If you’ve looked into BionicGym, you know that one of the selling points of it is that you can do it while you work or read, etc. It doesn’t take a lot of brainwork or coordination and it is even more conducive to multitasking than a treadmill desk. But with this mindlessness comes a little bit of a snag as well–BionicGym can start to feel a little boring after a while. So how do you keep BionicGym exercise interesting? Read on to find out!
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Save Your Favorite Podcasts
In my blog post about how to keep your fitness resolutions, I mention having some good rewards that aren’t necessarily food treats. It’s really easy to get in the habit of telling yourself, “I’ve been good all day, I deserve a brownie” when things like that will ultimately just set you back from your goals. So one of my favorite non-food treats is podcasts.
Now, not all podcasts are created equal, and there are a lot of them out there. When you find one that you love, you will likely want to hang on to it and you might find yourself binge-listening to all the past episodes. When you catch up, it’s like you’re limited in how many times a week you can see your new best friend.
What I do, is I save all my absolute favorite podcasts for when I am doing something that I don’t really like to do. For example, I hate cleaning the bathroom with a burning passion. But if I give myself a rule that I can’t listen to my podcast unless I’m cleaning the bathroom, suddenly it’s my favorite chore!
If you find that you don’t like to work while doing BionicGym, then consider finding a podcast you enjoy and only listening to it while you do BionicGym. This will not only make exercise more enjoyable, but you will want to last longer than you typically do just so you can hear what happens next.
Make Achievable Small Goals
It can be completely overwhelming to have a huge goal like you want to lose 30 pounds in 6 months. Is it doable? Probably. But is it going to be difficult to keep the faith when you don’t always see your victories every minute of every day? Absolutely.
This is why you need to break up that larger goal into smaller, more attainable goals. Here are some examples of smaller goals that will keep you motivated day today:
- Make a meal plan
- Add a minute a day
- Add extra exercise (see “sprinkle in strength training”)
- Meditate before working out
- Eat a healthy breakfast
- Make your bed
All of these goals are pretty easy to attain and they are kickstarting your larger goal of just having a healthier lifestyle and losing weight. But when you have a small goal like that that you can check off your list every day, it will feel like you’re making progress even when maybe the scale isn’t saying you’re making a lot of progress.
Remember: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
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Healthy Weigh-ins
Raise your hand if you ever get obsessive about your weight! My hand is sheepishly raised over here. It doesn’t matter if you have an eating disorder or not, you can easily get into bad habits of obsessing about your weight every minute of every day. And that’s not healthy! It doesn’t allow you to live your life to the fullest and you will constantly be feeling guilty.
Give Yourself A Break
I just want to pause a second here and explain why I do not have a scale in my bathroom anymore. I do have a scale in my house that I allow myself to do “healthy weigh-ins” on but I do not have it easily accessible in my bathroom. Let me tell you, it got to the point where I was weighing myself, then going to the bathroom and weighing myself again. Not healthy. Not helpful.
Your weight fluctuates throughout the day. And you really don’t need to watch it a crazy amount. Just because you wake up weighing a pound more than you did yesterday, doesn’t mean you should beat yourself up about it all day long and punish yourself for it. In fact, if you are a woman who experiences a menstrual cycle still, it is totally normal for your weight to fluctuate quite a bit throughout the month and it has nothing at all to do with your fitness level. Your body bloats and sometimes you need extra food while you are losing a large amount of blood. Should you beat yourself up about being super hungry and stressed and feeling bloated? No! Absolutely not.
So instead, just implement healthy weigh-ins.
What Does It Look Like?
If you’re wondering what healthy weigh-ins look like, it can be different for anyone depending on their relationship with food and their body image. I personally only allow myself a monthly weigh-in. I know that is a long time to go without checking the scale, but I find that because of menstrual cycles and how they affect both the water weight in my body and my appetite, it is most useful for me to check-in at the same time each month. It is the best way for me to see actual progress and to compare myself with my past self at the same point in my cycle.
It also allows me to just forget about it and be at peace with myself for the rest of the month.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all process, so do what works for you! Just be honest with yourself and identify when would be a healthy time to check your progress.
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Exercise Check-in
There are certainly a lot of non-scale victories that you can do, and that you SHOULD do! Here are some of the ones I love.
