When you make fitness enjoyable, you are more likely to continue doing it far a long time.
Study after study has shown that regular physical activity — even at moderate levels — enhances physical and mental conditioning, while reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes. . . The list of benefits goes on.
But unfortunately, many Americans still choose a life on the couch. The good news is you can jump start your health with a few quick “shifts”.
- Find something you enjoy. Keep experimenting until you find an activity that you take a liking to, both mentally and physically. If you don’t like what you’re doing, you won’t be motivated to keep it up. If you’re not sure what you like, explore: there are numerous styles of fitness training you can try, go for a jog on the beach, try a spinning class, or even take up martial arts.
- Set goals. Write down your goals. Believe me; everything becomes that much more real when it is on paper. But be realistic. If you’ve started out jogging for 15 min, don’t aim to run a marathon by next week. Set goals that are specific, quantifiable, and time restrictive to encourage progressive changes towards your main goals.
- Challanage Yourself. Look, if you dont challange your abilites, you’ll end up in the same place you are right now. If your idea of a workout is to walk on the treadmill…thats fine. However, if you do the same speed, and same pace everytime, your body never has the ability to get stronger. Same thing with lifting weights. If everytime you go into the gym and lift the same 10lb dumbbells for months, you will never enhance your strnegth…You’ll just be really good at lifting 10lb, and nothing more. Try increasing what you do in small increments over time. Every workout, walk 1 mile faster, and do it for 5 min longer. Lift 15lbs and do about 5 more reps than you did with 10s. You’ll see how much faster your body changes vs. doing the same EXACT thing over and over.
- Schedule your workouts. Make exercise as high priority as a doctor’s appointment or a business lunch. After all, your health is most important in reality. Don’t let other “important” things diminish the importance of your physical fitness and health. Take the time to sit down with you calendar and plan all your workouts accordingly. Keep the schedule as with anything else.
- Reward yourself. “All this suffering has to be for something right?!”, a client once said to me. Reward yourself as you complete smaller goals to motivate you to stay on track toward larger goals. When you can complete a successful 5 mile run or do 100 push-ups, for example, reward yourself with a new shirt or go buy something you like. It is the essence of positive reinforcement. Reach a goal, get a reward.
- Forget about the all-or-nothing approach. Don’t have an hour to exercise? Try 30 minutes. It’s better than nothing, and your body will still reap the rewards of a shorter workout. It is here where a lot of excuses come up. “oh man, I missed Monday’s workout, and Wednesday it looks like I can only do 30 min. I guess ill just skip Wednesday and probably Friday as well since I missed the other day… I’ll just start fresh next Monday.” KNOCK IT OFF! Before you know it, it is 6 months down the road, you haven’t started, and you are 12 pounds heavier. Less is more!
And finally, If you “fall off the wagon” of good workout habits, don’t beat yourself up about it. Simply get back to your routine without further procrastination. Remember: it’s about progress over time, not perfection.