1. Understand your ‘WHY’ and the Benefit. Exercise strengthens the body and the mind to allow you to have more energy and live a better quality of life as you get older. Did you know exercise can decrease your biological age? Yep if your organs are well looked after through a healthy lifestyle you could be up to 20 years younger on the inside! Visualise yourself as a healthy 60/70 80 year old and this should be motivation enough to keep you exercising regularly!
2. Schedule It. If you are like me and your calender is full of appointments for work, family etc…Why not schedule time for your to workout? Go week by week and see the gaps in your week (YES we all have them) write down EXERCISE. I use to schedule in a big walk whilst I was waiting for my daughter at Soccer training. I even have other mothers on board hehehe. The point is, if its on the calender you will do it!
3. Get support. I know for me if it was not for my husband working out with me daily in the beginning, It would have been very difficult to make exercise a habit. You need to let your friends and family know what you are doing and what your goals are so they can help you and maybe you will be their motivation.
4. Quality over Quantity. Daily exercise does not have to fit into 1 hour blocks. You can break up your routine in 10 or 15 minute blocks through out the day. But be sure that when you are doing exercise in smaller intervals to really push yourself for that 10 – 15 mins, this will ensure you get the maximum from your training.
5. Get Creative. “Lack of Time’ is a poor excuse for not exercising. Get creative, use your baby as resistant weight whilst doing squats, involve your kids in a 15 minute session of skipping, use cooking time to do 3 sets of 15 push ups off the kitchen bench whilst the pasta is boiling! There are so many ways. Reality is, if you really want to make exercise a priority in your life, sometimes you will have to do it in less than ideal conditions.
6. Just Get Started. You don’t need to be an athlete, you don’t need to be a fitness freak, you just need to decide to start! Don’t get caught up in the “PARALYSIS BY ANALYSIS” syndrome either, a lot of us get caught up in the planning stage, too busy trying to figure out what is a good time etc…just start, put on your runners and start walking, once the ‘feel good’ hormones kick in you will find the time to exercise, because you will want that “high”.
Make it a Lifestyle!
