Stuck in a rut…

A few years ago I was in a major rut with exercise. I had previously been a group fitness instructor & loved teaching classes. It was built in accountability, schedule, and a little paycheck. Score! But the gym I worked at stopped offering childcare and it no longer worked with our family schedule. Then after having our third child, I was drowning in work & keeping up the house & chasing after the kids & I fell into the trap of believing that the luxury of working out was something I couldn’t afford. That I couldn’t afford to spend time on exercise it when I felt so behind on everything else… maybe you can relate?

But this was a major LIE.

I couldn’t afford not to.

After a long encouraging conversation with my husband, I started to wake back up to the reality that exercise was something I couldn’t afford NOT to do. For my mental wellbeing, strength, and long term health. And for my family’s, too! A happy, healthy mom leads to a happy, healthy family. The negative consequences I was experiencing from not prioritizing exercise and movement were affecting my family, too. Plus, I wanted to set an example for my children that exercise is crucial to living a long, healthy life.

So I started to believe that exercise was worth making time for, but I needed a way to build the habit back. Below, I’ll share what I did (and have been doing for the past 3 years), why it worked, and how simple it could be for you to start doing, too!

If you want to start building an exercise habit, here are the 4 things you need.

#1 - Accountability

Find ONE friend, or more if you’d like. Ask them if they’d like to commit to helping each other build a habit of moving your bodies.

#2 - Clear Commitment

Once I found a few friends who were interested, I proposed the idea of committing with me to working out for 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week. The commitment was clear & simple. I wasn’t trying to go from nothing to gym rat in one day. My goal was consistency. Plus, I knew that “exercise” might look different for each of us. For some of us it was walking, others it was running, gym, peloton, hiking, pickleball, tennis, whatever! Our collective goal & commitment was to build a habit of movement. We made it clear by putting a time on it - 15 minutes, 5 days per week.

#3 - Reward or Consequence

With your friends, choose a reward or consequence that you’ll get for following through on the commitment you make together. This is how it worked for our group. We each put $50 on the line. If one of us didn’t get our 5 days of 15 minutes in that week, we lost our $50 and it got split between the rest of the group. Ouch. $50 is enough money to hurt. Especially over a matter of 15 minutes!

Again, our goal was consistency. Yours may be different, but for us it was just committing to doing something for 5 days each week. What we all found was that it wasn’t so much the time commitment that was the difficult part, but just the getting started part. Once you went out on a walk, 15 minutes could easily become 30. Once you got to the gym, you’d likely end up lifting weights for more than just 15 minutes. It was the putting on our tennis shoes and getting started that was the hard part we had to break through.

#4 - F.U.N.

I have found that the easiest way to get exercise to stick on the front end is to pick something you ENJOY doing. After you build the habit and the discipline of it, you can start to layer in elements that feel harder for the health benefit of it, but in the beginning, prioritize fun! This could be what you’re doing or simply who you’re doing it with. Half of the reason I love going to my current gym is because of who I know I’ll get to see when I go! Another easy way to add in a little fun could even come in the form of what you’re wearing! Girls gotta girl, ya know. Wear a cute outfit or here’s one from my playbook, put on some glitter eyeliner! It’s completely unnecessary, but super cute and fun. Life is short so why not, bebe. However you can make your exercise enjoyable when trying to build it as a new habit is worth exploring!

If nothing else, remember this.

It’s worth your time.

Your biggest hurdle, and what was mine, was first believing that exercise was worth my time. That I could press pause on my to-do list and make time to prioritize my health. As soon as you get going, give it just a few weeks, you will start to experience the undeniable benefit and difference it makes for your physical and mental wellbeing.

I quickly realized I couldn’t afford not to work out. The instant improvement in my mental health. The endorphins. Improved strength and energy. The body change. And largely, the investment into my long term health. These were all things I quickly realized I shouldn’t live without. Exercise should be a non-negotiable always. If I don’t have time for some form of exercise in my life, it should be a sign to me that my life is out of balance. How you exercise will look different in different seasons, but it’s always worth making the time for. For both your own benefit and the benefit of those around you!

My little group chat has been going for 3 years now and it even helped me stay consistent during and after my 4th baby was born! What I’ve done for exercise has evolved with time, but the main focus at the beginning was just to do SOMETHING. At this point, exercise is something I’ve grown to enjoy so much, I would do it even if there wasn’t $50 on the line.

So if you need a little boost to start building the habit, try it out! And hey, if you want to join our group, come on! Would love to have you. Send me an email or shoot me a message on Instagram!

Cheering for you! Suzy