Tag Archives: motivation

How to Keep Motivated to Stay in Shape

Maruchy Lachance is president of Running Ninja!, a lifestyle brand for runners by runners. Running Ninja! offers a wide variety of apparel and gifts for runners to keep you happy and inspired while you’re on the run.

I am always fascinated by the tools people use to stay motivated and continue on their weight management and fitness programs. Here are a few of my favorites. I hope you find one that works for you!

Five Pound Rule: I get on the scale once a day to monitor my weight. My goal is to stay within five pounds of my ideal and healthy weight. I usually remain the same, but on those off times when stress or overindulging pushes that number up, I don’t panic because if I catch the weight gain earlier enough I won’t have to lose so much down the road. It is easier to lose five pounds than it is 10, 20 or 50!

Do it Before the Sun Sets: Years ago, I decided that living a busy life would no longer be an excuse to ignore my fitness. My rule is that I will not go to bed until I have done at least 30 minutes of exercise. Be it cardio, yoga or strength training, I chant to myself that I will “do it before the sun sets.” Since I know I have no option but to do it, I find myself effortlessly carving out time in the morning so I’m able to get it done before the day gets even busier. (more…)

Posted on August 21, 2025 by GuestBlogger

Beginner’s Guide to Supreme 90 Day Fitness Program

My name is Toni and I blog over at Running, Loving, Living. I am married with 2 beautiful daughters, 14 and 2. I am also a homecare RN working weekends and holidays. I love to run, weight train, cook healthy and blog. I hope to be able to inspire and motivate others to get healthy and live life to the fullest. Run often, Love completely, Live fully.

There are so many fitness systems on the market it is hard to know which one to choose, but the answer is always the one that you are going to follow through with and use as instructed. I have tried many different workout systems including P90X and have failed miserably at staying committed until I found Supreme 90 Day.

Supreme 90 Day is a complete workout system that includes all the workouts and a diet plan that you will need to follow this program for 90 days. The system includes 10 DVD’s (Chest&Back, Legs, Ultimate Ball, Tabata Inferno, Cardio Challenge, Shoulders&Arms, Total Body, Back&Bi’s, Chest Shoulders&Arms and Core Dynamics) that work your entire body utilizing muscle confusion to keep your body guessing so you continue to see results throughout the whole program. The only equipment you need is a mat, a stability ball and dumbbells. The Diet plan is written by Clean Eating’s Tosca Reno and it has 30 days worth of meal plans with recipes that you repeat twice during the program.

(more…)

Posted on July 8, 2025 by GuestBlogger

Positive Daily Affirmations for Healthier and Happier Moments

By Jill Lawson from Jill Lawson Yoga

Many of us believe the power of thought can greatly affect the course of a day, if not our feelings and attitudes that shape the opinions we have of ourselves. As quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny,” thoughts can promote positive or negative experiences for us.

The following daily affirmations work to cement positive thoughts in our subconscious mind, allowing us to practice healthier habits and lead us to more fulfilling and much happier moments. They are helpful when we are having a bad day, but equally as effective when we are feeling good already. The more we can put a positive thought toward something, the closer we are to actually bringing that thought into our reality.

(more…)

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Health Buzz

Jason Segel Finds Weight Loss Inspiration in an Embarrassing Photo

We all know that there’s an epidemic of obesity in this country. What’s it going to take to inspire Americans to make the necessary changes to live healthy? Will it be another report about the real dangers extra weight presents? Will parents be inspired to change for the sake of their kids? Or will it come when your pants split open in public because you can’t fit into them anymore?

Recently, actor Jason Segel found his inspiration. The actor was photographed passed out with his gut hanging out and covered in Taco Bell wrappers. Yep, that ought to do it!

Segel described the photo that his assistant took as his lowest point and has since dropped 25 pounds. Through good old-fashioned diet and exercise, Segel made the necessary change that so many of us need to make as well.

(more…)

Posted on June 30, 2025 by Lacy

Gratitude is the Often Forgotten Key to Healthy Weight Loss

Rosie Battista is a Healthy Body “Builder”, Trainer & Food Maven, committed to helping women entrepreneurs build healthy sexy bodies without starving or spending hours in the gym. She believes that when you feel healthy and sexy in your body, you present your best stuff to the world.Read more from Rosie at CookingNakedafter40.com.

Just profound “ity”. No, it’s not a typo, and yes, I made this word up.

My daughter and I were having a conversation about women and weight loss. Quite an intense conversation which unleashed a profound comment from my girl. She said, “look how easily we go from grateful to greedy“. She was talking specifically about weight loss and our reaction to what happens on the scale. We get annoyed when it doesn’t move down fast enough for our expectations. We’re happy the first week of a diet when the weight comes off quickly. Then after that, it’s all downhill with trashy thoughts that fill our heads.

How many times have you stepped on the scale and complained in disappointment that you ONLY lost one or two pounds? How often do the little thoughts in your head shout out, “I can’t believe I only lost a pound and I was perfect!”?

(more…)

Posted on June 26, 2025 by GuestBlogger

Music Tempo Key to Successful Cardio Routine

Research has shown that listening to music while you exercise improves performance. As for me, I didn’t need research, I know from firsthand experience. I don’t know what I’d do without music while on the treadmill.

Music acts as a motivator, but it also distracts you from negative thoughts associated with fatigue or any insecurities or inadequacies that may creep up into your mind.

