We all know the feeling. You arrive home from work with the full intention of changing into your gym clothes and heading out the door to the gym, but your butt finds the couch for the minute it takes you to lace up your shoes, and that’s just one minute too long!

You stretch back, realizing how exhausted you are from a long day, and before you know it, the gym visit takes second billing to fluffy pillows and the afghan.

 Sometimes this is just a sign that your body needs some well deserved rest and you may benefit more from a night of relaxation than pushing yourself at the gym. More often than not, however, it means one night of lazy will turn into a week full of slacker if you’re not careful. Or, as in my case last winter, a full-on, two month torrid love affair behind my gym’s back, with my favorite faux fur blanket. It was the best and worst Christmas gift I’ve ever received, because it is so soft and comfortable. It’s great, but not when a girl needs to feel motivated to work out in the evenings.

A fitness lifestyle works best with routine and adherence to a schedule. A workout routine feeds off the momentum gained in the previous workout. If you continually blow off workout after workout, you’ll wake up a month or two later feeling discouraged because you don’t see any progress. Think of it like a relationship. If you repeatedly blow off date night with your mate, the intimacy dwindles, the sex starts to suck, and soon you start feeling like you’re waking up next to a stranger. (And not the tequila-induced kind!)

So, here are ways to avoid being swallowed alive by your couch:

1. Bring your gym bag to work and go straight to the gym when the day is over. Do not stop home first. Do not stop anywhere first. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.00.

2. Start working out in the morning before work. Stop the crying, my ears can’t take it! Yes, it’s hard to get up earlier, but you’ll feel energized all day after your morning workout, AND you’ll have your whole evening free  to make love to the afghan of your choosing. Or your man. Preferably your man.

3. Like they do in AA: get a sponsor, essentially a human cattle prod. This is someone who you’ve given carte blanche to call you out on your laziness when they see it happening and speak just the right words to motivate you again. (Hopefully, they sound something like this: “You’re not going to get *f.a.t. by sitting on your butt.”)

4. Get a workout buddy and set a consistent time to meet. When you feel accountable to someone else you are less likely to flake out.

5. Hire a personal trainer. It has the same effect as number 4, with the added benefit of having money invested. I don’t know who coined the term haste makes waste, but I find it to be the reverse. Waste makes haste. If you’ve paid someone for a session, the idea of letting that money go to waste will make you crave squats over Doritos, I assure you.

6. Take a lesson from Nike: Just Do It.