Sustainable Exercise is the Goal

I truly believe exercise consistency comes down to mindset and how what you associate exercise inside your beautiful brain. If you need to push yourself to exercise, it is very difficult to make it sustainable. Let’s face it; any chance you get will be a good one to avoid it.

Tony Robbins talks about the push and pull factor. You need to move away from the push and into the pulling force. To find out what you really associate something with, especially if it’s something you say you want to be doing but don’t seem to be doing, he has 4 questions you can ask yourself ( he calls this the pain/pleasure questions):

1. What pain do you associate with doing it?
2. What pleasure do you associate by not doing it?
3. What will it cost you if you don’t do it?
4. What will you get if you do do it?

I used these 4 questions to get my meditation practice to a consistent level and it worked! Take some quiet time to really look into these questions.

Making time for exercise

While I agree with this suggestion, there’s another huge factor to consider; your already busy schedule. The trick is not to ADD exercise to your already full and exhausting day, but see what you can CROWD OUT in order to get consistent exercise into your schedule. Is there anything you can delegate, give up or hire out in order to have time for exercise? Don’t get up earlier and lose sleep or give up your lunch hour because that will exhaust you more in the long run. Once you finagle your schedule to include consistent exercise, put it on your calendar, and treat it like any other important appointment.

Find something you enjoy and make time for it. Explore. If it is yoga then find a series you enjoy on video/TV or go to a studio. If it’s kayaking then find a way to incorporate it into your week. Just like food there is no one way. Don’t force yourself to do exercise you hate. It won’t last and you will not make the time for it. I speak from experience!

How much time is necessary?

Remember exercise is all about health not about weight loss. Yes, exercise helps, but food is by far the best mechanism for weight loss. Think short bursts or ‘moments’ of exercise. This is your minimum target. It doesn’t matter how you get that exercise but 10 minute minimums are your minimum goal with at least one dedicated exercise session lasting 30 minutes in any one week. This will circulate your blood, get your lymph system active, and stretch your muscles a bit.

Set the number of minutes that you want to achieve each week. 90 minutes is the low end of the recommendation for good health. We’ll start there. In a week that could be:

6x10mins and 1×30 mins = 90 mins = Goal Reached.

You might want to do 3×30 minute sessions and you will reach the 90min goal in just 3 days – better yet you might really prioritize and do 30 minutes a day (maybe 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at lunch or in the evening) with one day off and really see results with 180 minutes of exercise a week.

Your exercise can be at any pace from walking, rebounding on a mini trampoline to jogging or lifting weights, but if you get huffy puffy that would be great (huffy puffy is when it is a little bit difficult to talk while exercising).

Make exercise a priority

Prioritize your exercise program, because in the end it is simply a choice. You either choose to make it a priority or you choose not to make it a priority. Let’s face it, the exercise needed for good health is not hard. Now, go get that beautiful body moving!