HOW TO GET YOURSELF TO EXERCISE REGULARLY AND EAT HEALTHIER Pt. 2

In part 1 I touched on how your perspectives are a key piece to changing your habits and behaviors. This post is going to focus on following through with taking action. We can change our perspectives and continue learning information all day long, but if we don’t take action, we aren’t going to see any changes ;).

You want to have a plan. 

Unfortunately, “I’m going to move more and eat healthier” isn’t a very good plan. Having vague goals and plans isn’t likely to get you very far. We can have all the intentions in the world to follow through with this, but without getting very specific on the actions we’re going to do, it’s unclear to our brains exactly what we’re aiming to do and becomes far to easy to let things fall to the wayside.

Have a specific plan for how you’re going to start moving in the direction of exercising more or eating healthier. This can look like going from “I’m going to move more” to “I’m going to walk for 20 minutes after lunch each day” or, going from “I’m going to eat healthier” to “I’m going to buy a few fruits and vegetables at the store and add them to my meals this week.” In both instances, the reframe tells you what you’re going to do, which makes things so much easier for our brain to follow through with. 

With creating your plan, think about your journey to becoming someone who exercises regularly and eats healthy like climbing a ladder, taking one step at a time, instead of trying to get to the roof of the building in one jump. 

I will validate that it can be far more motivating and exciting to think about doing a 180 with your diet and lifestyle and strive to only eat “super healthy” and instantly become a consistent gym goer. It feels like we’re really doing something, it feels like we’re making big moves to see the progress we want. The rigid structure also makes the decision-making process easier on our brains. 

Buuuutttttt more often than not that approach sets people up for failure instead. If you don’t believe me, have you (or someone you know) ever tried to completely overhaul your eating and lifestyle choices? Are you/they still living that way?

Rather than try to change so many of your habits and behaviors over night, think of it more like getting system upgrades to your device. You’re not trading in an XBox for a Playstation, you’re installing small system updates regularly as it’s time for things to be upgraded. 

How can you start small and build upon that over time?

You want a clear plan, and you also want to allow yourself to have flexibility within the plan. We want to be like water in a cup. Water is free-moving and can change it’s shape and where it is. The cup provides the structure for the water so it doesn’t go all over the place. 

We need to understand that we are human and life is always going to be throwing something at us. If we don’t allow ourselves to have flexibility within our plan and not do anything if we can’t do it perfectly, we may feel like we aren’t doing it right or aren’t doing enough, get discouraged, and then fall back into our previous habits. 

Allowing for flexibility means allowing the plans to change. It means being able to change when, what, and how long your workout is if things come up rather than not do it if you can’t follow the plan to a T. It means having a plan in place for your meals but being okay with finding a healthy lunch option to order if you were in too much of a rush to pack your lunch. 

Pivot and change the plan as needed depending on your current circumstances. 

Feeling resistance or lacking motivation doesn't have to mean anything.

Something to understand is that initially feeling unmotivated or resistant to doing something doesn’t have to mean anything. You always have the opportunity to choose your own thoughts and actions in the moment. You can feel resistance or feel unmotivated and choose to cultivate thoughts and feelings that will make you feel motivated, or you can also choose to do the thing even without those feelings. You’re the one in control over your own brain ;). 

When it comes to what you’re working on getting yourself to do, whether it’s getting to the gym, going for a walk, going to the grocery store, cooking a meal, etc., there are different tools you can look to employ:

• Shift your thoughts. What thoughts help you take action (you’ll have to play around with this and see what works best for you)

• Think about why you DO want to do the thing and/or what you DO enjoy about it. 

• Think about how you’ll feel after you do the thing. You can also think about your future self and think about what your future self with be gratfeul you did. 

• You can create a reward system where you do something you enjoy only while you workout or cook such as listen to your favorite podcast, watch your favorite show, or have a fun drink.

• Give yourself a choice in the moment. For example, you can ask yourself if you’d rather go on a walk or lift weights, if you’d rather do upper body or lower body, if you’d rather cook chicken or salmon, or if you’d rather throw together a side salad or pop some veggies into the air fryer.

Plan for obstacles.

If you’re ready to change some of your current habits and routines and feel committed to becoming someone who exercises regularly and eats healthier, I highly recommend planning for obstacles.

Think about what obstacles are likely to arise with the plan you’ve set for yourself. Maybe your plan is to go lift at the gym after work Monday through Thursday. What might happen that will make following through with that tougher to do? 

Looking at your list of potential obstacles, make a plan for what you’ll do in those instances. “If _____ happens, I’ll ________.” 

Practice the thought work

Paying more attention to your thoughts and being able to shift your thoughts is a major aspect of changing your behaviors. Noticing when your thoughts are going in an unhelpful direction and being able to reframe them is ultimately how you have control over your actions.

For example, If your brain is saying “Eh, I don’t feel like it. I’ll just do it later.” you can notice that and acknowledge that this usually leads to not doing the thing. Then you can reframe it to something like “I’ll feel really good after I do this, let me go ahead and do it now.” This will help you be far more successful than if you’re just living based on your auto-pilot, habitual thoughts.

If you’re at a point where you know you want to prioritize your health and fitness but feel like you don’t know where to start or struggle with following through, we can work together to set up a plan that works with your life and help you cultivate the skills to stick with the goals you have for yourself. You can inquire about coaching here.