This blog post will discuss ways to begin an exercise routine. You may have noticed that I did not use the word exercise in the title. Many people have negative feelings about the word exercise. It often implies hard work and for many people unenjoyable activity. If you are one of those people who is always saying; “I should start exercising” but always comes up with a really good reason why today is not the day, then I suspect you have some negative feelings toward exercise. First of all, to be successful you need to get rid of these negative feelings or else you will always find an excuse to do anything but exercise.
I suggest starting by creating a list of all of the things that you think of when I say the word “exercise”. Your list may include things like; hard work, sweating, running, time consuming, a gym, etc… Next, try and come up with a good list of reasons why you should exercise. Your list may include things like; more energy, good for my health, weight loss, good for my emotional well being, etc… Now, I want you to keep both lists and every time you come up with an excuse not to exercise ask yourself if you are referring to your first list as your reason not to. If that is the case, reread your second list and get out there and do it.
The next step to starting a exercise routine is to make exercise fun. You are much more likely to continue exercising if you are enjoying what you are doing. Physical activity does not need to be the traditional form of exercise in order for you to benefit from it. The Mayo Clinic has a nice list of fun activities that help you burn calories. I have attached the link here https://diet.mayoclinic.org/diet/move/fun-ways-to-burn-calories . I want you to create a list of activities that you enjoy. Try and incorporate both indoor and outdoor activities so the weather will never be an excuse.
Now decide on how often and how long you will do one of these activities. You may want to come up with different durations for different activities. Such as walking for 30minutes or jumping rope for 10 minutes since they are very different in the amount of calories your are burning doing each exercise. Start with a very easy routine, one you can actually succeed at. Such as going for a walk 3 times a week for 10 minutes. You may be saying that “this is nowhere near the government’s recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate activity per week”. You then would be correct however, it is a start and doing nothing is even farther away from the recommendation. This routine does not need to specify the type of activity only the frequency (number of times you are doing it per week). On your list of activities you can assign each activity with a duration (time spent doing the activity) to start with. This will allow you to choose from different activities if you really do not feel like doing the one you usually do or the weather is a factor that day.
Once you have been successful at this routine for two weeks you can add to it. You have to be completely successful. DO NOT add to it if you cannot commit to your first routine. You can add duration (time spent doing the activities) or frequency ( number of times per week). Again make this addition very small (something you can achieve). Once you reach another successful two weeks add on again.
Remember, you do not need to do the same thing everyday. Keep pulling from your list of activities and continue to add to it so you don’t get board. Your list will continue to develop along with you and someday you won’t even remember why it was that you disliked exercise.
