By Kylee Call
I haven’t always been great at exercising. Don’t get me wrong—body shame issues, eating disorders, and an intense jealousy of others’ beauty drove me to try exercising for years. I just never was able to get consistent enough to reach my goals. Despite countless conversations with myself, I could ever seem to figure out why.
Then, after some study and practice of positive psychology, I ran into some solutions that have changed my perspective. It all started when I took the My Best Self 101 challenge to try to exercise for just three weeks. I was skeptical (as anyone would guess given my history of inconsistency), but trying to exercise for 21 days taught me that I have been looking at exercise all wrong, and it’s really made tying up my training shoes in the morning A LOT harder than it needs to be.
The My Best Self 101 Exercise Module asks some hard questions about why getting out in the morning is so challenging. Maybe some of these will ring true to you:
When you do exercise, what are your primary motivations?
Are you most motivated to exercise when you wish you could lose weight?
Have you considered why exercise is important?
Have you tried to exercise with the same mindset over and over with no avail? Could changing your mindset change your habits?
Asking yourself these questions can help you dissect what your personal reasons are for exercising, and can help you change those reasons if they’re not conducive to making exercise a healthy habit. The rest of this post will explain how to change your mindset in order to change your habits and your life. These steps found in My Best Self 101’s Exercise Module are what helped me to make exercise a regular, healthy habit.
1. Love Your Body - As I mentioned earlier, this has been a difficulty for me in the past, but it really is possible to look in the mirror and love who you are for who you are right now. If you want more information and help with this step, Lexie and Lindsay Kite of the University of Utah have an Instagram page that has really helped me, and they even have a program people can sign up for and participate in. Their site is www.morethanabody.org.
2. Start Exercising for the Right Reasons - Exercising just to lose weight or look better isn’t a healthy motivation for exercising, and it isn’t enough to build a regular habit of exercise over a long period of time, either! Did you know that just a half hour of exercise per day—mostly walking—greatly reduces the risks of arthritis, dementia and Alzheimer’s, diabetes, hip fractures, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and the negative consequences of obesity, and improves overall quality of life? I was pretty shocked when I read this too, but watching this video from Dr. Mike Evans really made me realize that my body, mind, and soul deserve at least 30 minutes of activity a day:
3. Do What You Enjoy - My personal story is a really good example of why doing what you enjoy is critical for success in making exercise a habit. When I started my 21-day practice, I could not seem to get consistent no matter what I did. Then, I took the advice of Dr. Warren and the MyBestSelf101.org team and decided to just try and do 25 minutes of exercise no matter how hard, easy, or effective it was. I decided to walk for most of the 21 days. Normally, I would try and wake up and tell myself I had to go to the gym and do a really hard workout or my exercise time just wasn’t good enough. Deciding to do something I really loved like walking instead of something really hard for me, like going to the gym, changed everything. I would roll out of bed and couldn’t wait to get going on my morning walk! Choosing something you like doing is the key to making exercise a habit because you will actually look forward to exercise, and that makes it a lot more likely to happen!
4. Combine Your Motivations - You may be a great multi-tasker like me. If you are, you might find it a really great idea to work out not just for the sake of being healthy, but to make your life better through time in nature, relationships, or other benefits. For example, I started doing my walks with my boyfriend. This helped us have time in the morning to talk about our goals and plans for the day, and I got really organized while I walked. You could also call a friend or even walk in a more natural area if it helps you to be in nature for a while each day!
5. Making Habit Your Friend - The part of my journey I’m still working on is making my habits work for me. In Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit, he explains that a habit has a cue, a routine, and a reward. When we learn to line our exercise routine up in a way that provides a cue, a routine, and a reward that our brains want badly enough, the habit of exercise is something we want more than we try to avoid. This is a simplified definition, but it is absolutely possible to make habits work for us if we will set ourselves up for success by using the desires we already have in the right ways.
Start Today!
You can change your exercise habits for the better today! I would recommend picking one of the five steps above and giving yourself a chance to try it out for a couple of days. As you
begin to pick up on one step really well, try implementing another one until you work up to where you want to be in your exercise routine.
If you start to have doubts, try pulling out a piece of paper, writing down one of your doubts, and then write a positive response to why you are going to let that doubt go for just three days.
Don’t be afraid to find an exercise partner or something else to keep you accountable. When I did the 21-day program, I kept a chart on my wall and it really helped me. And just remember that you can do this, and it is worth your time. You’ll never regret developing and loving a healthier you.
HAPPY EXERCISING!!!
References
Duhigg, C. (2014). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Anchor, Canada.
Godman, H. (2020, June 26). Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills. Harvard Health Blog. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-mem ory-thinking-skills-201404097110
Kite, L. Redefining the meaning and value of beauty in our lives. More Than A Body. (2021, April 13). https://www.morethanabody.org/