#motivationmonday

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. The weather was actually pretty decent. We went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see Guillermo del Toro: At Home With Monsters . It was awesome, I highly recommend checking it out especially if you love his movies.

Anyway, on with Motivation Monday. Motivation is such a mental game. Really it’s over half the battle. You’re brain will likely want to quit long before your body gives out. In fact your brain will probably want to quit before you even get out the door. That first step is always soooo hard, whether it’s a morning or evening workout; morning rolls around and you’d rather stay in bed. After work you just want to throw some sweats on and #netflixandchill. Here are some tips and tricks to avoid caving to the voice in your head that says stay in bed/ just one episode.

1. Change clothes

If you’re like me and I think most people in the world, when you get home from work you change out of your work clothes. So you’re going to change anyway right? Change into your workout clothes. You’re far more likely to go workout if you’ve already got your clothes on. Sometimes just the act of putting on my gym clothes gets me (somewhat) pumped for my workout.

2. Set the alarm. Then move it far away.

Morning workout? Make sure your alarm is set and that you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Voila! Now you’re out of bed, hard parts over. Make sure your clothes are already laid out so you don’t have to bumble around in the dark and it becomes sort of an assembly line; get out of bed, turn alarm off, put on clothes, tie shoes, out the door.

3. Find a distraction

Alright so you’ve  made it out the door and are getting your sweat on, but you’re barely halfway through and back to thinking about calling it quits. It helps to have a go to distraction to keep you occupied and going . For long runs I often think of a favorite tv show and play out episodes that I would write. Sounds ridic I know, but when I was marathon training I came up with a LOT of (in my opinion) excellent episodes for Big Bang Theory. When I’m in the gym I often do multiple 15 minute workouts to keep things changing. Channel your inner Kimmy Schmidt and remind yourself you can do anything for 15 minutes!

Hope this helps! Seriously try the tv show thing. If you’re new to long runs and after an hour you’re bored to tears, it really helps to have something you can get “lost” in. Makes the miles fly by.