It’s Sunday morning, and it’s absolutely pouring outside. It’s windy, and water isn’t the only thing falling from the sky. Our driveway is absolutely littered with broken branches and twigs. Ugh. Not exactly a prime day to go out for some exercise.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about staying motivated to keep up my exercise routine. True, I have a standing appointment at the gym, and that certainly gets me out the door, but now that the weather has changed, it’s getting harder to convince myself to pull on the rain gear, saddle up the dogs, and get out for a walk. The scale is certainly motivating as is the fact that I have my annual physical coming up this week. For once, I won’t get the disappointed sigh from my doctor when she looks at my weight! I’m still a big fan of my FitBit as a motivator. I recently replaced my little FitBit with a FitBit One and it has a cute little flower that grows the more active you are. I can’t tell you why, but making that little flower grow makes me smile.

I regularly read both Buzzfeed and Lifehacker and they often publish articles on motivating yourself to exercise.   One of my favorites, “15 Things That Will Make Working Out Less Miserable,” has some fun ways to get you up and out, including “The Walk,” a mystery story that only gives you the next chapter after you’ve walked a certain number of minutes, and “Zombies, Run.” In that app, you earn points and badges for successfully evading attacking zombies by exercising. One of my very favorite exercise apps, though, is “Charity Miles,” which I have written about before. I love the idea that my exercise can benefit an organization like the National Parks Foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, Special Olympics or the Alzheimer’s Foundation.

The one thing that does get me out the door, even on a rainy and dreary day, is audiobooks. I use both Audible and Overdrive for this. Overdrive is the app that Sno-Isle Libraries uses, which means you can check out audiobooks from the library. For free!! I just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley (loved it!!) and am now listening to The Young Elites, by Marie Lu, which I pretty much can’t turn off.

Finally, if you’re looking for some other ways to get yourself started, check out these articles:

29 Smart Ways to Motivate Yourself to Work Out (Buzzfeed)

How to Motivate Yourself into an Exercise Routine You’ll Actually Stick to (Lifehacker)

Four Ways To Motivate Yourself To Start A Running Program (FitRated)

How I Got Into Shape With Technology (Lifehacker)

Enjoy the rain!

— By Cheryl Wolotira

This is the latest in a series of fitness columns by Cheryl Wolotira, a retired educational technologist and middle school teacher. She is married, the mother of two adult children and three Labs. Cheryl loves to read, is a keen traveler, an enthusiastic consumer of technology, and is passionate about food and wine, which is why she has to exercise.

Cheryl is working with Pritam Potts, owner of Edmonds-based Advanced Athlete LLC, to reach her fitness goals.