9 ways I trick myself into going to the gym by Libby Kane on May 31, 2017, 12:29 PM Advertisement
 I've been going to the gym regularly for years. It's kind of funny, actually: When I lived in a Manhattan building with a gym in the basement, I never, ever went. It was a matter of principle — no one told me I had to pay a gym fee on top of my exorbitant rent! So I steered clear of the treadmills. I sure showed them. But when a gym rep came to my previous job and handed me a tee-shirt I'd never end up wearing along with a hefty corporate discount to a gym chain, I bit. And now, more than three years later, I can't bear to leave it. I love the teachers! I know the schedule! The locations are so convenient! You know what I've learned? It doesn't matter whether your gym is in your building or down the block or 30 minutes away. Most of the work of going to the gym happens before you even walk in the door. Below, I'm confessing some of the motivation tricks that get me off the couch and onto the spin bike. I can't guarantee they'll work for you — I can't even guarantee they'll continue to work for me — but this is what works right now. SEE ALSO: I just ran my first half marathon — here's what I tell my friends when they say they could never start running I tell myself I can decide whether I want to go ... later. This tactic has worked brilliantly. Instead of spending the day fighting myself over whether I "feel like" or "want to" go to the gym, I postpone the internal debate until after my workout. That way, I can have a nice, indulgent mental back-and-forth and bask in indignation and reluctance for as long as I want — on the train home, having already done my workout. I've never been sorry.
 I recognize that there's always a reason to bail. I once wrote about how "there's always something," in reference to planning out your spending and your budget. It's the same for the gym. I'm not sure there has ever been a night where I couldn't think of multiple reasons not to go. For instance, here's a list of reasons I considered not going to the gym in the last week: • I'm tired.
• My calves are sore from a new class I tried.
• I don't have the shorts I prefer to wear for spin class.
• I got stuck at work and won't be able to make my preferred Tuesday night class.
• It's dark.
• It's raining.
• I forgot my headphones.
• I'm going to miss the express train home.
• I'm coming down with the cold that's been going around the office.
• I need to pack for a weekend trip.
• My gym buddies all bailed on me. Just because you have a reason doesn't make it a good one. Go anyway.
I think of the money. The brilliant thing about belonging to a gym, as opposed to those $35 boutique spin classes so many of my friends adore, is that since you've already paid, it gets cheaper every time you go. That's amazing! If I go to one class in a month, it's a $90 class. Two, they're each $45. Nine classes? At nine, which works out to fewer than three times a week, I'm paying only $10 per class.
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