Each one of us has that one favorite excuse to bunk the fitness schedule of the day:
- I have so much work I didn’t sleep last night
- Recovery day, dude, I killed my legs yesterday
- Insane rain! / It’s so hot I’ll get sun stroke
- …and if nothing else works, it’s always: Insane traffic!
Once in a while, once a week maybe is fine – but if you genuinely don’t feel like taking time out for your fitness regime, then something is wrong somewhere.
Biologically, it doesn’t make sense – our brains release the same hormones (geek alert: endorphins) when we exercise that are released while eating awesome food.
So exercising should feel amazing! And you shouldn’t be giving up on it for any damn office call or unwanted in-laws visit.
Unfortunately, people do not turn to exercise for kicks as they regularly turn to food. If you are not motivated, then you need to get into the rhythm of exercising.
You need to experience how good it feels after a killing workout. Do it consecutively for three or four days and then you would be cracking jokes about people who make random excuses. In the meantime, others would wonder how the hell you stay so dedicated to and focused on your fitness schedule.
So how to get into that groove?
Here is simple five step, fool-proof approach to get into the fit lifestyle you have always wished for:
Step 1
List down the activities you LOVE to do: what do you love to do?
Just like enjoying awesome food – similarly, there would be some part of getting fit that you would love.
Step 2
Categorize these points in three buckets: related to fitness, indifferent to fitness, against the concept of fitness.
Is it any particular non-virtual sport? (Had to call out this one separately as my brother’s fave sport is FIFA on PS3.)
Is it only running – running away from gyms in most cases?
Or is it something completely unrelated – something like hanging out with friends?
Or is it binging on Baskin Robbins after a bad breakup?
Step 3
Quick fix: develop a five-day plan to focus on all fitness-related activities you love to do.
Push yourself to the extent you feel happy about spending time doing it. If you have limited time, increase the intensity, but in the end it should put an orgasmic smile on your face.
This should be enough to help you overcome the inertia!
Step 4
Expand on the circle of love: Now, slowly try to include components from the ‘indifferent to fitness’ bucket into your regime.
If you love hanging out with friends, go do some outdoor activities. Get a free trial at a gym and work out together, go do a dance / Zumba class.
If you like getting competitive, start scoring your performance and competing against your peer group (and there are plenty of data points on the net so you don’t have to restrict your comparison only to the people you know).
Better still – compete with yourself – nothing motivates oneself more that realizing the results of actions. If it is related to health – you will feel better!
Step 5
Final blow to enter the fitness geek space: notice the impact of activities on this bucket on your fitness regime.
You won’t want your performance to be negatively affected… Don’t give up on all your hard work / all those hours of sweat and pain for this silly little love – which is not giving you anything in return.
But if it’s a casual once-in-a-while thing and has no impact on your fitness levels that makes you happy, then you probably didn’t bucket it right!
For all these steps, it is extremely critical to have the correct knowledge of fitness.
Eating, sleeping, staying positive, looking fantastic are all components of fitness.
Fitness is not just about shedding some extra pounds or going on insane diets. Be very cautious and listen to your body and mind while developing your fitness plan.
There is no limit to how much better and happier you can get!