Health Creation Centre: Making exercise a habit and not a task

Can you believe we are already eight weeks into 2020?

For many of us, the post-summer holiday blues are out in force, and the good intentions of new year’s resolutions have fallen to the wayside. So how do you ensure that your healthy habits don’t fall to the bottom of your to do list now that those summer holidays feel like an eternity ago?

The most important thing to remember is that exercise should be a habit, and not a task. Here are five tips to help you stay on track and not let the winter blues ruin your winning streak.
Make sure you choose an enjoyable workout

It sounds simple but more often than not people see exercise as a task to achieve a certain goal, and not surprisingly they lose interest or motivation within a few months. It’s important to find something that brings joy to your life and doesn’t feel like a task. This might mean joining a social team, finding someone who shares your interests to go on a walk with. Whatever you chose to do, it must be something that is worth getting out of bed early for.

Start small

If you have not worked out in a while, setting unrealistic goals for your daily workout routine might make you start second-guessing your skills, feel overwhelmed and become unmotivated. It is more important to enjoy the time you are exercising, and after a while your motivation will increase and you can start to add more into your routine. This way you are more likely to stick to your program and avoid over training or injury.

Schedule your workout into your day

It is important to make exercise part of your lifestyle and not an additional task you need to add to your ever growing to do list. I find it helpful to look at my week in advance and schedule times into my diary for training – this way I’m not playing catch up by Friday. You can also use apps on your phone to save these times and remind you with an alarm that it’s workout time. For the long term, make sure you take into account days you have early starts or late finishes so you don’t end up trying to squeeze in a workout when you are not feeling yourself.

Have a helpful support system

Having someone to hold you accountable for exercise makes it much easier to get out of bed in the morning. Enlisting a friend to meet you for a workout means you are less likely to cancel as someone is waiting for you! This might mean joining a team, or pre-purchasing class passes etc so you are committed to turning up.

Think long term

Any new exercise program needs to be sustainable long term. Look for an event to train for, schedule rest days into your program, find a coach to help you plan out your year etc. Exercise needs to become a part of your life just like brushing your teeth and eating breakfast.

If you want to live a long and healthy life, you need to start making exercise a habit and not a chore.

The Health Creation Centre is at 74 The Avenue, Ocean Grove. Phone 5255 3411 or head to healthcreationcentre.com.au.