Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training sent this email about what to do to keep yourself motivated to workout even when you don’t feel like it.

There will be days (everyday?) when you don’t feel like doing your workout.

Sometimes you don’t want to get out of bed.

Sometimes you don’t want to leave your office because you feel like there are too many deadlines (but this is when you need a workout the most!).

Sometimes you don’t want to end story time with the kids only to head down to the basement gym.

It even happens to me.

But I knew how I’d feel like a million bucks after the workout.

And in the end, I know I can’t let myself become “soft” and start skipping workouts. I have to lead by example.

But if you are set on achieving a goal, then when it’s workout time, come heck or high water you’ve got to bear down and do the job.

Workout Motivation Tips

1) Reward yourself. Finish your workout and treat yourself to a magazine, a TV show, some extra time with your family, some new songs for your IPOD, or even a little extra time for yourself.

2) Or set up a punishment for missing workouts. Skip the workout, put $20 into a jar to spend on home repairs. Make sure your spouse controls the jar.

3) Review your goals everyday and every night. Keeping your goals fresh in your mind will help you stay on track.

4) Realize that the hardest part of the workout is often getting your butt to the gym. Once you get 5 minutes into the workout, you will be over the hump. So tell yourself, “I’ll just go in and do 1 set of the first 2 exercises, then I can go”. Next thing you know, you’ll have done the entire workout.

5) Visualize yourself doing a great workout and finishing strong. Get yourself mentally prepared and you will literally have better workouts each time.

6) Crank the tunes. Seriously, nothing motivates like music.

7) Get social support. If you have a workout partner, you’ll feel like crap if you let them down. Or become accountable to everyone in the Turbulence Training workout forums…if you don’t post your workouts, they’ll track you down and demand to know why you’ve fallen off track! So online or offline, get everyone on your side!

Now get out there and kick the fat to the curb,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

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In the aftermath of last weeks Biggest Loser finale I have been thinking all week about the magic of motivation and TV shows. Just in the last few months I have written about the fitness TV shows X Weighted, Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp, and of course lots of Biggest Loser posts. But sometimes I wonder, after the show is watched is there any lasting impact? As I watch these TV shows I always pick up new tips and I get relly motivated by the strength gains and the weight loss of the people on the TV shows and I will often think about these things afterwards so this week I have been wondering how I can really extend the excitement and feeling of the shows and here is a quick list of how to do exactly that.

1. When you are watching the fitness television show make some notes. What kind of notes? Well I think that this would be a lot like journaling. Write down the emotions that you see and feel, how you feel about yourself, what you would give up to reach what these people are reaching, and of course all the tips that you can incorporate now. Read the rest of this entry »

Well after a lot of prep and a lot of work I have rebuilt this blog and hope that it will perform better. Over the last three years I have worked to put together a lot of good information on how to get in shape, how to improve your fitness and even included as much as I could about health issues and scientific reviews that could help you improve your health.

Now I have moved this blog, I hope successfully, to a new platform. The new name kind of tells you that his is not a little family site anymore but instead I will take you health a lot more seriously. I should be able to offer you a lot more here  and all the old articles and news stories are still here for you to read.

So now that we are here I hope to offer a lot more how-to’s, a lot more tutorials on what should or should not work as far as exercise and diet go and I will offer a lot more answers from questions that I get every day in my email. So please continue to send me questions and I will try to post answers here. You can find my email address under my picture in the top right hand corner.

If you have not subscribed yet to the health tips program that I offer, then please do so now. I have tried to really give a great base in 20 days or so of a plan that will make you healthier and kick start your energy and a better lifestyle. Subscribe at the fitness program link here.