When we’re trying to lose weight, we have to watch our diet and make sure we’re getting enough physical activity, too. Diet is most important, but exercise is crucial to improving our overall health and fitness, building our stamina and increasing our muscle strength, especially as we age. So, it’s essential to figure out how to stick with your exercise plan.
But there are so many excuses to skip a workout.
And we often succumb to them, and before we know it, we’ve missed a crucial goal or even suffered a setback related to our health and fitness.
Truly, having a full life may depend on us being able to stick to an exercise plan and a healthy diet. So, it’s critical that we do, to live our best and most healthy life.
Let’s talk about how to short circuit those common excuses that may prevent us from sticking with our exercise plans.
How to Stick with Your Exercise Plan
Exercise improves our blood circulation, strengthens our muscles and bones, boosts our stamina and endurance, accelerates calorie burning, improves our mood and has innumerable other health benefits.
Increasing physical activity brings many rewards.
It’s not just about weight loss.
Physical activity also increases mental clarity.
Those who exercise often tend to be more successful in other aspects of life as well.
The problem is, when we’re embarking on a weight loss program, our mind will cook up many excuses to prevent us from working out.
This is the mind’s self-preservation mechanism. It doesn’t want us to ‘suffer’, so it tries to hold us back from things we believe are unpleasant – whether those beliefs are accurate or not.
Let’s talk about some of the most common excuses that crop up so we can mindfully overcome them and stick with our diet and fitness goals.
How to Stick with Your Exercise Plan even if you “don’t have time.”
Do you always find that you have no time to exercise?
One simple and effective way to address this is get up 30 minutes earlier every day.
You may need to go to bed 30 minutes earlier, but you’ll usually find that going to bed early is possible, especially after you’ve had a good workout.
In the event that you must work out later in the day but find that you only have 20 minutes instead of your usual 30 minutes, just work out for twenty minutes and call it a day.
Tell yourself that you can make up for it another day.
How to Stick with Your Exercise Plan even if your body aches.
If your body aches, you can slow down the pace. Worked your legs yesterday and they’re aching today?
No worries. Work your arms instead.
Do a few dumbbell curls, push-ups, pull ups, etc.
Sometimes even a slow 30-minute walk will help to ease your aching leg muscles because the increased blood circulation in your legs will help to flush out the lactic acid.
When your body aches, be mindful about how severe the pain is, and which part of the body is affected.
If you need a rest, take it… but if your mind is just looking for an excuse, go ahead and train another body part.
How to Stick with Your Exercise Plant even when you’re not in the mood.
If you’re not in a mood to exercise and you have no good reason for it, just accept the feeling and tell yourself you’ll only exercise for 5 minutes. Then do it.
Tell yourself it’s just for 5 minutes.
In most cases, you’ll end up exercising for the full duration. It’s the getting started part that’s the most difficult. Once you start, you’ll carry on.
If after 5 minutes, you’re really not in the mood, just stop. It’s fine. You can carry on another day.
How to Stick with Your Exercise Plan even if you’re not seeing results.
If you feel like exercising is a waste of time because you’re not seeing results, it’s important to tell yourself to be patient. Exercise is important for more than just weight loss.
Increase your activity and intensity in your training. Next, you’ll want to study your diet closely. Very often, if you’re not seeing weight loss despite exercising, it’s because your diet is not under control.
How to Stick with Your Exercise Plan even if you can’t afford a gym.
We don’t need a gym to lose weight. There are many options.
We can run outside, train at home, get a home workout DVD, stream an exercise class, etc.
Gyms are not a requirement for weight loss.
The same applies to having a fitness trainer.
No one needs a fitness trainer to succeed.
If you’re unsure where to begin, just get on YouTube. There are thousands of exercise videos and plans that show you what to do.
How To Stick with Your Plan
When our minds give us excuses and tells us we can’t workout, we need to push back.
Deep down, we know the truth.
Let’s be mindful of our thoughts.
Allow excuses to show up but exercise anyway.
Be the boss of those thoughts!
Even after we’ve made exercise a daily habit and enjoy it, every now and then a thought may creep into our head telling us why we should skip a workout.
The temptation to give in never ends.
And when there are good reasons to give into that temptation, we should.
But that should be the exception, not the rule – if we’re truly invested in living a fit and healthy life.
For more advice on how to stick with an exercise plan, check out: Secrets to Improve Will Power.
Thank you as always for reading.
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Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Her career includes 20+ years as a private sector corporate executive and 15 years as a consultant. The common thread through her professional life has been a commitment to compassionate coaching and leadership, including mentoring early and mid-career professionals as well as current and future executives and leaders. KindCompassCoach articles are backed by research and include facts and advice from relevant experts. Joan is a member of the International Organization of Life Coaches, serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me.
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