Monthly Tracker
One of the easiest ways to keep track of your exercise goals and keep motivated is to keep a detailed log of what you do. You can do this with pen and paper or you can also do it on a nutrition app. If you get into the habit of writing down all that you accomplish day today then you will easily be able to boost your mood and keep yourself motivated as you look back on it.
I also love this because it feels so good to cross something off a list. And if you have it on your list of things to do each day, you will get that high of accomplishment every day.
Journal
Another great way to see where you are at is to journal your goals, how you feel in the moment etc. This is an awesome way to look at your non-scale victories, especially if you are working out for other reasons than losing weight. You can write down the day that going up the stairs didn’t leave you breathless or the day that you overcame a level that you couldn’t quite stand before. You can address how you feel in your own skin. Muscle weighs more than fat, so it’s always a good idea to check in with yourself about how you feel rather than what the scale says.
Before and After Pictures
Another awesome way to track your progress is through before and after pictures. The best way to see a real difference is by wearing the same swimsuit or outfit. Try to make sure that you keep everything the same as possible. The camera distance from your body makes a big difference, so figure out a regular setup that will work for you.
Goal Clothes
This is a little similar to scales for me in that I can get a little obsessive about this, but some people love to have goal clothes to fit into! Personally, I like to drop weight and then take myself shopping and enjoy the feeling of dropping downsize while trying things on. But if you like to have goal clothes in your closet that you can try on every once in a while to keep you motivated, then go for it!
Mood Blanket
Exercise releases endorphins, which make you happy. So if you are working out primarily to feel happier with yourself, then consider doing a sort of art project with it. If you knit or crochet, some people make these beautiful moods blankets for a year of time and I think they are just lovely. You assign a color for each mood that you might experience; happiness, anger, fear, excitement, etc. And you take the primary emotion of that day and crochet a line of stitches in that color. At the end of the year, you have a masterpiece of colors outlining all the happiness and pain you went through.
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Sprinkle in strength training
If you’ve read my post “How to Maximize Your BionicGym Workout” then you know that you can do other things along with BionicGym to get even faster, better results. One of these things is to sprinkle in some strength training into your routine.
How?
Involving strength training can look different for different people. While BionicGym is a great cardio workout and it will absolutely help you lose weight, you might want to get a little toned in addition to your weight loss goals.
Small Weights
A majority of women don’t care too much about bulky muscles and some even actively try to avoid bulk. So if you fall into this category, then many reps of a very small weight like 2-5 pounds each will get you where you want to go. In fact, if you are unfamiliar with weight training and are unsure if you are following proper form, you should probably stick to the small weights. This is just because you might push yourself too hard and sacrifice your form, which will ultimately lead to injury.
You have the ability to lift quite a bit more than you safely SHOULD lift, especially if you are doing several reps at a time. It’s great to challenge yourself, but not to sacrifice your safety.
Large Weights and Machines
If you happen to fall into the category of people who are familiar with weight lifting and have access to some machines, then this is a great thing to do! While some people say not to do too much cardio each week, participating in 30 minutes of cardio 5-7 days a week is very beneficial. When you pair that with a few minutes of weight training, say 20 minutes 2-3 days a week, you can get some really great results. Of course, you can always alternate days and you don’t have to do both on the same day.
Muscle continues to burn fat even after your workout is over, so gaining more muscle will only help expedite your weight loss goals.
Lift You
If you don’t have access to any weights or any equipment, you can STILL get a great strength training workout by just lifting yourself! How is this possible? Here are some great strength training exercises that you don’t need weights for:
- Tricep dips
- Squats
- Ski Jumps
- Lunges
- Planks
- Burpees
- Crunches
- And many more!
This is actually one of the easiest ways to add strength training to your routine. After your BionicGym workout is over and you are nice and warmed up, consider doing 5-10 of each of these. Then over time, you can do more and more. It will amaze you how quickly you see a difference in your body and your ability to do more.
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Conclusion
Ultimately, doing any kind of exercise over and over again might feel boring from time to time. But if you are actively tracking your progress and celebrating your off-scale victories, then you are going to love BionicGym. It is so exciting to get your body into shape and feel better in your skin. Watch your muscles, your health, and your confidence improve while you use BionicGym. If you have a hard time finding ways to keep the BionicGym exercise interesting, then just review this list and start something new! A fresh challenge will keep you on your toes.