While I can be motivated by nearly any tempo if the music is right, research shows that fast paced music, ideally music with a BPM (Beats Per Minute) of between 120 and 140, is ideal for a cardio workout.

That pace also just so happens to be about what the average person’s heart rate is during a normal workout. (more…)

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Jason

Maintaining Weight Loss Through Life’s Struggles

Cynthia Crowsen writes at It All Changes about living life on the roller coaster of life. She has lost over 100 pounds in a variety of ways but more importantly found her love for life. She hates changes but they keep coming so she’s jumped on to enjoy the ride.

It took me 3 years to lose 115 pounds and reach a happy weight where I felt comfortable. Then life happened. I had back surgery along with several other injuries, stomach and major allergy issues and some depression when my beloved Grandmother died. Life threw me a curve ball and suddenly maintaining this weight loss didn’t seem possible.

I won’t say I maintained my entire 100+ pound weight loss over the last 5 years but I maintained most. More importantly, I maintained the healthy habits I’d gained while losing the weight. The habits prevented gaining back all the weight I’d lost and a few extra pounds.

I used these 5 tips to minimize my weight gain while maximizing my health through difficult times. Now I’m using them to get back to my happy weight.

(more…)

Posted on June 19, 2025 by GuestBlogger

8 Ways Friends Can Support Your Diet

One common concern I hear about dieting is how to maintain both social relationships and weight when so many social gatherings include food.

Sometimes to obtain weight loss goals, you need to separate yourself from certain people, at least when food is involved.  The conundrum here is that dieting is tough work and a stresssor that requires physical, mental, and emotional energy. In the midst of such an undertaking, you need support more than ever. Often even our biggest cheerleaders are not confident in how to best support us when we travel roads they have not. While it can be difficult to ask for help, both you and your friend will be glad you did.

1. Accountability – Many people have a hard time doing things for themselves alone, but are more likely to follow through if they know someone else cares – or sometimes simply if someone else will know. Friends can join you in your exercise routine or ask you about how you are doing with your meal plan. You are much less likely to hit snooze if you know your friend will be waiting for you to workout at 6am. If you share your journey electronically, make sure you ask friends to specifically comment on your tweets or posts, so you know someone is paying attention and supporting you.

(more…)

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Brooke Randolph

One Ah Ha Moment Leads to a New Healthy Lifestyle

Anda T. writes about her weight loss struggles, victories and every day life at www.leavingfatville.com. She also runs www.greatclothingexchange.com in her spare time when not chasing a toddler, cooking, cleaning, working and trying to take over the world.

Most people have an ah-ha moment when they’re ready to lose weight. It can be a small, private moment- something that clicks in their mind and says it’s time to do something. Or it can be something big, something that shocks you into action.

I was not alone with my ah-ha moment. I watched mine on my television, surrounded by friends and family.

We had settled down to watch some movies from my son’s baby days on our big television. Halfway through, my son (in his first walker) careened across the screen. Gleefully shrieking, he got to the front door and stopped. He was grunting for a kick-start and I saw myself cross the screen. My entire backside took up the television. My. Entire. Backside. As I grabbed his walker and brought him back to a clear spot on the movie, I turned and asked my husband what the rasping noise was in the background. He was as gentle as possible, but the sentence struck so completely that I will never forget it. “Honey, that’s you. You’re breathing.”

(more…)

Posted on June 11, 2026 by GuestBlogger

Visualization May be Keeping You From Achieving Your Goals

Common self-help suggestions seem to not be standing up to research. Two years ago, I wrote about the Dangers of Positive Thinking. When you try to convince yourself of positive statements, it can actually damage self-esteem. Now research is suggesting that visualizing yourself achieving your goals may make it more difficult to actually obtain those goals.

Visualizing yourself happy, successful, and in great shape is supposed to convince you that it can be true and inspire you to make it happen. However, visualizing yourself happy, successful, and in great shape seems to be so rewarding that we are no longer motivated to work for it. Visualizing it may be enough for us.

The study at Science Direct included four different experiments. What the researchers found was that positive visualizations were “de-energizing”, leading to the relaxation that comes after a goal has been achieved. In one of the experiments, “a positive fantasy about the coming week led participants to feel less energised, and when surveyed a week later, they’d achieved fewer of their week’s goals, than had control participants who’d originally been asked to day-dream freely about the coming week.”

(more…)

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Brooke Randolph

Visualization a Powerful Motivational Tool

Maruchy Lachance is president of Running Ninja!, a lifestyle brand for runners by runners. Running Ninja! offers a wide variety of apparel and gifts for runners to keep you happy and inspired while you’re on the run.

It happens to the best of us: we lose our motivation. Some of us try to power through and never really fall into a slump, but if you are like me, you have to reach for something to pull you out and get back on track.

One of the tools I reach for when I start to feel like I might be slipping is visualization. I give myself permission to abandon reality and wander into some deep visualization. I use this tool all the time when I go to races. I dare to believe that I am a “champion” a “winner” and that I am equipped for whatever challenges lay ahead of me.

This useful motivational tool also works for me in my daily life when I simply envision myself as an athlete. I am already at my peak weight and performance and now all I have to do is maintain. Rather than give in to the thought that I am struggling to reach my goal, I empower myself with positive self-talk and visualization. (more…)

Posted on May 29, 2026 by GuestBlogger