Making Fitness a Habit

Fitness can be elusive. We all want to be fit but we can’t quite seem to make it happen. 

The challenge is that fitness can only be improved minimally from day to day, so it requires many days to really create a significant amount of improvement. That’s where we falter; we are unable to make a habit out of the behaviors that will make us fit.

I am 1 month into a new fitness journey. Here I will detail what I have found to be my greatest I decided enough was enough and while I lived a relatively active life, running 2-3 and sometimes even 5-6 times a week, I wasn't being active. I subscribed to Apple Fitness, thought it would be great to sync my fitness with my watch and my tv and workout from the comfort of my home. It didn't work! I used the App 5 times during my 3-month trial :(

I tried supporting a local fitness guru who ran online classes from her backyard via a Facebook group. She is amazing and I am trained to model excellence. In the context of fitness if I want to get a result I find the person getting the best results in that field and model them and she has a 6 pack - so that is excellence in my book and exactly what I would like to model, but the motivation to attend the daily classes at an inconvenient time or even to watch the replays just was not there. Another monthly membership wasted.

Now the gyms are back open and life has returned to a post covid normality in Melbourne, I was never much of a lover of gyms, I tried to jump on the F45 bandwagon, I did BFT, RBT, Fernwood, you could say I am a connoisseur of gyms and fitness apps, I thought I'd tried them all! Until my business partner told me about her health and fitness journey with Ultimate You and I listened. Fran convinced me to try the famous 9 in 6 challenge at Ultimate You after her astonishing results changed her life. I do love a recommendation and so I signed up and here I am, 4 weeks in and 4kg down. 2 weeks to go along with another 5kg. I've learned a lot about my strength, fitness mindset, healthy blocks, excuses etc over the past month, and here are 5 strategies that can help when you are deciding to choose fitness.

Try these strategies to make fitness a daily part of your life:

1._Make fitness more social. It can be tough to stick with your exercise if you try to do it alone. Find an exercise partner or join a team sport. When you can share the time with others, you have something else to focus on besides how tired, sweaty, and bored you are.

• If you don’t like team sports and don’t have anyone else to exercise with, there are other options. Join a local gym that is known for its culture and commitment to inclusion. Personally, I've found the culture at Ultimate You to be the best I've come across in Melbourne. Their 9 in 6 and 5 in 4 programs are so popular that everyone who attends the gym is on the program or has been before - they know what you're going through and support you with High Fives and words of encouragement.

2. Only change one thing at a time. Becoming fit requires adopting several new habits. However, for the greatest success, it’s highly recommended that you only adopt one new habit at a time. New habits involve a lot of focus and energy. Pick one thing to fix; when that has become a habit, pick another.

• On the 9 in 6 program, they focus on 3 areas of change - Mindset, Nutrition, and Training, and week 1 for me was horrendous - I wish I had started in the gym 2 weeks earlier - just attending classes to get a feel for what was in store for me. By changing all 3 areas at once it was difficult- but here I am on the home stretch and I've gotten through it, you can too.

3. Make it a priority. Do you put off exercising because there are too many other things going on in your life? The truth is if you’re going to be successful in this area of your life, it has to be a top priority. The less enjoyable something is, the more it will have to be prioritized to get it done successfully.

• If you don’t have the time, you’ll have to create the space in your life to make it happen.
• I decided to opt for a 7:15 am class, which meant I could meditate and journal in the morning at home then wake Daniel (my 4 1/2-year-old), and depending on his response I either drop him at daycare at 7 am or I bring him to the gym with me. (he loves it at the gym) the class is 45minutes and on any given day I am showered, dressed, and sitting at my desk with hair and makeup done for 8:30 am, and have slayed the morning!

4. Find a way to enjoy it. Obviously, keeping up with your fitness routine is going to be a lot easier if you enjoy the activity. So find something you enjoy; think about the physical activities you enjoyed as a child or in high school. It might not be practical to play tackle football anymore, but many local community groups have flag football, AFL, GAA, basketball etc for (masters) adults.

• Another alternative is to take an activity and find ways to make it more enjoyable. For example, running might be a lot more fun if you train specifically for a road race and then race. You could also find new places to run. Or find a group of people to join for runs.
• Or in my case, join a challenge, where you can have accountability, other people working out by your side who are also in the challenge, working out with a friend you haven't seen for some time or don't catch up with enough, going to the gym together is a great excuse to catch up regularly.

5. Take the first step. The most important thing is to just get started. Avoid the temptation to have everything perfectly in place before you take a single step. Just throw on your shoes and go for a walk. Decide to skip the donut and have an apple instead. All fitness requires is simple decisions like these. 

• You don’t need to plan your exercise routine for the next 6 months. You’re not trying to launch the space shuttle; you’re just trying to move around more than you have been in the recent past.
• Make a decision to empower yourself, to put yourself first, and to fill your cup. We cannot pour from an empty cup so please ensure your cup is full!

Getting in shape is the result of taking the proper actions repeatedly over an extended period of time. 

Fitness doesn’t improve very much in a day, so making a habit of the behaviors that improve fitness has to be a priority. Focus on making a single change at a time and attempt to make that change as enjoyable as possible. You can do it!

If you are inspired and looking to join somewhere that I would call the 'Cheers' of gyms - so much so it's not called a gym it's a Change Center, because as soon as you walk through the doors you will immediately begin to change. So if you want to change, look into Ultimate You - with centers across Australia there's bound to be one near you. Check them out here!