3 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Work Out at Home

Working out at home can have a lot of advantages over a gym membership – but it can also be easier to brush off a workout when you don’t have a trainer to hold you accountable or a scheduled class to motivate you. Here are three strategies to help you develop the motivation to work out at home:

#1 — Hang Up a Positive Picture

Do you have any pictures of yourself when you were thinner? Maybe while you were in high school or college? If you do, pick one of your favorites and have it reprinted as an 8 x 10 photo. Then buy a frame and hang it up right near your workout area. Every time you feel tempted to quit your workout early or avoid working out at all, look at that picture and ask yourself if you are willing to throw your weight loss goals away so easily. More often than not, just looking at that picture will give you the motivation to work out.

See: Can You Lose Weight Without Exercising?

If you don’t have any pictures of your thinner self, find a magazine photo and paste your own face over the model’s face. It may sound funny and it’ll probably look even funnier, but just seeing a fit body with your face stuck to it will remind you that you’re working toward an important goal and you can’t quit now.

I don’t recommend putting up a negative picture of yourself. You want to work towards something in a positive way, instead of running away from something — which has a more negative connotation.

#2 – Hang Up a Goal Outfit

A similar strategy is to hang up an outfit in a smaller size near your exercise area. A little bikini, a pair of biker shorts, a little black dress, or a tuxedo staring you in the face can provide a ton of motivation to work out! This strategy works especially well when you have an important event coming up in the next few months, like a reunion or a wedding.

See: How to Save For Your New Smaller Wardrobe

# 3 – Make a List

Finally, you can make a list of every reason why you want to lose weight, and how daily exercise will help you achieve those goals. Then spend a few minutes reading that list to yourself every morning, and again in the evening. The list should provide some motivation to work out when it’s time to exercise, but you also want to cement those goals in your mind even when you aren’t working out. The more you look at that list, the stronger your goals are going to remain in your awareness, which will make it much easier to keep working toward them day to day.

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