5 Personalities that can sabotage your summer workout

Do you want to be fit and healthy but struggle with sticking to your workout program? Staying motivated can be a challenge, especially when you have to battle hidden vices. See if you fit any of these five personality types, which can sabotage your summer workout progress.

 “I don’t need to fit into my skinny jeans.
I’m fine in my sweatpants.”

You refuse to believe you’ve let yourself go, even though the number on the scale keeps rising and you can’t fit into your favorite pair of jeans.

The real benefit of having an active lifestyle is improving your overall health. Looking fabulous in your favorite pair of jeans is just a bonus. Downplaying fitness makes it easier to avoid making a lifestyle change. If you find yourself intimidated by change, start off with small steps, like walking 10 minutes a day.

“I’ll get back into fitness… one day.”

Your gym bag and workout equipment are collecting dust. You want to exercise, but you find yourself doing everything else—laundry, Facebook, watching television.

Choose a starting day and stick to it—no matter what. If your gym time is interfering with the latest episode of Scandal or Downton Abbey, incorporate exercises into your television time. Try jumping jacks or tricep dips during commercials or walk in place. Don’t delay working on your goals. Do your body a favor and start today.

“Rest days are for quitters.”

You have your eyes on the prize, so you spend hours at the gym every day shaping your physique with high-intensity workouts. You don’t believe in rest days, because time off from exercising equals weight gain and it takes longer to reach your fitness goals.

Commitment is a necessity in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but it’s important to know when your passion has turned into an obsession. Overachievers can actually delay their progress. Overtraining can result in burnout, muscle loss and injury. Learn how to listen to your body — soreness, fatigue and sickness can all be signs that you are doing too much. Resting between workouts gives your muscles the chance to repair. So while it’s great to go hard at the gym, sometimes it’s best to just take a breather and go home instead.

“The dryer shrunk my clothes again!”

You blame the dryer for shrinking your clothes. Whether it’s bad weather, cramps, office parties or genetics, something always gets in your way, and it prevents you from working out.

Events beyond your control will happen. Maybe obesity or high blood pressure runs in your family, but don’t let that determine where your fitness journey starts and ends. You can’t control the weather or what your coworkers eat at work, but you can take control of your own health by deciding to make fitness a priority.

“I just can’t lose weight. I’ll never get six-pack abs anyway.”

You’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work for you. You are discouraged and believe your body will never change.

Take control of a pessimistic outlook by immediately removing “can’t” and “never” from your vocabulary. Both automatically place limitations on your weight loss success. Visualize how you want to change your body. Cut out images from fitness magazines for inspiration and create a fitness vision board. Most importantly, know that you can do it! And when you consistently make fitness and healthy eating a priority, your body will definitely have no choice but to change.

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