Attn: Gym Bunnies and people who can stick to diets

So summer's coming up and I'm sporting a bit of muffin due to my own laziness and not sticking to my diet.

Any tips on how to stay motivated for the gym and sticking to the diet?

I was on a diet similar to the 'body for life' diet with the one day a week where you can eat what you like with no carbs for dinner etc.

Planning helps. If you know what you're eating and when, and therefore don't have to make any decisions, you can't choose to eat badly.

Motivation usually finds itself after about 2 weeks, sometimes less. I usually start to feel heaps better + see results, which makes it easy to maintain.

Find a gym buddy and work as a team, motivate each other etc.

Set measureable goals to work towards and track your workout every session in a notebook.

As PFunk said, first 2 weeks are the hardest...but after that you'll be sorted and will probably even find yourself looking forward to going.

Good Luck

Same applies to the gym.

Set in stone: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday after work I go to the gym. No Decisions to make.
No getting to the end of the day and deciding you don't feel like going to the gym.

Tip: You have to be genuinely unwell or exhausted to not go to the gym. There are no other excuses. Plus you'll feel heaps better afterwards.

Oh, and go straight to the gym from work...don't give yourself a chance to get home and cosy.

record your progress so you feel like you're achieving something.

I saw this site mentioned somewhere today, it looks like it has potential:

http://www.gyminee.com/

for logging diet, exercise, weight loss, increases in weight lifting, etc.

Seconded, good advice

I find once I am eating healthy and exercising on the regular, I don't want to 'poison' my body with crap food.

The BFL diet is quite strict and expensive if you are having all the shakes and bars they tell you to have. From what I can remember anyway

Do you have an ipod or anything? Music while exercising always helps

I find my ipod quite distracting when doing weights, but necessary when doing long cardio sessions.

Anybody else similar?

I do weights with a partner so I don't use an iPod. I'll try it next time I'm working out on my own.

I third or fourth or whatever the call to record what you do. I still record each set of weights I do so I can track progress and work out what to lift next time.

I can't work out without music, at least on the background. My Ipod is stacked with angry punk music.

I only don't use it when we have team sessions or being spotted on chest exercises.

The only problem I have is when doing plyo or power stuff, Ipod gets in the way.

training by myself - ipod sometimes.
training with others - never use one.

but, shits me if the gym is playing Rhianna or vengaboys.

I'm working out with a partner 8 times out of 10, but ipod is essentila when I am by myself.

Usually it's some dark and nasty techy DnB rollers, ideal gym beats imo

I'm at the point now where I have a website set up in my head that logs all the information automatically.

Sad

Does your brain use Apache or IIS? PHP or ASP.NET?

Thanks for the tips guys. Yeah I have an mp3 player and rock out to music while doing cardio. My player's kinda chunky so I don't use it while I'm doing weights. Been doing cardio to LCD soundsystem's 45:33 which is awesome for getting in the mood.

Yeah I don't use the BDFL shakes and bars. I was a little put off them when I saw some of them had GMO ingredients. Been going well so far with the eating plan although I need to eat more frequently between main meals.

MUMMY.BRAIN.NET

the only one that works for me.


ic_babe- the BFL bars and shakes are very American anyway - full of shit

never listen to music whilst exercising these days. i prefer listening to my footfalls, my breathing, the sound of my wheels.

Stick to powder, IMO. Got to check the ingredients in those, obviously, but most of the popular ones are all good.

Bars in particular have a lot of stuff in them that I'd prefer weren't part of a regular diet. I'm sure they're fine occasionally though.

Do many cyclists listen to music while cycling? It strikes me as being a lot more dangerous than running with headphones in.

Don't think I have ever seen a cyclist listening to music while ridding, surely it must be very dangerous! I know DG does though ... but he is BADASS!

some cyclists do, but i think it's quite dangerous, especially in built up areas.

i used to listen to have a tiny radio thingee (pre ipod days) around 30 minutes whilst i was riding, but i didn't like not being able to hear what was coming behind me.

"used to have tiny radio thingee which i listened to for..."