How to exercise all year long

Even if you love working out, you've probably had those days where you wake up, and all you want to do is stay on the couch and eat cheese puffs. It's natural to have days where you are less motivated than others, but it's also important to stay in shape and keep exercising all year round.

If you need help getting motivated to hit the gym more than once a month, here are a few simple ways you can motivate yourself to stay active 5 days a week, every week.

 Find your drive

Ultimately, you need a reason for wanting to stay fit and healthy. This could be something as simple as wanting to have a six pack abs (not that it's easy) or as complex as wanting to do a triathlon. What ever the case may be, it has to be something you want bad enough to keep going back to every day. 

It doesn't have to be a physical reason either. Sure, you want to look great in that swimsuit and enjoy all the perks of a fit and healthy body, but focusing on changing a physical attribute about yourself may not be the right choice for you. If that's the case, try to think of something non-physical as your goal. Great examples could be, “developing a better sense of self-love,” or “feeling more comfortable in my skin.” 

Don't kill yourself

You're naturally going to dread the gym or a workout if you're giving maximum effort each time. You don't have to work out at top speed if you're working out every day. Stick to low intensity workouts most of the time, and push yourself only when you actually want to—and feel up to it.

Track your progress

When every day is the same, it's hard to see day to day progress. If you log your progress how ever, you can discover that you were two minutes slower running a mile just six months ago, or that you couldn't do a push-up at all last year, but now you can do 3. 

While these tips won't give you instant results, they will help keep you working out all year long—and that's exactly what you need in order to be successful.