3 Tips if You Don’t Currently Have an Exercise…

I don’t currently have a regular exercise routine, but I’d like to…someday

That’s great!  You’ve started thinking about adopting a regular exercise routine, which means you’re beginning to think of the benefits exercise might bring to your life!  Here are the 3 tips for you:

Get specific on what you’re hoping to gain
There’s a reason (or maybe several reasons!) you’re considering making exercise a habit.  What are those reasons?  Take a moment to answer the following questions to help you get really clear on this.  You can either jot down your answers, or talk them out with a friend or family member:  

What is the driving force behind the desire to change now?  Why now?

Picture yourself living your healthiest life.  In that picture, what types of exercise are you doing?  How are you feeling in your body?

If you’ve exercised in the past, what have been your best experiences to date with exercise, times you felt fully alive and engaged?

Getting clear on the reason you want to start exercising (or start again) helps you begin to get a picture in your head of what you’re aiming for, as well as start tapping into your internal motivation.  You’re much more likely to stick with goals set not from external motivation (I SHOULD do this), but rather, internal motivation (I WANT to do this).  

Consider what you bring to the table
Think for a moment about your strengths.  This can be a tough one, but I don’t want you to be modest here.  We all have strengths that we bring to the table, things that come more naturally to us or skills we’ve honed over time.  If it helps, think through strengths you exhibit in other areas of your life besides your health…what strengths shine in your work?  Your home life?  What strengths would your closest friends and family say you have?  Recognizing 1) that you DO have strengths and 2) what those strengths are can help you start to creatively leverage those when you begin to implement an exercise routine.  

For example, if one of your strengths is organization, it may be hard to spot initially how this would support a new exercise habit.  But actually, it’s an amazing strength to leverage for this!  You can much more easily see how to put exercise into your schedule, and how to organize your days so that you have time to exercise.

Assemble your squad
Yep-that’s right!  Even though creating an exercise routine that becomes a consistent habit is ultimately up to you, having a squad or team of folks in your corner can only help you.  

Think about it as the people along a marathon race course, cheering you on with handmade signs they made especially for you, or standing at fueling stations to hand out water or Gatorade.  Those marathon runners, though they’ve put in the time and effort, have not gotten to the finish line on their own, and the sooner you invite people into your desire to start an exercise routine, the better!  So start thinking about who would support you…family members, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and ask them to come alongside you as you begin to figure this out.  

For your next step, check out our IGTV for an IG Live about the Stages of Change, and assume that with exercise, you’re in the “Contemplation” phase.  This video will give you tips on how to progress through the stages of change and begin setting goals at the right time to ensure you the most success!  As always, feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions!

3 Tips if You Struggle with Consistently Exercising

I sometimes have a regular exercise routine, but struggle with consistency

First off, please know that you are not alone!  Sometimes this stage can just feel so FRUSTRATING right??  But all of us, whether we’re currently in this stage or not, have been here before and can relate.  So again-you’re not alone!  Now, for the 3 tips!

Consider it might not be a willpower thing
When we know we desire to make a change, or implement a consistent habit, AND we know the benefits of said change or habit, we can be really dumbfounded when we find it tough to follow through with the goals we’ve set for ourselves around these habits.  But consider this:  it might not be a lack of willpower.  It might actually be the stage of change you’re in, and the fact that you’re not yet ready to set and carry out goals around this behavior.  (If you haven’t had a chance to listen to our IG live about the stages of change, you’ll find it on our IGTV page!)  

When we start the process of wanting to change something in our lives, one of the first stages of change we go through is called “Contemplation”.  Contemplation is where you’re starting to see the benefits of changing…all the good that can come of adopting a regular exercise habit, for instance…and YET.  And this is a big YET.  There are still benefits to staying the same.  We may not recognize that right away, but there’s always a reason we continue with the status quo.  For example…you know that exercising will help you have more energy overall, but you also know that adding an exercise routine will mean less time with your kids after work.  See-there’s a benefit to NOT adding in an exercise routine.  So, what do you do if you realize…oh yeah, I’m still getting benefits from NOT changing?  That brings us to our next tip.

Think through the pros & cons
It sounds so simple, and if you’re like me, you’ve done pros and cons lists for big decisions like “where will I attend college?” and “should we move to this place and take this job?”  Shoutout to my Dad for getting me started with this!  But rarely do we stop to think about this for our habits.  

So take a bit of time…even 5 minutes would do!…to jot down all of the pros for adopting a regular exercise routine that you can think of, and all of the cons of adopting that routine.  For example, a pro would be “It can help me reduce stress” and a con would be “I have to wake up earlier to fit it in my schedule”.  Then, and this is the important part, make a pros and cons list for maintaining the status quo, as well.  For example, a pro would be “I don’t have to do the work of figuring out what type of exercise I like” and a con would be “I’d continue feeling a bit lethargic every day.”  

Build up the pros, and overcome the cons
This is the third and final tip.  After you’ve made your pros and cons list, is to continue adding pros to the “adopting an exercise routine” side over the course of the next several days.  Talk to friends or family about what you’re doing and see if they can brainstorm pros with you.  And always feel free to reach out to us as well!  The goal is to tip the scale in favor of the pros, which actually helps tip your internal motivation in favor of adopting an exercise routine.  And when the motivation turns from external (which can feel a lot like “I know I SHOULD do this”) to internal, you’re much more likely to stay consistent once you set goals, because it’s something you truly see the benefit of, want to do, and have chosen to do.  

BUT!  And this is an important BUT.  We cannot forget the cons, because usually these are barriers or challenges to you making exercise a consistent routine.  First off, know that it’s normal to have challenges-that’s true for all of us!-and it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong (in fact many times, it means you’re doing something right!).  But, thinking through ways to overcome these challenges PRIOR to goal setting will help you have a plan b, or c, or d in place BEFORE those challenges arise.  Once again, you can chat through these with a friend or family member to brainstorm ideas and backup plans to help you overcome these barriers.  Talking things out typically helps us see that there’s a way forward.