5 Reasons You’re Not Consistent with Exercise
CONSISTENCY! You will (consistently) hear us coaches preaching the importance of being consistent; aiming to exercise 3x/week for the best results. While this is an achievable goal, it can feel like a struggle to first, even start exercising and building a routine and second, an even bigger struggle sticking to that routine.
Do you want to start exercising but always being pulled in 100 different directions, so you’ll just start tomorrow? Next week? After the holidays?
Are you exercising but struggling to stay consistent?
You are not alone!
There’s more to getting into a consistent routine than ‘just doing it’!
In today’s blog, you are learning our 5 proven strategies to help you build a consistent exercise routine so that you keep coming back for more, achieve your goals and live healthy, happy and strong for life!
Consistency is KING (or Queen 😉)
Developing a new habit with anything takes time and practice makes perfect! Whether you are helping your child take practice shots after missing the winning goal or, cooking a recipe (again) after forgetting an ingredient, you both both will be 1% better for having more practice under your belt!
Well, this ‘practice makes perfect’ and ‘1% better, one step at a time’ mentality IS how you create and nail down the habit and lifestyle change of exercising. Notice how I said lifestyle change! Exercising and prioritizing your own health is a skill that doesn’t just happen overnight. It is a way you live, and you have to practice, practice, practice!
So, how do you practice consistency? With our 5 proven strategies, of course!
#1. SET REALISTIC GOALS!
It is so important to set realistic goals, especially when first starting your fitness journey. While it is great to have a ‘big picture’ of where you want to end up, those types of goals can get overwhelming, leading to burnout, loss of motivation and giving up!
Instead of saying “I want to lose 50 pounds”, a more tangible, realistic goal might be losing 5 pounds your first month. Compared to 50, 5 pounds is a more manageable number to work towards plus, you are setting a specific timeline for achieving that goal. Taking a month-by-month approach allows you to track changes and experience incremental wins along the way to celebrate so you stay excited to keep going!
At Results Fitness, goal setting is an important part of your success and the RF process. In fact, goal setting is the very first step before you even start exercising! During your (FREE) Strategy Session, you spend 1:1 time with our team talking through your goals: where you are today, where you want to be and the stuff holding you back. From there, you get a personalized strategy so you know exactly how we will work together to achieve your personal goal(s) one day, one step, one workout at a time!
#2. STOP the ‘ALL or NOTHING’ Approach
Are you the type that’s all in or completely off the rails?
I can hear you through the computer now: ”…but Coach Marissa, I need to be tough on myself!”
The passion and motivation behind that sentence is incredible but being in an ‘all or nothing’ mindset is NOT realistic or sustainable. If tough love was truly the most effective approach, it would’ve worked by now.
So, what can you do instead of the ‘all or nothing approach’
Acceptance! Sometimes things happen and that is OK! Using the perspective of “NEVER TWO” is one highly effective approach to combat the ‘all or nothing’ mindset. Here’s how it works:
· If you have a super bad workout today, tomorrow’s workout will be better.
· If you missed today’s workout, you will make the next one.
Never two bad workouts in a row. Never two missed workouts in a row. It is ok to stumble, but getting right back to it the next time reinforces exercise is an important habit /part of your daily/weekly routine!
Here at Results Fitness, we understand life happens and practice what we preach meaning, we don’t believe in making you change everything all at once or striving for perfection. We take a more realistic approach to your success: progress over perfection!
Knowing work, kids and life may take precedent at times, we teach you how to make exercise fit into your schedules and lifestyles. You stop thinking you have to be “all in” 100% of the time and instead, approach it as doing the best you can given the circumstances. Every workout will not be your absolute best but what counts most is you doing what you do CONSISTENTLY over time for the long haul!
#3. CREATE, FOLLOW + EXECUTE A PLAN!
Setting a plan and scheduling workouts into your days, weeks and months is one of the most successful strategies for staying on track! Unfortunately, you can’t rely solely on motivation because eventually you will have a day when you just don’t want to exercise - then what? This is where creating, following and executing a plan becomes beneficial.
Laying out your calendar and finding pockets of time you are regularly available is step one. Once you know where/when you can allot time for exercise, reserve that time by scheduling it and adding to all the important calendars. Like any other type of appointment – work meeting, doctor, dentist, mechanic, hair, nails, etc – scheduling your workout in advance makes it a priority for that day and keeps you consistent!
