Sticking to it: 10 Tips for Sticking to Your Workouts

Week 2

I started p90x 2 a few weeks ago, as well as rock climbing twice a week. I'm hoping to get down to my pre-college weight. No luck on the weight loss front so far, but I feel stronger, so that's good. I'm a little frustrated it's not more visually apparent, at least not from what I can tell. Unfortunately, I had to start the program over this week, since last week life got in the way and I didn't exercise at all. But I made it through a whole week this week, and I have no intentions of backing down next week. Here are a few tips for sticking to it, some of which I need to be a little better about myself.

1) Workout in the morning. I know, you hate my guts right now. You get precious little sleep as it is. And I want you to cut an hour out of your morning snooze time? I must be nuts! But there are a few benefits to working out in the morning. a) You get to cross it off your list immediately and there's no time for other things to get in the way. b) Working out energizes you, sometimes for hours. This can negatively impact your ability to fall asleep. c) If you count calories, you immediately know how many extra calories you earned for the day.

2) Write it down. I do a better job of working out when I treat my sessions like appointments. If it's on my calendar, I'm much more likely to do it.

3) Fast forward. If you're doing a workout DVD, chances are there is quite a bit of gum flapping during which you are not actually working out. Fast forwarding through these parts makes your workout quicker, more efficient, more accurate in terms of calorie count, and less boring. Tony Horton never shuts up. I cut the p90x 2 workouts down by 20 minutes, just by eliminating his chattiness.

4) Have more than one workout buddy. I love climbing with my friend Fez at the local indoor rock climbing facility. But when he has other plans, I'm out of luck. My husband has decided we can start going a few nights a week (yes I said nights, I love morning workouts, but sometimes you have to cave to facility hours) as well so I can get more benefits from it.

5) Variety is the spice of life. Change it up, try a new sport, take a new class, confuse the crap out of your muscles. You'll attain a higher level of fitness at a faster rate and you're more likely to stick to it if you're not bored.

6) Identify and eliminate the problem. I realized one of the reasons I would skip workouts would be because I was out of clean (read non offensive) exercise clothing. Since then I've been browsing the clearance racks of every store I go into to find more fitness gear.

7) Involve your kids, spouse or pet. You're less likely to skip your workout if you don't feel like you're trading quality time with your family for it.

8) Share your journey. Sharing my blog and photos didn't keep me stuck to my routine 100%, but it did keep me from staying off track for more than a week.

9) Keep your workout gear visible in some way. For me, this just means that I lay out my clothing and tennis shoes the night before. That tiny visual cue is often enough to make me get up and moving.

10) Set a goal for you. Not someone else, not because you think that's what fit people do…no, set a goal for YOU. Mine is to be back to my pre college weight of 115 lbs and to have a rocking beach body that looks fabulous in a dress. Interesting, because I don't consider myself to be particularly beachy or dressy, but that's the one that feels best to me right.

So now the real question is, is there any visible difference or am I deluding myself?

Week 1