Getting Back Into A Fitness Routine Today

August is such a great month. We are still in the warmth of summer. We start getting a few cooler, more comfortable nights. And we are clinging a little tighter to the few remaining weeks we have before returning to our post-Labor Day routines.

And speaking of routines, if your health and fitness routine has been off, inconsistent or missing lately, you are not alone. This last year or so has thrown many people off of their game and habits.

With many health experts agreeing that we might have to learn to live in a world with COVID for many more years, our health and fitness might be more important than ever.

But knowing that something is important is different than reincorporating that important thing into your life.

Often, the easiest way to begin something is to just start. I know that sounds a bit overly simplistic, but it’s true. The activation energy we get from just doing something is more powerful than we realize.

Whether it’s on a day we don’t feel like working out, but we just get out the door to get rolling, or even something like organizing our desk for work, the act of just beginning can at times carry us through the whole process. Creating momentum is often the most important step.

After that, there are a few more simple steps to help you get back on track with your health and fitness routine.

Lower The Barrier

If I were to give you the option of either climbing Mount Everest or a small hill in your backyard, which one do you feel you could accomplish today? Yes, this seems like a ridiculous question, but when it comes to exercise and nutrition, we somehow think we need to start with the toughest path immediately.

Working out seven days a week and eating salads at every meal is unfortunately where many people think they should begin. And then when they come up short, they view it as a failure. This way of thinking often has people setting themselves up to quit. They should instead be looking to climb that small hill first.

Walking five minutes a day, drinking more water, or adding a bit of protein to each meal may not seem as profound, but those actions are going to start good habits, have you feeling accomplished and put you on the path to long-term success.

On a scale of one to 10, what habits do you feel you can do regularly that are a nine or a 10? Now do that and let’s reassess in a few weeks. Then we can look to add a couple new habits.

Don’t Overplan It

Many times, with starting a new habit or routine, we end up in a state of paralysis by analysis. We start looking at all the things we feel like we can or should be doing instead of finding the simplest or easiest way to start.

James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits,” sums this up by saying, “Planning and preparation are useful until they become a form of procrastination. Is this task enhancing my actions or substituting for them?”

That’s quite a powerful statement. Are we overplanning? Is the way of thinking we have on this subject actually bringing us closer to doing it? Or is it really keeping us from starting and doing the thing anyway?

In the health and fitness world, we often hear, “I can start when…” That sentence has a number of endings, from “when I lose some weight” or “when I’m in better shape” or even “when I have more time.”

These sentiments may sound good, but more times than not, they end up substituting for us actually moving forward. Then, one or six months go by, and we haven’t gotten any closer to our goal.

Keeping the plan simple and just doing it may not be glamorous, but more times than not it gets the job done.

There Is No Perfect Time

Something we preach with our members is progress over perfection. Waiting for things to be better or easier often just sets us up to be in the exact same spot just further down the road. There is no perfect time.

But that’s actually a good thing. Recognizing that things will never be perfect allows us to embrace a more important idea, progress.

Progress allows us to just start. Progress allows us to make mistakes and mess up. Progress lets us celebrate being 1% better, climbing that hill in the backyard and taking action today.

As someone once said, “You don’t need a better guitar to be a better musician, you don’t need a better brush to be a better artist, you don’t need better workout clothes or a completely open schedule to be a better exerciser.

“You just need to start and keep going.” So, as we approach the end of this summer, what are you starting? Remember to focus on progress and I bet you are going to do great!