It should come as no surprise that exercise is a great tool for optimal health. And with quarantines, lockdowns, social distancing and lack of human connection, it is even MORE important to facilitate exercise into your daily life.
If you have suddenly found yourself on the struggle train, here are some things you can do to make working out a habit.
1. Set your alarm every morning.
Just like bad habits are hard to break, good habits can be easy to obtain. With people working from home nowadays, they have more laxity with their schedules and often get up whenever they want. This can lead to weight gain and aversion to exercise.
Make it a point to set your alarm and get up on the early side every day. Use this time to fit in a workout, regardless if it is as small as walking around the neighborhood.
2. Find an accountability partner.
You don’t have to do this by yourself. In fact, it’s always easier when you have someone to keep you on track. Ask your spouse to motivate you or find a reliable friend or family member to text you every morning and ask you what your workout is going to be for the day. It really doesn’t matter as long as they have the potential to motivate you to move.
3. Read inspiring stories.
There is no shortage of people who have accomplished amazing things in this world such as losing a lot of weight or overcoming a health challenge that seemed impervious to beat. Look up these stories and watch videos on them.
Use this information to stay on track and not feel sorry for yourself. It can quickly give you the added motivation you need to integrate exercise into your daily life.
4. Work out while watching TV.
One of the sad realities of being at home is that boredom can set in. This, in turn, has caused a great deal of people to watch more TV and become more immobile. Well, when you sit for long periods of time, you get better at sitting for long periods of time.
This translates to packing on weight, lowering your immunity and increasing your susceptibility to ALL conditions. Well, a good way to make working out a habit is by doing a certain exercise every night while you watch TV. Turn this into a game. For example, perform a set of push-ups every time a commercial comes on.
If you are watching a show on Netflix with no commercials, simply work out while watching for a half-hour. Come up with a few basic drills to do such as planks, dips, squats, push-ups, lunges and bicycle crunches.
Get in the habit of doing it at the same time every night so it coincides with your TV watching time.
5. Start small and grow tall.
Far too often, people can’t commit to a daily workout regimen because they think it will be too hard and exhausting. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Don’t bite off more than you can chew in the beginning.
Think in terms of basic workouts you can easily handle and then start to increase the time, intensity and type of workout you do as you progress and get in better shape.
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