Okay, you’ve looked at yourself several times in the full-length mirror, and you don’t like what you see. Your body is screaming out you better stop the slide down to obesity. In your mind, you know you want to start exercising. But somehow you’ve not taken a single step in that direction.
You keep pushing it off. It is now over six months since you made a pact with yourself to start exercising. That mirror is now your enemy because it reminds of your failure each day. The failure to keep your weight in check.
What you are facing is not peculiar. Millions around the world never seem to be able to just start exercising. They are always on one excuse or the other. Before they know it, time passes and the situation is getting worse.
However, it is never too late if you want to start exercising. The mindset of ‘too late to start‘ is the final nail in your coffin.
So take a deep breath and read carefully the things you must stop doing if you want to start exercising. These are the non-negotiable stuff you must either adopt or throw out of your life completely.
1. There is no ‘right time’ if you want to start exercising
This is one of the biggest reason people never get round start. They come up with excuses about the timing being wrong. You know what the say about procrastination?
There is no right or perfect time. Just get up and start doing it. Sometimes, the best way could be informing everybody around you of your desire to start. Saying it out loud and bragging about it would put you under pressure to keep your word.
At least, if you have pride and integrity, keeping your word would he very important to you.
2. Stop doing too much at once
It is very common to want to compensate for the lost time by doing too much exercise at once.
In your over-anxious mind, you don’t have the time to waste taking it slow at first. You think you would get faster results by working out real hard as if you are an elite athlete practicing for a major event.
It would never end well, unfortunately. Apart from the tissue damage from the sudden stress to your body, you’d get burnt out early with no energy to do anything including exercising.
So you are back to square one after that frenetic start; sitting on your butt doing no exercise. And before you know it, months would be gone without you hitting the gym even once.
The trick for freshers is to take it slowly at first and build up a routine. Losing weight through exercising needs a long term commitment.
3. Eliminate those unrealistic weight loss goals
Again, just to remind you, losing weight through exercises is not possible after a week or even a month.
Patience is what is required. Telling yourself you intend to look like that model you saw the other day after a few weeks is unrealistic.
Chances are, you would never look like that model. Just understand the main benefit of exercise is to stay healthy. Losing weight is just a consequence of it.
Exercise. Stay healthy. You would definitely lose weight if you are consistent over a long time. Make a commitment of at least 3 months before thinking you need to evaluate how far you’ve come.
4. Stop thinking it is a walk in the park
If you want to start exercising, banish the idea it is going to be easy from your mind. It is going to be hard at least for a beginner like you.
All those TV shows or commercials showing you people exercising and smiling are just a pack of lies to make you buy whatever they are selling.
Actual real world exercising is full of pain. That is why one of the favorite slogans of exercise and gym buffs is, ‘No pain, no gain.’
You would do well to remember that all the time when you feel like quitting because of the pain.
5. Don’t be afraid of failure
Most times, people never start exercising because they feel that ultimately, it is going to be a waste of their time and perhaps money. They think they won’t succeed.
That is what comes from over-thinking an issue with a negative mindset.
There would certainly be times when you feel like giving up after doing it for a while. The idea of just getting out of bed to hit the gym would not be appealing some days.
Everybody goes through this. That is why you need to take it easy. Don’t set the bar too high and make it a part of your daily routine.
That way, the idea of failure is given the right perspective. And the best definition of failure is when you stop completely.
Never consider not being able to run 5 km in one hour after 3 months a failure. Or even not being able to lift your body weight in the gym as a failure.
6. Don’t make it a lonely journey
Many people have found out rather late that if they want to start exercising and keep at it, one of the most effective things is never to do it alone.
Sometimes, just talking about how you want to start exercising and the problems you are facing with a stranger would do wonders to your commitment.
The best though is to have a partner who can invest as much time and commitment into it. Both of you can motivate each other.
The good part is the healthy competition that develops between you two. That competition is what would see you through the tough times when you don’t feel motivated enough.
At the same time though, never pin all your exercise regime on the availability of a partner. Things might happen to stop them from coming and you are alone again.
Love what you do. Talk to people about it all the time. And whether your partner is around or not, you would keep on exercising alone.
Now, enough with reading. Get up and start exercising. But before you do that though, take a few seconds to share this with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Cheers.
