3 essential steps making your exercise habit stick

3 essential steps making your exercise habit stick

Maintaining a regular exercise regimen always sounds good but can be hard to put into practice.  It takes self-discipline, self-motivation, and a strong dose of seeing yourself as someone who exercises.  Whether the goal of physical activity is to get in better shape, lose weight, or to improve a disease condition, frequent exercise is a must for reaching great health.

But, what if you really don’t want to exercise?  What if you lack motivation or discipline to get up an extra 30 minutes early in the morning?  Or to exercise even when you would rather lay on the couch watching TV? 

What it takes is making exercise a habit.  Habits you may already have could be brushing your teeth daily or taking a taking a daily shower.  For something to become a habit there has to be a reward associated with it.  When we brush our teeth, we can prevent cavities and costly dental work.  When we take a daily shower we will look, feel, and especially smell better than if we skip taking showers. 

What is the reward we could achieve if we make exercise a regular habit?  In a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers found that people who worked out at least three times a week continued exercising because they craved the reward.  The primary rewards they experienced were feeling good, the release of endorphins, and a feeling of a sense of accomplishment.  Another finding necessary for success at regular exercise was the belief you are capable of accomplishing it.  In other words, you are capable of establishing the habit, planning the workouts, and then completing the workouts.

There are three essential steps to make this scenario happen.  If you are someone who sometimes starts an exercise regimen but within a matter of time, you slack off, this is what you need to know to not let that happen again.  These three steps work on making changes through small behaviors that overtime, add up to big, sustainable actions making you a stick-to-it type of person when it comes to exercise. 

1.  Plan cues for exercise

When you think about it, most of the set regimens we do in our current lives, usually have cues reminding us not to forget them.  Maybe you set a watering can in a certain area reminding you to water your houseplants once a week. Or maybe schedule in all of your doctor appointments for the next several months that will remind you they are coming up. 

Exercise is no different.  We need reminders or cues triggering our brain that, “Oh yeah, I need to exercise today.”  Here are some ideas to use for cues:

·      Schedule in workouts – Look at your daily schedule and carve out time to fit in exercise. Even if it’s just a 10 minute walk after lunch, this is a good start.

·      Lay out your workout clothes before bedtime.  Seeing them the next morning can be a reminder to be physically active.  Or once you are home from work, change into comfortable clothes to exercise in.

·      Do a healthy behavior before working out.  This could be light stretching, go for a quick walk or do some deep breathing.  Any of these can help get you in the right frame of mind for exercise.

2.  Plan your workouts

This is a crucial part of making exercise a long-term sustainable part of your life.  If you are a novice, start off slowly.  Starting off by overdoing it, will only lead to frustration, possible injury or most likely, feeling very sore.  In the beginning, be realistic what you can or cannot do.  Initially, make your workouts easy and doable so you get a taste of what exercise has to offer.

It’s also important to have the belief, you can do this.  Self-efficacy or knowing you can trust yourself to follow through, is  a major component of success at most anything in life including making exercise a normal part of your life.

Find physical activities you enjoy and look forward to.  You may need to try out several different means of being active before deciding which ones you like the best.  A well-rounded exercise regimen will include a combination of cardio, strength-training, and stretching or flexibility movements.  If you are unsure of how to get started, seek out help from a personal trainer who can design a workout routine just for you. 

3.  Plan to make your exercise habit stick

 There are simple tricks anyone can do to make exercise an expected, normal routine.  Try doing these to make it a lifelong habit:

·      Workout at the same time every day.

·      Have a ritual around your workout. 

·      Keeping an exercise log by crossing off or putting an “X” down every day you work out.

·      Get in the mode of focusing on the habit first, and then the results.  Don’t make it only about weight loss.  Begin to focus on how it makes you feel – begin to notice improvements in your mood, energy levels, and better quality sleep.  In the long run, those are the main rewards that will keep you working out for many years.