Exercise is different from brushing your teeth because it actually can be enjoyable. But if you’re seven weeks deep into your new year’s resolutions and the excitement for training has firmly worn off, how do you turn your lagging motivation into discipline, or that flame into a fire? Adrienne has two tips for finding ways to get to it when you don’t want to.

Find accountability

Writing it down is Adrienne’s first tip, as “visible accountability is really useful,” she says. A digital diary might work for you, but she prefers to get a pen and paper and – as she says it helps her to physically write down the task she’s setting herself. “If I then don’t do it, I can’t cross it off and it looms over me. But also, writing it down means it becomes part of my diary, scheduled in with my other essential appointments. I wouldn’t just not turn up to my son’s school quiz, so I’m very unlikely to not do the run that’s written next to that,” she says.

Add something to your workout

You might think that making your workout as straight forward as possible is the best way to convince yourself to get it done. But sometimes, more really is more. “You need to make the task or environment as stimulating as possible, whether that’s adding a great playlist to your circuit or calling a friend as you walk – it’s about layering things you can get excited about on top of the workout that’s maybe not so exciting,” says Adrienne.

Exercise motivation: how an expert trainer gets through workouts when feeling unmotivated