The start of a new year is the perfect
time to establish new habits and daily routines. Many of you have probably
decided to start exercising regularly; by now, I have been exercising for about
6 years and I believe that the best way to turn exercising into a daily routine
is building a habit. I share with you some really helpful suggestions that I used
before to get from exercising part of my daily life.
1. Daily exercise. Consistency is the key if we are
trying to make a habit. In a daily workout you don’t need to exercise the same way
every single day and breaking your muscles down. Try to mix it up with 2 or 3
different workouts or sports. Remember, going from a weekly to a daily routine
is more likely to result in a habit.
2. Set a time. Decide what time is the best for you to
exercise everyday and stick with it, if you don’t set a time you are more
likely to postpone it for any reason. Remember, as you get started you will get
the energy you need to continue.
3. Start small and easy. We all start exercising with a
lot of energy, motivation and ambition; however, doing too much at the
beginning is a sure way to fail and eventually you will quit. If we are trying
to create a habit of a daily workout it’s going to be easier to start small and
easy, if you are just starting out don’t try to run on the treadmill for 30
minutes and then doing lift weighting for another 30 minutes; only do 15-20 minutes
total in the beginning. The secret is to get your body slowly used to daily
exercise.
4. Make gradual change. Once your body is used to daily
exercise and it feels way too easy, you are able to make a change on your
routine, increase the length for your workouts to 40 minutes and eventually up
to an hour.
5. Enjoy it. If you have decided to create an exercise habit;
all you need is to do is to be focused on pleasure and not pain. I think this is the
best suggestion ever, start slow and enjoy your body and the effort that
you are doing and if you like, listen to your favorite playlist while
exercising.
6. One day at a time. It’s easy to feel that’s there is
no problem if you skip a day of your workout. But on my experience, the days I
don’t feel like working out, turn out to be my best days. So stick to the plan
even if you don’t feel 100% motivated or healthy, just low the intensity but DO
exercise. Don’t think on anything but the pleasure and satisfaction of
exercising one day at a time.
