Team Beachbody Guest

When you don’t feel like getting off your butt to exercise, where do you find the motivation to exercise? We all ask ourselves this question - you are not alone. You need to get past thinking about exercising and just do it.

There are many ways to motivate yourself to exercise. Some work better than others. I asked around to find out what motivates people to stick to their exercise programs. I took all those results and put together the top seven ways to motivate yourself to exercise.

1. Make exercise a fun experience! Find an activity that is fun to do. Sure, you may think the cardio machines at the gym are dull as dishwater, but you can make the cardio machine experience more fun by listening  your favorite music or better yet, a great book on your iPod.Group fitness classes are designed to be fun. Try something new like kickboxing or dancing. You may even meet some new friends.
2. Join an outdoor hiking group. Meet new people, get out in the great outdoors, get back to nature and burn up the calories all at the same time!
3. Get an at-home fitness program like Hip Hop Abs by Shaun T, or Turbo Jam with Chalene Johnson. These are fun fitness programs that you can do at home that will definitely raise your energy levels and keep you interested.
4. Use visualization. Visualize how you are going to look once you reach your goal of losing that 20 pounds or getting rock hard abs. Picture yourself running for 30 minutes and imagine how good you will feel.  If you can only do 10 pushups and you  want to do 15, start visualizing yourself doing 15 pushups. Picture yourself doing them and count each one in your mind. Visualization is used by many top athletes to get them past performance plateaus.
5. Sign up for a 5K race. If you sign up for a 5K race you will have a certain date that you have to be ready to run or walk the race. This will give you a reason to train for something.
6. Workout with a friend. Find a workout buddy that can help you stay accountable.
7. Think about how awful you will feel if you don’t. Once you start exercising, you will experience the release of endorphins in your body which give you a natural high! How do you want to feel today? Yukky or energized?

Have you ever wondered how much time you waste thinking about exercising? Stop thinking about it and just do it?  Nothing will change unless you take control now and change it.

How do you motivate yourself to exercise and how often do you exercise?

Video: http://bit.ly/BBCoach

I am a big fan of protein bars. They are convenient, don’t need to be cooked, and can go anywhere with you (except maybe a hot yoga class).

Each P90X Performance bar provides 18 grams of protein and 260 calories. I am a small person so it was a bit much! I divided the bar in 2 and ate half instead of the whole thing. For me the half bar was just what I needed before a P90X workout to help boost my energy and my hunger. If you are a male of average size, you will probably eat the whole bar.

The P90X Peak Performance Protein bars contain natural ingredients, which is very important to me. They also have added fiber and no trans fat – a real plus. Now for the best part – the P90X Peak Performance bars taste good! I used the Wildberry P90X bar and was happy with the taste. The bars are also available in Chocolate Peanut Butter and Café Mocha (will try that next!) Some other facts: 260 calories, 6g fat, 37g carbohydrates, and 18g protein. The Chocolate Peanut Butter has 20g protein! Get your P90X peak Performance protein bars!

X Stretch is a very comprehensive stretching routinethat takes care of stretching out your muscles, from your head to your toes! I always feel great after every P90X X Stretch day. Stretching also helped me improve my flexibility.

It also helped other problem areas of my body. After working on a computer all day so I end up with lots of issues, such as shoulder impingements, sore hands (carpel tunnel), forward shoulders, tense neck and shoulders, tight hip flexors, and more – you get the idea!

Even though X Stretch was designed to help prevent injuries when doing P90X, it helped me with my work related issues. Just the stretching of all the neck and upper back muscles, brought me a lot of relief! I also love the wrist-forearm and Dreya forearm stretches. These stretches alone helped release the tightness in my hands from working at a computer keyboard and mouse all day.

If you are doing P90X, don’t skip the X Stretch! Do not miss the amazing benefits you will get from stretching.

When I started P90X back in January 2009, I was skeptical. The first week of P90X Lean, I can barely walk or sit down, ouch! I was so sore! As I got conditioned to the routines, I was able to keep up with the P90X workouts and was not as sore. I also increased the intensity, week over week.

I was extremely hungry by week 3. I did not need to lose weight so I had to increase my calorie intake with P90X Performance bars. When Shakeology came out, I start drinking a Shakeology with loads of fun fruits inside!

When I finished P90X, I was amazed at my results, so were my friends. I am on round 2 now and just love the P90X program!

It's a challenge for sure but worth it. Not only am I happy with my results of toned, lean arms and abs, but I am so energized! Love it!

I enjoy the Beachbody lifestyle so much I became a Coach. Would love for enthusiastic people like you to join my team!