Every time I exercise, I feel like an idiot for not doing it more often! The boost in energy, happiness, clarity, stress relief lasts for an entire day. Daily exercise is a no-brainer and clearly improves our quality of life and yet, most of us find it hard to do. I’m still working on this habit, but a few tricks have helped me.
- Do something every day, even if it's really small. If you don’t feel like going to the gym, take a brisk walk, go up and down your stairs for 15 mins, do the 7-minute workout, etc. Just move and break a sweat.
- Integrate exercise into your lifestyle. Bike or walk to work, take the stairs, use a stand-up desk, walk around during your thinking time, do chores at work.
- Do something that's fun for you. Enjoyable and consistent activity is better than the most perfect or effective routine that you won't do.
- Make it social. Work out with a friend, sign up for a class, play sports.
- Sign up for a half marathon (or some other fitness event) that gives you a milestone to work towards. This got me to run nearly every day.
- Track your exercise. Get a fitness tracker or use an app like Way of Life.
- Don’t make it a choice. You only have to exercise your will power if you think it’s a choice. If it’s a thing you have to do every day, then you don’t make excuses.
- It's okay to thoughtfully spend on things that can make exercise more enjoyable or convenient, like classes or trainers, apparel, equipment, etc. Mental and physical health is probably the most important key to a good life and it's okay to invest in it.
I’m also learning how to exercise, but that’s another blog post.