Exercise is hard. MOVEMENT rocks.
Rewrite the story of exercise for, ugh, weight loss into MOVEMENT for fun, joy and ultimate health.
Find something that you love to do
Weight-lifting, Strength-training, Zumba, Walking, Hiking, Skiing, Skating, Rollerblading, Step aerobic class, Swimming, Dancing, Yoga, Pilates, Martial Arts, HIIT, Team Sports, Tennis, Barre Classes, SUP, Climbing, Golf, Splitboarding, FUNctional strength.
Try online. Try different gyms. Try outside. Try your neighbors.
Keep trying EVERYTHING until you find something you like.
Consider Strength tRAining
Women who strength train like their bodies regardless of whether they experience weight loss.
They like their bodies more.
PS- Strength Training needs to make you feel better NOT worse
AND
it needs to be effective. See number 12 below!
Start small
Play the long game not the sprint. Figure out how to make the change small and then set a strategy in place to baby step your way into more.
Example: If you are looking to start strength training and you are NEW, then start with a starter workout so you aren’t too sore. Slowly but surely move into more advanced moves. Be strategic about how you increase. Do enough that you start to see results and not so much that you hate it or get hurt.
Unhook weight loss from your exercise program
There’s moving for health and moving for changing your size and they are NOT the same thing.
Moving for health MIGHT increase weight loss it MIGHT not.
The requirements for health are much less output than the requirements for a big shape shift.
PICK! Or just start with health and then watch how that habit of moving ripples out into making better eating choices and elevates you joy level.
NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE
⚡️When you do exercise, notice how good you feel after.
⚡️ Relish the sensations of success.
⚡️ Feel into your new muscles, how your lungs feel and the possible endorphins that start to flow.
FREEBIRD STORY:
Lucky the hound is my personal trainer.
When my schedule changed with the big life upheaval of divorce, we began needing to run at night so I could focus my best thinking and energy on my coaching practice in the mornings.
It was HARD for me to develop the habit of leaving the house IN THE WINTER to go for a run at 7 pm in the evening.
I started to make my first habit NOTICING once I was finally out there how pretty the night was, how happy Lucky was, how accomplished I felt when finished.
I would text a picture of the moon to a girlfriend who called me crazy (which I took as a compliment) and report to my boyfriend how absolutely wonderful it was post run.
My connection to those feelings would almost always pull me out the next time even when I was tired.
I would REPEAT to myself, “I love how I feel when I finish and Lucky needs it and I just need to get started then I always love it (which was true).”
It was a steady habit until I had to pivot when my knees didn’t want to run anymore.
Start Again. Start again. Start again.
If you set a goal to walk for five nights and do it faithfully for two weeks then fall down and miss a week, REMEMBER the first two weeks and start over. Maybe you’ll set the new target for three nights a week.
It does NOT matter how many times you have to restart, all that matters is that you RESTART!
Add music
Find (or create) a challenge
There are many ways to find a challenge that might work for you.
I HATE being on any type of a schedule and racing makes me crazy so those don’t work for me.
I have a relative that LOVES picking the hardest running race ever and training for that. She sometimes finishes dead last and cares NOT a bit. She loves it.
Currently I am lifting heavy with one of my dearest friends. We laugh so loud and swear so much that we make it through the daily challenge (it’s really hard).
POINT: Everyone will have their own level of enjoying a challenge or not. Worth an exploration.
Get an accountability partner
I love strength training and seriously cannot stay consistent without a training partner.
Some people have an online group to check in with.
I have a friend who is using me as an accountability coach through Voxer to create a new exercise habit.
Keep trying different things until you figure out if you do better with a human keeping track of you.
Get Creative. See #10
Get Creative
Learning more about how you are with routines, schedules along with strengths and weaknesses through using your astrology chart is extremely helpful.
For Example: I have a strong Gemini energy which makes it very hard for me to stick to a schedule. Knowing that sets me up for greater success because I have learned to support variety (and this is most likely why I do better with a training partner). I am also going through a major Pluto/Saturn transit so lifting heavy weights has been helpful with that transition.
I offer a FREE mini Reading if this grabs your attention. FREE. I look at your chart and send you a short video outlining the basics of your chart. People love this.
Engage with your big dream
Losing weight or changing your shape is your little dream.
Get to the BOTTOM of what is UNDER that and you’ll get your emotions involved.
Get your emotions involved and you’ll have massive fuel to stoke your habit fire.
EXAMPLES:
Hire a Pro
Trainers and coaches can help you figure out how to work out safely and strategies to get you in the habit of doing so.
IF you are hiring a trainer or a coach MAKE SURE YOU GET A GOOD FIT.
You are the one receiving the help and the trainer or the coach needs to be listening and problem solving with you.
Simply asking you to work harder if you really want it …IS NOT COACHING.
Good coaches help find strategies that work.
Good trainers can train you without hurting you.
