You know you should exercise. You want to exercise. You have a gym membership. You have cute workout clothes. But…You haven’t slept well, so you need to get that extra half hour of sleep in the morning, so your workout doesn’t happen in the morning…You plan to work out later that day but then traffic was bad/work was brutal and you are exhausted/you still have work to do at home/you are tired/your kids need your help with homework/you have a million errands you want to do/you are hungry and have to cook dinner/you just blow it off…You will catch up tomorrow…
Does this sound familiar? Here are 3 steps to improving the odds that daily exercise will become a routine.
- Link one part of your exercise prep to something you do every day. For example, you always brush your teeth every day (I hope so). You always wear a sports bra to exercise or you always wear a certain pair of shoes when you exercise. Then link the two activities. Put on your sports bra or shoes when you brush your teeth. Do that every day. You don’t have to work out if you don’t want to, but just link the 2 activities together.
- Have a variety of methods of achieving your goal of daily exercise. Have them different enough that they fit different scenarios. For example, if you are tired or have not time, you need an effective workout you can do at home – try body weight high intensity interval training (HIIT) where you don’t even need any equipment and you can complete the workout in under 5 minutes. If it is a lovely day out and you want to spend time with a friend or loved one, have a walking route that allows you to enjoy each other’s company while walking. Take a bike ride. Dance to music. You can use an app like 8Fit or Sworkit. If you want to take a class, you can go to an exercise class or follow an exercise YouTube or DVD or app. You can always go to the gym if you have time and want to get a complete workout with weights or cardio equipment or take a class or with the help of a personal trainer.
- Log what you do and keep track of your progress. My bullet journal is where I write out the plan for my workout 2 weeks in advance. Then, as I complete my workouts, I jot down notes about my day and always end with a positive note to myself, “Feeling great! Went up on the number of crunches! Yeah!” I use my apple watch to monitor my overall activity and aim to close my activity rings every day. Then, I see how many days in a row I can complete all of my rings and I check it out on my phone. This is tremendously motivating since I love the 3 colors of the rings.
Basically, you want to lower barriers and make it easy to get started on any single day. Have various options on how you can achieve your goal to work out daily. Track it and celebrate each day’s success. Aim to do something physical every day and it will become a habit much faster. Then watch. Other areas of your life improve too. Sleep gets better, mood improves, eating improves, confidence improves, work improves…you get it. With the inevitable ripple effect of daily workouts, you may find that the rest of your life starts to fall into place and you become more and more successful in more and more areas of your life. Try it.
Health Booster 