Author | Kelsey Howlett |
How many times have you said that you wanted to be healthier, work out, or start a consistent schedule?
Look, I know it is hard. There are so many times that I really do not want to exercise, and I have absolutely no motivation. However, I push myself to work out, and every time I feel amazing afterward. It’s a mindset. After you form a routine and see the results, it completely changes your mindset.
I now have an addiction to working out; it is like my stress reliever, anger reducer, and honestly just really fun. If you had told me two years ago that working out would be fun for me, I would have probably laughed and called you stupid. However, I have a schedule, and I have the motivation, and now I love to exercise and am thrilled to push myself.
According to a statistic I found, half of the people who start an exercise program quit after six months. That is crazy.
I was once told that any habit could be formed after doing anything for fourteen days straight. Consistency is the key to any workout lifestyle. To stay consistent, you need motivation.
To have the motivation, you need to see results, right? You do not want to dedicate hours a week of your life to something that you do not even know will work. So, try it out. You have to start somewhere. Motivation is easy at the start; everyone is excited the first few days, but when you are sore and bruised it is challenging to run the lap or do the push-up. If you were to ask me, I would say stick to it, go a month, if you don’t like how you feel, try something else. I know it is super cheesy, but simply don’t give up. Get a partner, someone to push you and keep you accountable.
You also need to try to do new things. I am continually adding more reps to my workouts or upping my weights. I also will add new tips, tricks, or moves and see if I like them. I do all of this while maintaining my favorites and things that I see results. You might see that as not being consistent, but that is not the case. I am consistent, but I also do not want to get bored. You also will get used to the same thing after a while, and it really is not even doing anything to you unless you challenge yourself more.
If any of you are wondering what I do, I do not go to the gym. My brother is a weight-lifter and tried to get me to go with him forever. I did not want to pay for a place to go when I could do everything at home. I think it is a waste of money for me, but I know for a lot of people it is also a sense of motivation if they get out of the house. It depends on the person.
I do Brazilian Jujitsu with my awesome partner, Sammi. She asked me to try it with her in the spring of this year, and after some coaxing, I went to a session with her. I have to admit the first time I saw what it was I was very perplexed as to why anyone would want to do it. However, after going for a few weeks, I was completely hooked. I go now as often as I can. BJJ is like a form of martial arts, but it reminds me more of wrestling. I wanted to learn self-defense, and this is exactly that. On top of that, I do a workout every day consisting of the different drills and exercises I do in my classes at BJJ, with your general workout as well.
Let me tell you a story. My good buddy, who you all should know, Lydia, told me a couple of months ago she was going to start working out. Now, I have been friends with Lydia for a long time, and she avoids any sort of physical exertion like high-schoolers avoid finals. So, to be honest, I was shocked. She tells me I sometimes talk like a mom and I probably did in this situation.
She remembers every conversation she ever has. I don’t, but I probably said something about how it would be hard and to form a habit and stay consistent and so on. She challenged herself to do 50 sit-ups a day, and increase it gradually to 100. That is not too bad. For Lydia, it might be like running a marathon, but at least it was something, right?
Anyways, I asked her often if she still exercised every day and she did for a long time. In fact, she shocked me. I thought for sure it would last maybe one week, but she proved me wrong (which I am sure she is pleased about because it does not happen often). She said, “I didn’t forget or anything. I wasn’t busy. Just one day, I was like, ‘Nahhhhhh’ and then I stopped.” After one day of not doing it, she lost all her desire.
The theme this issue is Fallout. I think that is relatable to many areas of life, but majorly with exercise. The main problem with people is staying diligent and continuous in any form of exercise. It is easy to give up and just try again another day. I want to challenge you not to follow that curve. Do not get defeated and annoyed when you “fall out,” but actually stick to it. In the long run, it will not only just affect your everyday life but also your character and work ethic for anything in the future.
{Ways to Achieve This}
Get someone to bug you until you start working out. (accountability partner)
Have a specific time to work out every day. (I always work out in the evenings)
Start off slow and build your workouts up when you start to become more comfortable.
I did not even pull the healthy eating card in this article, but unless you want to throw up, eat something healthy before you workout.
Don’t feel like you have to do everything precisely as someone does it on a video you found online. Everyone is different; you have to see what works for you.
If you have stopped, and you feel like you might want to start back up again, just do it. Do not push it off another week or month. Start now. Live for today.