We all know that exercise is good for us as well as eating our daily share of fruit and vegetables. Then why is it so hard to do? Most of us enjoy lounging on the sofa watching a series or piling up on some good crisps or a glass of something. I know I do. If like me, you’ve been doing this for several decades then how do you start exercising and getting healthy again? Essentially, you’ll need to change the habits of a lifetime. Clearly that’s easier said than done. 

What to do? 

There’s a great blog by ivee that gives very good, practical advice about improving your sleep routine and finding healthy food sources of essential vitamins. I particularly like their ‘stop workin, start walkin’ mantra. It’s so true that exercise doesn’t have to be a painful hour slogging away on a machine at the gym. Walking is often looked down upon but actually, if you walk at a good pace then you still reduce the risk of heart issues by 31%. That’s definitely not to be ignored. So why not find a fun or beautiful walk in your neighbourhood? 

Go back to the Source – What’s on your Mind?

Having said all that, even walking can be tough to start if it’s not in your daily routine. Let’s not forget the whole muscle restoration routine. It can quickly get overwhelming especially as we all have so many excuses. I know that I’ve used pretty much used most of them at some point. I’m sure you recognise these phrases: I’m too tired. I’m too busy at work. I’ll do it tomorrow.

In fact, the excuses can go on forever and you’ll have your own particular set. There’s nothing wrong with them though, believe it or not, so don’t be hard on yourself. It’s just your mind trying to save you from some pain because yes, you do need to make a little effort. However, it doesn’t have to be extreme. So, be gentle with yourself when you try to change your habits of a lifetime. Work with your body and what you have and go one small step at a time. At the end of the day, it all starts with the mind though.

So, let’s have a look at how you can work with your mind: 

1- What’s stopping you? What story are you telling yourself? 

Our minds are very powerful and they are wonderful things. After all, they protect us and keep us alive. Unfortunately, they can be a little over enthusiastic at times, especially when it comes to excuses. One trick is to write down all those excuses the next time you do want to exercise. This is assuming that you’re going for an achievable goal. There’s no point telling yourself that you’ll run a marathon when you haven’t exercised in months. That’s true for food as well. Our preferences don’t just change overnight.

Once you have your list of excuses taken over several weeks than have a look for some trends. Is it that you’re too tired? Then play around with the time of day. We all have energy levels that change throughout the day and the first step is to understand them and then work with them. Alternatively, if you’re too busy then try to schedule something into your diary or calendar that’s only for 10 minutes. If you’re that busy and if it’s not in your diary then you’re not going to do it. 

2-  Link to an existing habit 

Our mind are made up of habits but we can use these to our advantage. It can be as simple as “I brush my teeth and then I do 20 pushups followed by my cup of tea as a reward”.

What other habits could you leverage? My personal one is that I walk my dog then I give her breakfast and then I do my yoga and meditation. It took a bit of perseverance and practice but now I can’t imagine starting the day without that. It’s the same with food. You’d be amazed at how delicious and refreshing some fruit can be at breakfast or after a brisk walk.

3- Tick it off your list 

The best thing about our minds is that we can trick them. This is particularly useful knowledge when trying to change habits of a lifetime. You might be intrigued to know that there are many feel-good chemicals that we can trigger with some easy activities.

For example, the simple act of ticking something off your list helps launch dopamine in your brain which basically makes you feel happy. You can take this one step further by using some friendly competition with a buddy partner such that you check in on each other’s progress. There are some other happy chemicals that you can trigger which I wrote about in a previous blog if you’re interested. 

You can do it too 

I’m not saying that it’s necessarily easy to change the habits of a lifetime. No one has a magic wand. But it is do-able and you can make it easier with some tricks and some baby steps. Don’t try and walk up Mount Everest in a day but be kind to yourself and do little bits at a time.

Also, the more you link these changes to existing habits, and understand the thought patterns that have been stopping you, then the more likely you’ll be able to sustain your new habit. So give it a go and you never know, you might end up with a whole new way of life.