Photo by Victor Freitas
Are you tired of always having to start your fitness goals again? Yeah, I was too. I used to watch a video, or see a picture of someone really fit and then get really excited about working out. I’d tell myself that I’ll start on Monday because it’s the start of the week and somehow you should always do something new on the first day of the week? And then when Monday comes around, I’d do the workout, feel bad because I was more out of shape than I thought I was, and then start making excuses for the rest of the week. My favorite was: Oh, I can’t work out because as it turns out, I don’t have the time. And then suddenly my journey was over before it even really began
Well, surprise surprise, it turns out that I did have the time. I just didn’t have the right understanding and mindset in place to do it. If this sounds anything like you, please keep reading for 7 things I learned in order me to become consistent in my fitness journey.
I figured out my Whys
When you’re trying to start up a new habit you need a reason that really matters to you, to keep you going when the times get tough. Why do you want to get fit? Yeah, being healthy is important and is a good reason to work out, but is it enough of a reason to keep you going for the long run? If it is, great! But if it’s not, you’re going to have to figure out WHY you want to actually get fit. I’m gonna be honest, one of my WHY’s is because I wanted to look at myself and see a hot body staring back at me. Yeah, it’s a vain reason, but it matters to me, and it’s why I’ve been sticking to my fitness routine.
I Made Time For Fitness In My Lifestyle
If you’ve read my article on How to Build Good Study Habits, you’ll know I’m a fan of figuring out when I have time to do something. 🙂 So how did I do this? I pulled up a calendar, wrote down when I’m at work, any appointments that I had, commitments, friends and family time, chore time, learning time, etc. Anything really, and put them all on my calendar. Then I looked at all of my empty spaces and determined if that space made sense to schedule in a workout. You have to make your schedule work for you. If it’s too difficult to make it to your workout time, because you have to do something before and after, then you’ve set yourself up for failure and it’s no wonder you gave up.
If you find that you don’t have any time, maybe it’s time to re-prioritize the commitments in your life. If you can’t make the time for fitness now, that’s okay. Just keep this in mind until you can find the opportunity to add fitness into your lifestyle.
I Figured Out What Types Of Workouts Work For Me
There are so many types of workouts you can do like: run, swim, weight lift, dance, bike. You know that swimming is a great workout and easy on your joints, but do you like it? Is it easy for you to get to the pool and back? If it is, great because that will make it that much easier for you to stick to. But if you don’t like swimming, or it’s too inconvenient for you to get to the pool, it will make it that much easier for you to give up on it.
I encourage you to try out as many workout styles as possible in order to figure out what you like. Before I learned that I liked weight lifting, I had tried out many different types of workouts like: running, tennis, basketball, soccer, swimming, yoga, aerobics, volleyball, pilates, biking, and hiking.
If I only ever tried to do yoga as my workout, I’d quit so fast. I learned that my mind is just too loud to be able to practice yoga. I find that while I like swimming, it’s just not easy for me to fit it into my lifestyle, so I wouldn’t be able to stick to it.
As someone who is shy, I was so surprised about how much I liked weight lifting. I’m glad that I gave it a shot and it’s the form of exercise that I’ve been consistent with.
I Set Goals For Myself
Now that I learned that I liked weight lifting, I started setting goals for myself. I like setting goals because it gives me something to work towards and motivates me to stay on track. If I’m just doing something, and have nothing to measure against, then to me it just feels like I’m just trying to pass the time. So what are some examples of goals you can set for yourself in terms of fitness? For weight lifting you can say “I want to deadlift x pounds”. For running, you can say “I want to run a mile in under 6 minutes.” For pilates you can say “I want to be able to do the hundreds without feeling the strain in my neck.”
Now that I had a goal in mind, I created a workout plan to help me reach it. The goal gave me direction, and now it was up to me to get there.
Intensity Comes in Seasons
When I first got into weight lifting, I learned about the push/pull/legs bro split. That 6 days a week lifestyle. That’s pretty intense, but I loved it and I stuck to it for a while! I was at the gym for an hour to 2 hours a day. I saw great results from it and I was so strong and got into the mindset that this is exactly what I have to do in order to get and stay fit. I was consistently doing this at the gym for over a year, and then the pandemic happened and I completely stopped working out for a year.
Long story short, I then decided I would get back into working out. My partner and I put together a little home gym consisting of a squat rack, bench, barbell, and some dumbbells. Pretty much everything I would need (except for a cable machine. Oh how I miss you!) and I set out to start working out again. Let me tell you that I was not successful in the beginning because in my mind, I kept thinking that I needed to be spending the 1-1.5 hours working out in order to have a “good” workout. And then whenever I couldn’t spend the 1-1.5 hours in the gym everyday, I felt like what I was doing wasn’t worth it and would either quit for a little, or just do it 1-2x a week, and then be really hard on myself for not being consistent. That experience sucked and I don’t want you to feel like that. What helped me was that I learned that there are seasons for your intensity and you can’t expect to keep the same level of intensity forever. It’s okay that you used to go that hard but have to lower it now. If the lower intensity is what allows fitness to remain consistent in your life, that’s great. It means that it’s part of your lifestyle and when it comes time for you to light the fire again, you already have the habit down. Showing up is one of the hardest parts and you’ve already got that locked down.
Consistency over Perfection
I learned that it’s much better to be consistent than it is to be perfect when it comes to fitness. You’re not always going to be in the mood or have the right amount of energy, etc. What really matters is that you keep showing up, and you keep practicing. Consistency doesn’t mean that you keep doing the same workout everyday. It means that you make fitness a priority and you keep showing up. In the section above about intensity — I changed how I was working which allowed me to be consistent. While I no longer am as intense as I used to be, I’m still able to make progress on and hit my goals because I am consistent.
I Built Trust in Myself
Before I could get back into my 5-6 days a week of working out, it took me 2 months to build up the habit and trust in myself to even hit 4 days a week. When I decided to start getting back into working out 6 days a week, I knew that I would have to be really kind to myself. Building up a habit is hard because it asks that you start living your life differently in order to add this new thing to your routine. So I started off by taking baby steps. At this point, I knew that I could regularly get in 1-2 days a week of working out. So I set out small goals like make it to 3x a week, and then 4x a week. Once I hit the 4x a week goal, I knew then that I could trust myself to stick to something and that made it really easy for me to increase it to 6x a week. I began to see myself as someone who doesn’t miss workouts.
And there you have it! Those are the 7 things I learned along my journey to being consistent with my fitness. I hope these can help you in your journey as well. If you have any tips that have helped you remain consistent with your fitness, I’d love to hear about them!
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xx
