If a pack of zombies was chasing you, you’d run, right?

I’ve been thinking recently about motivation and how hard it is to kick-start a fitness routine. Once you really get going, working out just becomes part of your lifestyle, but it’s the beginning stages of an exercise plan that can be tough. I get it – if exercise isn’t part of your life right now, the thought of finding the time to fit in a workout is daunting. We fill our lives with activities and habits without really thinking and habits are hard to break. If for years you’ve spent Sunday afternoons catching up on reality tv, then suddenly replacing that with going to the gym won’t be easy.

If you know you want to workout, but you’re dreading it, or can’t think of anything that will encourage you to get your butt off the couch, see if any of the fitness tools below sound like something that will work for you.

Disclaimer: I have not been compensated for mentioning any of these sites! 🙂

Image from Zombies, Run!

This pace calculator from coolrunning.com is something I use often. It’s a good tool for setting your own goals for races or training runs. You can either enter your time goal and distance of the race/run and it’ll give you your required pace to achieve that goal, or you can see your predicted time for an upcoming event by entering the distance and your current training pace.

This calculator of calories burned for almost every activity so if you’re trying to decide between going for a run and going to spin class, you can enter your weight and the time you’re going to exercise to find out caloric needs for a huge list of activities. Remember, online calorie calculators like this aren’t super accurate, but it will give you an idea of which activities are more bang for your buck.

If it’s money that will motivate you, Gym Pact lets you earn money for going to the gym! You set your goals for how many days the next week you want to get to the gym and either pledge $5 per session, or a greater amount. Then you check in to your gym via your phone. If you miss a workout, you pay up into the kitty and that money gets distributed to the participants who made their goal. They’ve also partnered with Runkeeper, so if you’d rather set a goal to go for a run outside, you can do that too.

Does the thought of accidentally finding yourself in the front row of a class you’re not sure about at the gym (ahem…) frighten you out of your mind? Are you bored of the exercise dvds you own and feel like you’ve done them a thousand times? You could try Workouts on Demand, which costs $5 a month. This seems like a great idea for people who find it easier to workout at home and it would be awesome for traveling. $5 a month is way cheaper than daily passes to an out-of-town gym when you’re on the road.