Keeping fit is essential to one’s health—and everybody knows it. It stands to reason that for someone with diabetes, the importance of staying healthy and fit is even greater. Yet many people with diabetes struggle to find ways to maintain a fitness plan or get and stay motivated. Fortunately, there are some strategies out there that will help you work through the harder times and continue succeeding. Here are seven ways to stay motivated to exercise for diabetics!
Motivating Yourself Without Sacrificing Your Health
All movement counts. Be active as long as you can.
The more movement you do, the better. Even if it’s just a little bit of walking or floor exercises in your living room, any activity counts toward reaching your goals and staying motivated for fitness. Here are some examples of different types of movement that count:
- Walking around the block (a great way to get used to exercising again)
- Riding an exercise bike
- Getting out a jump rope and do some jumps (grab one from Amazon here)
- Doing simple yoga poses while watching TV
Don’t work out alone. Get a buddy.
Having a workout partner can help you stay motivated to exercise for diabetics and on track by allowing you to share the workload, give each other support, and push one another to achieve your goals.
Make sure to select someone who has similar fitness goals as you so they know what it takes to get there (and vice versa). Also, ensure that they are willing to work at the same pace as you—you don’t want them slowing down your workout!
Switch up your routine if you need to.
You may find that you work out better on different days of the week, or at different times of the day. If that’s the case, adjust your routine accordingly.
If you don’t feel like going to the gym, but want to get fit and healthy, try taking a walk instead. You can also try a new location for your workout; nearby parks and trails are great options that let you get outside and enjoy nature while getting in shape!
Sometimes we all need some help staying motivated in our fitness routines—especially if we’ve been doing them for a while! Try listening to music while exercising (it can make even mundane activities more fun) or watching TV shows or movies that feature characters who are physically active (this will give you ideas about how they stay motivated).
Reward yourself periodically for reaching your goals.
Remember that it’s not just about the work you do, but also the fun of doing it.
Make sure you give yourself a reward after each milestone is reached. You’ll find that if you are rewarding yourself often enough, this will increase your motivation and make fitness seem more like an exciting journey than a grind.
Try to come up with creative ways to reward yourself when completing different tasks: For example: If I go on my walk every day this week then I’ll buy myself a new game for my PS4; If I work out every Saturday morning until Christmas then I’m going shopping on Sunday afternoon; etc. Don’t forget that there are many free activities out there as well—like visiting local parks or walking around downtown areas in search of hidden gems!
Track your progress.
Tracking your progress is an important part of staying motivated. You should track how much weight you’ve lost, the miles you’ve run, or even the amount of time you exercise each day. You can use a variety of tools to track your progress, including spreadsheets, and apps on your phone, or even start your own vlog and post regular updates. If you’re concerned about privacy, there are also plenty of online sites that allow users to create profiles for free and track their health data in a secure environment.
Brace yourself for rough days.
You already know that your body doesn’t respond the same way to food and activity as those without it. You also know how frustrating this can be. Sometimes it’s just a matter of comparing yourself to others, but other times it comes from real changes in your sensitivity to insulin and blood sugar levels.
When you’re trying to make fitness part of your routine, these differences can lead to bad days where working out feels nearly impossible—and maybe even dangerous if your blood sugar drops too low before or during exercise. When this happens, remember that everyone has ups and downs when it comes to motivation and focuses on being healthy overall rather than focusing on any one day’s success (or failure).
Always remember why you started and focus on the progress you’ve made.
One of the most important things you can do to stay motivated is to keep a positive attitude. When you’re exercising, think about how good it feels to be healthy and active. Think about all of the progress you’ve made with maintaining fit so far and how great it would be if you could continue this progress!
Conclusion
We hope that this article has been helpful for diabetics tostay motivated to exercise, as well as encouraging you to keep up with your fitness routine. If anything else, we want to remind you that the most important thing is to stay consistent with what works for you and your body. The key is to always remember why you started this journey in the first place—and focus on that progress!