At Results Fitness, we leave nothing to chance! You schedule your workouts in advance, up to 30 days in advance. Having to plan and sign up for your workouts in advance means you are mor likely to show up. Otherwise, you talk yourself out of going because you’re tired, work sucked, it’s cold outside, it’s dark by 5pm, the office is going to happy hour. This strategy keeps YOU, your health and your goals priority and is proven to be the difference in showing up versus skipping workouts.
….Have a Back Up Plan
Having a plan is great and having a backup plan is even better! For example, if you are traveling for work or vacationing and unable to make it to your regularly scheduled workout, instead of skipping it all together, look online or call the hotel to ask if the hotel offers an on-site gym. At Results Fitness, we have hotel workout programs readily accessible as needed that are easily adaptable based on availability of equipment, gym, etc.
#4. Make Exercising FUN!!
Maybe exercise feels like a chore – something you absolutely do NOT enjoy! That is perfectly OK and know you are not alone. For many, exercise feels this way because you’ve tried doing it on your own and yeah, not fun! Or, you’ve gone to a typical, big box gym and discovered it’s not welcoming, you don’t know what to do and no one is there to help you.
Call us biased but the most fun you will ever have while exercising is within the very walls of Results Fitness 😉! At Results Fitness, you become part of a community that is more like family and is the difference between you feeling excited and wanting to show up versus not. You make new friends, are surrounded by people with similar goals as well as challenges and you feel PART of something!
As your coaches, we are there so you always know exactly what to do PLUS, we keep you motivated, laughing and enjoying it along the way! Outside of your success, our goal is infusing FUN and helping your new habit be something you genuinely want to do! The excitement and enjoyment will leave you wanting more!
Plus, exercise is not a one size fits all approach, and we understand your individual needs are different from others. Your fitness is personalized so no more hating exercising because you don’t know what to do and aren’t seeing results! That is exactly what we are here for!
#5. Be Held Accountable!
Finding a fitness community like all the beautiful Warriors that make Results Fitness, a workout buddy and having a coach is our fool proof strategy to guarantee you are thriving, succeeding, and getting results!
When you surround yourself with likeminded individuals, it’s scientifically proven you are MORE likely to succeed versus going at it alone. Secondly, making exercise “stick” is hard enough without trying to figure out what to do and how to do it to get the results you want. As your coaches, we design your exercise programs for you so you get results! No more wasting time trying to figure it all out on your own. This means MORE time to exercise and BETTER results!
And, you have 24/7 unlimited access to this community and coaches with our exclusive Facebook group where you can connect with fellow Warriors, share your wins and / or challenges, celebrate life’s moments, ask questions, post funny memes, swap recipes – you are NEVER going at this alone. In addition to the amazing community, you also can participate in multiple accountability programs and challenges throughout the year!
Now that you know our 5 proven strategies to build a consistent fitness routine, you may be thinking:
“OK, these sound great BUT……it’s the holiday season so I’ll wait until January.”
NO, NO, NO 😊! It is understandable that with the holidays comes additional stress. Schedules get busier, your cousin is being weird at Thanksgiving dinner again and there are so.many.treats!
Instead of waiting for several months to pass, it is best to start your fitness journey today! You’ll have more energy, it will be a healthy stress reliever, you will feel better about yourself, and most importantly, you will learn how to make this “stick” regardless of what life throws your way.
Remember, you are striving for PROGRESS over perfection. If you truly want to be consistent with your fitness, the best time to start is when you are busy so you can practice and learn how to make it work long term.
Added perk for starting NOW: by the time the New Year rolls around, you will already have a routine with two full months under your belt! No more waking up January 1 with regret, remorse and shame.
It may all seem a bit overwhelming at first but implementing these 5 proven strategies are the most effective practices to get and stay consistent at exercising! It is important to remember that it doesn’t happen in a day, a week or a month. It happens over months and years. After reading this, I want you to pick at least one thing from this blog and implement it starting today. While it is a gradual process, the results are always worth it 😊!
If you want help building a consistent exercise routine and making it stick in your busy schedule, click the button now to book your FREE intro session now so that you can meet ad talk with one of our expert coaches!
