Five Ways to Make Exercise a Daily Habit It’s easy to announce to the world that you’ll be making changes in your lifestyle to keep yourself healthy and fit, but it’s always easier said than done. Every step seems to be a struggle – from cutting back on sugar, reducing your calorie intake to trying out a new sport. Creating new habits altogether takes a lot of discipline and willpower.
The only technique is to just do it. However, getting started is only half the battle. The rest lies on whether you will be able to keep your momentum. Most people start out great but lose their enthusiasm after a while. They start skipping one workout session until they don’t goat all, and before they know it, their gym membership has expired. One cheat day makes you feel defeated that you totally give upon it.
So the question is, how do you keep your motivation high and stay on track?
1.Set Your Goals and Plan
Making changes in your life to improve your health and fitness is a challenge. You need to be 101% committed. Since it requires a great deal of effort, planning is essential. However, goal-setting is crucial to be able to plan properly. The type of exercise, schedule, pacing all depend on what you want to achieve. Make sure that you are clear on your goals. Planning is easier when you have your eyes on the prize.
For example, when you goto the gym,it’s helpful that you stick to a pattern and not just use whatever equipment is not in use or isn’t sweaty. This is not ideal because you tend to do the same thing over and over, and it’s easy to miss the goals you have set. If you want stronger arms, choose exercises that will help you lift heavier.
If you want to strengthen your legs, follow a workout that focuses on it. If you don’t know how togo about with your routine, try getting a coach to help you plan and help track your progress.
Set your goals to come up with an action plan. “Just doit”is a good mantra, but it’s important that you begin with the “Why”. As what they say, failing to plan is planning to fail.
2.Set a Schedule and Stick to It
To others, exercising is just an option – something that they will choose to do if work schedule permits or if they have free time during the weekend or just whenever they feel like going. This is not effective at all. Even if you’re following a structure when working out, doing so on random times is a great way to fail.
Different sources say different things when it comes to the best time to work out. However, the best time is really the time that you set for yourself – whether it be in the morning, at night, or even during your lunch break; whether it’s every other day or thrice a week. Think of what would work best for you, and follow it regularly. It also prevents you from using external factors as excuses to skip a session.
Our bodies revolve around systematic routines to effectively function, and they also depend on habits largely. The goalistomake exercising a habit, and one of the steps is to do it regularly.
3. Have Fun
Exercising doesn’t have to feel like a punishment. Yes,it can be tiring and painful, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable. There are ways to make your workouts fun.
Effective exercises are not without pain and fatigue. Sometimes, those are the very things that keep one motivated. Most people start to lose interest when they feel that their workouts are becoming boring and repetitive. You can embrace the pain without being a masochist.
Ironically, exercising makes you happy. No, this isn’t a myth. Exercising releases happy hormones and send happy signals in your brain. You can often hear runners talk about “runner’s high”, or how great lifters feel when they sweat with the weights. No one’s ever regretted the pain and exhaustion after a good workout session. It’s the feeling of satisfaction that overwhelms.
When you’re running out of these so-called happy hormones, or when you don’t think they’re taking effect on you, why not take it upon yourself to make your exercise fun?
Some ways to amuse yourself while trying to lose weight are doing your workouts outdoors, inviting your friends to exercise with you, trying new sports with strangers, and if you get satisfaction from competition, set your goals alongside other people and see who can get to the finish line faster. Make it fun and light!
4. Explore New Things
As previously mentioned, following structure in workouts is advantageous, but there comes to a point where it starts to become monotonous that you start to lose motivation and give up. Other reasons people cite are lack of time and equipment as well as expired membership. You start falling back to your old sedentary lifestyle, and all your efforts are gone.
However, if any of these things happens, you shouldn’t stop trying. This is actually a great way to explore something new. Try a new exercise in a cheaper gym, join your friends in their afternoon run, or have someone to introduce you new routines that you can do with your home equipment.
Trying new things does not defeat the purpose of planning. It only serves as a backup plan for when things don’t go your way (and they sometimes won’t!). It’s better to have a Plan B instead of quitting. It will also help you try other exercises that may work even better for you.
5. Imagine Yourself Beach-Body Ready
Lastly, imagining yourself naked or donning a bikini or swimming trunks can bethebest motivation. You wouldn’t want to be walking on the beach with unfit bodies. You want to look sexy and at the same time strong. Imagine how you want to show off what you worked hard for.
Really, when is the best time to flaunt your body than summer time? Keep this in mind when you feel like staying in bed instead of working on those arms and bums. You don’t want the season to just pass you by without enjoying it freely. To make sure that you get your beach body on time, time to get to work.
