The hardest part with any exercise routine is staying motivated. So the trick to seeing long term results is actually stopping to ‘see’ some results. Here is what I mean. Find a Fitness Tracker.
There are tons of different fitness trackers. Go online to fitnessmagazine.com or you can go to freefitnesstracker.com both of these websites offer great tools to help monitor your physical progression.
There are apps for smartphones you can download, and there are funny little apparatus that fit to your belt to help you count calories. There are even treadmills that will monitor your workout and save the data to a USB so that you can upload the information to a computer and see how you are doing on your long term goals.
Personally I like the old picture method. Take a picture of your body once a month, and keep exercising. This approach to fitness tracking isn’t the most advanced but it still works to keep me motivated. Seriously, just after as few weeks compare the pictures, you are going to notice your body starts to tighten.
Many people feel like even though they are exercising they are not getting results. Physical change comes very subtly and that is why many people are not aware of what great change is coming over their body. Using a fitness tracker of some sort is going to allow you to see those results.
Seeing that physical development actually happen gives a very motivating boost toward the physical activities one may be pursuing. I would attest that acknowledging development is one of the best ways to stay motivated.
Statistically 50 percent of people that start off with some big plans to lose weight, gain loads of muscles, or learn to run a marathon, will stop and give up. Obviously they had the initial drive to get up and start exercising, but something left them a couple weeks into the routine. They lost their motivation.
Keep yourself motivated. Track your progression, count your calories, and take pictures. And compare your results with the results you had in the past. I guarantee you that within weeks you will start to see some vast improvement. And, with this improvement comes motivation.