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How to Stick to Your Fitness Habits the Easy Way, According to Science

How to hack your own willpower and motivation, using tactics gleaned from cutting-edge research

John Fawkes
Better Humans
13 min readAug 2, 2018

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Photo by composita on Pixabay.

It’s easier to roll something downhill than to push it up a slope.

As a personal trainer, it’s part of my job to tell people what they need to do to get or stay in shape: how to work out and how often, what to eat, which morning and evening routines to follow.

But here’s the thing: that’s not really what most people need.

Yes, it helps to know exactly how to optimize your diet and workouts—but the truth is, simply moving more and eating less junk food is good enough to be in decent shape. It’s just that most people have trouble doing that.

Staying in shape is mostly about program compliance: it’s not about having the best fitness program, but about having one that’s good enough, and making sure you actually stick to it.

Fortunately, tens of thousands of studies have been done on how to build healthy habits, stick to a diet, and stay motivated to exercise. In this article, I’m going to share some scientifically-validated strategies for sticking to a diet or exercise program, along with examples of how I help my own clients put them into practice.

Rather than view your health habits as the punishment of Sisyphus, use these tactics…

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Better Humans
Better Humans

Published in Better Humans

Better Humans is one of the largest and oldest Medium’s publications on self-improvement and personal development. Our goal is to bring you the world’s most helpful writing on human potential.

John Fawkes
John Fawkes

Written by John Fawkes

Los Angeles-based freelance writer, photographer and marketing consultant. https://johnfawkes.substack.com/

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