Sincerely,
Selmaan A Ali
I don’t rely on willpower. The night before I decide what I’m doing for exercise, and lay out the appropriate gear next to my bed. Then when I get up the easiest thing to do is to put on the clothes I laid out and do the planned workout.
I also take into account my physical and emotional status when planning – if I’m getting enough sleep and not too stressed out I may plan a vigorous or longer workout. If I’m stressed or sleep deprived I may plan a shorter yoga routine or a nice walk in the sunshine. 🌞
I set small goals: I tell myself I only need to walk to the gym. The next goal is to tell myself ‘I only need to go on a treadmill for a minute’ and then repeat that for however long I think I should stay at the treadmill. Similarly, if you’re doing weights you can tell yourself you only need to do 1 set of this exercise.
You can also go to do a group workout or go exercise with a friend – that satisfies my competitive side 🙂
Hope this helps. Good luck!
The long: something is better than nothing. Stretch, wiggle your body, one pushup/squat/bicep curl, use the things you need to do anyway and make them mindful (take stairs, walk the grocery store, clean or garden…)
I also still may get negative wit myself about not exercising on a given day- sometimes I have skipped 4 or 5 days in a row of my usual jogging routine.
No matter what, I somehow will do at least a brisk walk and make sure I have at least hit my calorie burn goal bare minimum for the day through brisk walk in addition to the other daily activity (I arbitrarily have set that I must burn at least 620 calories a day thru activity- a low goal which I usually make myself feel better if my Apple Watch tells me I have doubled on any one given day especially if I get a good exercise session in that day)
But nowadays if I missed an day of exercise, I don’t beat myself up about it, I usually don’t feel good already the rest of that day, and then I double my efforts to make my environment easy to get my exercise session in the next day- ie my sneakers, gym clothes, music and headphones 🎧 ready and I refuse to look at my pager or iPhone or email until I at least jog a mile or 2 on a treadmill.
The chain of days I already managed to stick to the routine.
I start my playlist, the songs in it a soaked with the exercise movements.
In every song I remember what exercise I do and the inertia just makes me do it with full drive
1. Go for a brisk walk.
2. Do 20 minutes of yoga. Ususally it is harder to start it. Once you start it it becomes much easier. You can watch some classes on YouTube and that should get you going.
3. Defer it until tomorrow.
My work is about 10k from my home. To be able to do this I have to wake up every morning at 5:30. I don’t sleep well every night, in fact, I didn’t slept well for a whole week despite of the big effort and energy spent.
There where days, already in Wednesday that I felt too tired to wake up, just thinking I’m all the way ahead of me. Waking up was already a challenge. Let alone going running…. and in that moment, I’m the bed, I remember why I’m doing this. Every reason I remember. All of them pass trough my head.
Because I want to fix my sleeping problem, because fixing this will help me to have a better mood, more focuse, more energy, because I want to finish what I start, I want to be diciplinated…. and so I’m in my long list of reasons. All this reasons, that I have very clear lift me up from bed.
I also think in how I feel every time that is hard to wake up, and I actually do it. How proud I feel. I think in this moment, I’m the emotion, in the feeling.
And I think in how bad I will feel if I don’t. In the emotion of that as well. And all that push me forward.
I hope it helps.
I do a few slow deep breaths. Then I drink water. Then I relax. If I still feel like, meh, I just let it go. I’m going to feel lazy some days, and I will not feel guilty for being human.
I use NTC myself.
Another option is to practice yoga. I doesn’t seem like an exercise but the importance is to keep moving and love your body
The best thing I think, is to get that guilt out of your head. Don’t be brought down by lacking the motivation for only one day.
You may want to consider something you may do at night. When brushing my teeth I use the 2 minutes to do a jog in place.
Then, if I’m up to it I listen to 2 or 3 songs and do V step, side step and jog slowly in place.
You see, that is 6 minutes of exercise and every little bit helps.
If you are really not up for exercise then meditate on anything that is positive and good.
Also, please don’t compare yourself to others you may think are super duper exercisers. Or in any other way. You are you, unique and loved.