One of the biggest trends in physical fitness at the moment is following the workout of the day model. Often used by HIIT programs, or high-intensity interval training, these workouts stay fun and interesting because they are a little bit different every single day. The objective of the workout is the same—to burn calories, to get your heart rate up, and to build strength—but the ways that you go about doing that vary with every single workout. The workouts will either change in the actual action that you undergo or the order in which you do the workouts. In addition to keeping things more interesting, this actually helps to keep your body ready to go, preventing you from falling into a weight loss plateau.

HIIT workouts are incredibly intense, and if you are just getting started with a workout program, such as following weight loss surgery, then jumping into an HIIT program is probably not the right choice for you. However, there are plenty of ways that you can follow this basic model to help keep your workout interesting, without engaging in the over the top intensity of the HIIT workout programs.

Here are a few ideas to help you keep your workouts interesting:

1. Create a workout on Popsicle sticks, and do the activity that you pull out of the jar next. You can come up with as many workouts as you can think of, and write each of the instructions on their own Popsicle stick. Then, when you have a few minutes to workout you can choose to do 10, 20 or more, and follow the activity you pull out next. This will keep your workout varied, as you aren’t going to pull the same sticks every time, and you won’t pull them in the same order every time, but you will still get the same intensity of a workout each time you get started.
2. Create a workout to go with your favorite television programs. Write up a list of activities to go with each type of commercial, or whatever type of plot point is common in your favorite shows, and then have some fun staying active as you watch TV. This is a great way to get your family involved in your exercise habits, too.

If you have trouble coming up with exercise ideas, consider trying out a program like Daily Burn, which will allow you to engage in different workouts every day without ever having to leave your house. Remember, the more varied your workouts are day to day, the more likely you are to stay interested in those workouts. Before you get started with any new workout program, of course, make sure to talk with your weight loss surgeon.