How To Exercise Every Day — Without Quitting
10 tips that will help you exercise every day without quitting or giving up.
Like a lot of my generation, I don't really exercise as much as I would like. Don’t get me wrong, I am an active person, but not as much as I would want myself to be. I tried a lot of different and weird tips on the internet to not quit after a day, all just to end up in vain, and disappointment. After some time, I went back to my “regular lifestyle,” only to realize that I could do something about this myself.
Like how you might have experienced, “exercising” starts, but does not last for too many days. I get it. It is not the easiest thing in the world. There are some ways on the internet to help you stick through, however, those could be really hard to follow.
Before you start, I just wanted to say that this is not going to be some magic formula to suddenly love exercising. These are just my attempts to helping you stick through doing this practice every day.
(All of this is my very own experience, and it has helped other people too.)
Why do you want to exercise?
You see, exercise has a formula. It eliminates the people who are doing it without a reason or a fight for achieving a purpose. You need a definite reason, and the fight to go with it.
This is how you should start off. Truly knowing the real reason why you want to go to the gym, will help you later on. This is what is going to help you shape this new lifestyle and biggest of all, it will help you on the days that you feel like quitting.
- Maybe you want to improve your weight
- Maybe you want to build muscle
- Maybe you want to get your mind off of the stress you face
Whatever the reason may be, this is what you need to remind yourself of when you have that urge to quit. Having a firm reason is what will really help you stay in the race when it seriously gets tough.
Pick your favorites
This one is important.
Some parts of working out are really hard to like, but others can be. Pick your favorite part of the workout. Maybe it is a favorite exercise or a favorite stretch. Try to look forward to something that you are honestly excited about.
This generally works the best if you place this activity, (or activities), at the end. Hence, making sure that you finishing the disliked exercises beforehand.
Here is a list of exercises that you may want to try out:
- A quick dance class
- A quick walking or running game
- Go on a short walk with a friend
- Get fresh air with a bike ride
- A swim
- A team sport
- And if you’re really out of ideas — listen to a favorite song
Any of these would work, and more! Just see what works best for you.
Get a few months in
This tip has a mental effect on you, often way stronger than a physical one.
It works literally every time. Set a goal for yourself. I would recommend going for a year, or if that is too much, 100 or 200 days.
To make the trick work, you need to get a few months into the goal. Once you’ve done this, you will have gained the “impulse” to get through the rest. If you don’t finish, you will feel more guilty of giving up, thus pushing you to finish.
To get through these first few months, you can follow the other tips on this article.
Don’t expect results
Don’t expect results. Glue into your mind that you should not keep looking in the mirror after a workout. It’s not going to happen to your physical body overnight. Again if you don’t have a mental barrier, this is not too hard to accomplish. The problem with “expecting results,” is that when they are not achieved, people tend to quit. Instead of looking at the physical differences, work towards an internal difference.
Such as:
- A cleaner mind
- Less stress
- Feeling less clunky
- Feeling more active/awake
The list goes on.
Body image carries a lot of power. Studies have shown that girls are the ones who relate low self-esteem with body image.
Doing physical exercise has a number of mental benefits. As well as numerous experiments have been launched to see the effects of this thinking process.
Take a break for a day
Doing this is extremely beneficial, and can really help in the long term. Try taking a break once a week. I recommend you do this on either a Saturday or a Sunday. This is generally the time where slightly torn muscles heal and any kind of pain is relieved. As well as you have the satisfaction of a break.
If you wish to stay active during this time, you could do simple things such as:
- Stretch
- Go on a walk
- Play a short sport
- Go sightseeing
However, taking a break for a day does not mean that you should stand totally idle. It is a great practice to keep getting up during the day especially if you spend a lot of time in front of the computer. Staying active throughout the entire day will also leave you less likely to skip tomorrow's workout due to laziness.
Don’t make excuses
Excuses, excuses, and more. We are all guilty of this sneaky trap, maybe even a little more than we realize. It’s raining outside, I guess I can’t go for my run today. I don’t feel too good, maybe it’s good to skip today. Anyways, I’ll double the workout tomorrow. The only problem is that when tomorrow rolls around there is another excuse waiting. This scenario is too familiar?
It’s okay, we’ve all done this before. Now it’s time to fix it. Ask yourself, if you don’t do it today, will you do it tomorrow? An hour workout is 4% of your day. No excuses. The moment your internal sneaky mind is trying to take over the decision, just get up and do the workout without even thinking twice.
Know what time is right for you
To me, this is the most important and one of the most helpful ones. Workouts do not always have to be done in the early morning. Not even in the morning. You can choose any time of the day.
This is very important. Don’t mess up this step, if you know you won’t be able to wake up as soon as dawn breaks, don’t plan your workouts to be at that time. Instead, do them as soon as you get back home from work. Or right before dinner. You can even do them in the afternoon.
Just don’t time them during crunch time. A time that you know will really be a stretch for you. You can try adjusting the time a little more as soon as your a few months in. That, like how we talked about earlier, will reduce your chances of quitting.
Keep shifting routines
When I started working out, the thing that really stopped me from doing it the next day was how boring it got. The same repetitive run was truly so mentally exhausting. So I tried to shift my routines.
Now the amount of how many times you will switch, or what you will switch to, is entirely your choice. I personally switch it up every few days, and I mainly go from an exercise that targets one area to another.
Here is an easy schedule to follow:
- Monday: Run a few miles
- Tuesday: Run a few miles
- Wednesday: Cardio
- Thursday: Ab workout
- Friday: Cardio
- Saturday: Arm Workout
- Sunday: Break Day
This schedule is what I have found works best for me and a lot of other people. However, anything else that works for you is also great.
Know that things will go wrong
Beginning to exercise is a journey. We need to embrace the ups and downs both equally and positively. The moment we start to hate the downs, we will start to resent the idea of working out as a whole.
We need to understand that we are sometimes going to have days that we absolutely are going to feel like we can’t work out today. That is a part of the process though.
We can’t avoid that.
What we can do though is try and live through those moments and learn as much as we can from them, especially because we are likely to face those again.
The same concept applies to try out new things. You never know when you are going to love a new idea, but you’ll never know if you never try it. We have to be receptive and open to new ideas and learnings.
Simple and basic rules that we learn from exercising every day without fail, can also be carried out into outside life.
We will feel better, know better, and possibly even look better!
Enjoy the process
The biggest mistake you can make is thinking that working out is a burden. It just should be a part of your normal day, and it just is done for your satisfaction.
As you start off, this could be a kind of annoying and hard, as you go on though, you won’t think much of it. In fact, for some people, they really start to enjoy it.
If you are having trouble to enjoy as much of it as you can, you may want to try these:
- Listen to a favorite song
- Do it with a friend
- Talk to the friend over the phone
- Treat yourself after
Now it’s time to do it
Whether you have a gym or not, it’s time to go and start planning, then doing. Don’t quit, keep pushing. Follow these tips for success. Most importantly, enjoy the process.
It’s time that we stop complaining about how we look, and how our bodies feel. No matter your height, age, weight, and stress. This is always an option. As soon as you start to believe that you can, you will.
Make the most out of every moment — go and start your journey.
