy life, and not to let your training or diet completely rule you. Yes, consistency is key, and 80% of the time you should aim to stay on track, but if you want the cake, eat the cake, you’re out for food with friends, get the burger and chips, watch a film and order dominoes, if you deprive yourself of these things you will only make the process tougher on yourself, and you’re definitely more likely to binge eat! I have at least one day every week or so when I wont track my food and eat what I want, or when I go home from uni for the weekend I won’t track at all, time with friends and family is key and you should never have to feel like you’re sacrificing this for a diet – life’s too short!

So here’s a picture of some Harrods’s cupcakes, because cupcakes are what I live for . . . everyone has their weaknesses!

🙂

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