Motivation is a critical component when it comes to achieving any fitness goal. It helps you get off the couch and hit the gym, go for that run and continue exercising on a consistent basis. For these reasons, it’s essential that you maintain your motivation level throughout your fitness journey. In order to keep the fire burning, you’ll need to be aware of some of the things that can make you lose your fitness motivation. Below we’ll be outlining five negative habits that can reduce your fitness motivation.

Habit 1 – Training Too Much

Regular exercise is an essential part of achieving any fitness goal. However, as with many things in life, balance is key. When you’re exercising consistently but also giving your body the time it needs to refresh and rejuvenate, you’ll feel full of energy and be motivated to workout. However, when you overdo it, you’ll start to constantly feel sore, fatigued and exhausted. You’ll also find it very difficult to stay motivated. 

To avoid overtraining and the dip in motivation that it causes, make sure you workout a maximum of five times per week. Also, make sure that you’re getting at least six hours of high quality sleep per night.

Habit 2 – Negative Self-Talk

In order to stay highly motivated and stick to your workout plan, you must avoid negative self-talk. So what if you missed a workout session, injured yourself while exercising or did not achieve your weekly fitness goal? It’s not the end of the world and beating yourself up about it with negative talk will only serve to diminish your motivation level and affect your performance during future workouts. Your mental state and physical performance correlate so if you want to succeed in your fitness endeavor, learn to be more forgiving of yourself. Focus on all the positives you have achieved while working towards your fitness goals and don’t let the negatives take up too much mental space.

Habit 3 – Not Getting Enough Sleep

With our modern lives getting busier and busier, sleep is something we often neglect. However, as mentioned above, it’s imperative that you get a minimum of six hours of good quality sleep every single night so that your body and mind can rest and recover. Getting less sleep than this will decrease your energy levels and this makes it hard for you to stay motivated and focused on your workouts.

Habit 4 – Sticking To The Same Workout Routine

Engaging in the same workout routine day-in and day-out can create a monotony that will quickly bring down your motivation levels. Therefore, if you’re guilty of this, you need to make your fitness journey more exciting by varying your routines and including lots of different activities that you enjoy. For instance, to vary your cardio routine, you can alternate between hitting the treadmill, cycling outside, hiking, swimming and more. To mix up your strength training workouts, you can incorporate lots of different exercise styles into your routine such as bodyweight exercises, dumbbell exercises and kettlebell exercises. When each workout session is fun and there are always new exercises to try, you’ll be able to keep your motivation levels high and even find yourself looking forward to workouts.

Habit 5 – Eating Poor Quality Foods

Your diet has a direct impact on your fitness motivation levels. Food is a powerful tool that influences your mood, concentration and energy levels. Nutritious foods will leave you feeling full of energy and motivated to exercise while unhealthy processed foods will have the opposite effect and sap away at your fitness motivation. So make sure your diet mainly consists of healthy, natural foods and keep your intake of processed foods to 20% of your total weekly calories.

Summary

If you’re finding it difficult to stay motivated, you may be inadvertently engaging in one or more of these negative habits. So re-read the list and eliminate these five habits from your lifestyle to give your fitness motivation an instant boost.