I bought a treadmill in January and it was sitting in my basement collecting dust. I was all gung ho when I bought it, and had this ambitious plan that I was going to work out every day on it. I found I didn't have time to use our gym at work during office hours, so if I had a treadmill in my basement, surely I would use it every day!
Well, that didn't happen. I used it off and on. But then I made a commitment to myself to get healthy, and the treadmill was going to be a big part of that. I started getting up half an hour early in the mornings, which really wasn't too bad, and went for a walk (I'm not quite up to running yet). I found getting up early didn't make me tired. Working out in the morning actually helped me to feel less tired during the day.
Things started well, but I started to slack off a bit. What I needed was the proper motivation. So I found two great reasons to get my butt out of bed in the morning.
The first thing I did was tell a colleague at work that I was going to try and get up every morning and walk on the treadmill. Saying your goal out load and putting it out into the universe makes it real. But even better, I now have someone who knows what I'm trying to do and will check up on me! Every day she asks me if I went for a walk this morning. And I have to answer honestly. Truth is, I don't want to disappoint her! Every time I had to tell her no, I tried to have some excuse as to why, but saying it out loud just made the excuses lame. So, whenever I wake up in the morning and I want to hit the snooze button and fall back to sleep for 20 more glorious minutes, I hear her cheerful voice in my head asking “did you go for a walk today?" and it pushes me up. I don't want to tell her no! I'll feel bad if I do. So I've been making sure the answer is more often than not “yes."
My second motivation is that I am a bridesmaid in a wedding in November. And if nothing will scare you into walking on a treadmill every day, a bridesmaid dress will (sorry Lauren, no matter what you say I will not wear it again). But the thing is, I want to look good for the wedding and photos. It's an important moment that will be captured forever. And I have a timeframe to achieve this in, so that motivates me every morning as well.
I found it's important to have good motivation to keep you exercising every day. You can have the desire to do it, the equipment to do it, but you have to be motivated to go back to it constantly. Not everyone loves working out, so motivation is key to keep you going. Your motivation could be hitting a goal weight, fitting into pre-pregnancy jeans or running a 10 km race. Whatever drives you, keep at it.
If you want to get started and are interested in what Flaman Fitness has to help you, click here to see our treadmills.