What is your relationship with workouts like? If you want to improve your relationship with exercise, keep reading. I will tell you step by step how I transformed my toxic on and off again relationship with exercise into a committed, healthy one. First, you can define your own exercise goals. Then this process involves reflecting on why you want to do that, what holds you back, and how to set yourself up for success.
I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve been in an on and off again relationship with workouts for the past 4 years. Ever since I didn’t have sports anymore, I’ve had trouble consistently committing to a exercise routine. Every now and then, I would get really into it again, but then something would always go wrong. Either I felt I had more important things to do instead of working out or it didn’t immediately give me the benefits I wanted.
Steps to Achieve Your Exercise Goals
What is your exercise related goal?
- Why do you want to do that?
- What holds you back?
- Set yourself up for success
What are your exercise goals?
My exercise goal was simple: I just wanted to get in some form of exercise every day.
Now write down your goal at the top of your page.
Why do you want to workout?
I want to exercise for my health. There are so many health benefits of exercise, but I am most interested in endorphins. When you exercise, your body naturally releases endorphins, which also sparks the natural release of dopamine in the brain AKA happiness. Basically exercising naturally releases the neurotransmitters in your brain that make you feel good.
Now take some time and reflect on why you want to achieve your goal. Try to think of as many reasons as you can. When you finish, circle the most important reason to you. You can use this as your motivation to remind yourself why this is important to you.
What holds you back?
Here you will reflect on what has gone wrong in the past. What has prevented you from achieving this goal? What are your biggest obstacles?
For me, whenever I started exercising again, I would go hard, way too hard. I would jump immediately into all the exercises I used to be able to do. I would do intense ab workouts and arm workouts. After, I would be completely drained of energy.
To give you an example, sometimes I wouldn’t even be able to get up off the floor to get myself food. I was shaky and felt like I was going to pass out because I expended way too much energy.
I knew this was unhealthy, but I didn’t know how to exercise any differently. Instead, I would just quit working out because I associated it with feeling physically terrible.
Set yourself up for success
Now for the fun part! Now that you know why you want to achieve your goal and your limitations, you can find a solution that you can commit to. Anytime you have a clearly defined problem, there is an optimal answer waiting for you to discover it. Let me give you my example so you can see what I mean.
I wanted to exercise simply because it is good for you, but whenever I exercised I made it bad for me. Once I realized this, the solution was obvious. I could exercise and get all the benefits I wanted simply by doing less intense workouts.
Now if you’re reading this, you may be thinking, well duh! However, it took me about 4 years to make this realization! I was able to make this realization because I pulled the problem out of my mind and put it on paper. Instead of making excuses, I found solutions.
Instead of thinking of exercise as those intense ab and arm workouts, I replaced them with less intense exercise including walking, yoga, and shuffling. I already love doing those three things, and it makes me look forward to exercising daily because it’s fun for me! I also mitigated my major limitations because these don’t drain my energy since they are much less intense.
Finally, the last thing that held me back was making time in my day to exercise. I realized I have the most time in the morning before the rest of my responsibilities begin. I dedicated the first hour of my day to an uninterrupted workout routine, and it has helped me commit to it.
Next Steps
This is why it is so important to get your problems out of your mind so you can solve them. I personally like putting them on paper, but you may prefer different methods, like talking to a friend.
I challenge you to try this exercise and see if you can find a solution after your goals and limitations are clearly defined. If you use this method, let me know how it works for you!
