Here goes what works for me:
- Find out the reasons for giving up
The first step in exercising consistently was to really ask myself:
- why do I give up in the first place?
- what is it exactly that’s blocking me from exercising?
I wrote it all down. The reasons turned out to be more than what I expected.
- Throw away the reasons for giving up from my mind
After identifying the reasons for giving up on exercise, the next step for me was to discard them from my mind. I do this via meditation.
- Start small with a goal in mind
My body isn’t all that fit. So I started small with a simple walk around my neighbourhood. Eventually I began to set a target for my walks – e.g. minimum 5k steps to hit in a day. Also I ensured I drank at least 2L of water everyday to stay hydrated.
- Treat exercise as an everyday thing
I decided to not have a why anymore for exercising. Instead, I’ve started to treat exercise as an everyday thing. The body simply needs it.
- Increase intensity in small increments according to body condition
After walking for some time, I started to incorporate runs in between my walks. I started to do a walk-run-walk routine. I gradually increased the running distance from 0.5km non-stop to 1km non-stop to 2km non-stop.
On this point, it’s worth mentioning that meditation helped my mind to be more in sync with my body. Because the mind and body are more aligned, it allows me to be more aware of my body condition and I could safely increase intensity without getting hurt.
getting hurt.
- Give your body enough time to rest and recover from a workout
I had to accept that my body just took a longer time to rest and recover and that I couldn’t run everyday. After enough rest, the body does perform better.
- Just focus on yourself and make the exercise work for you. There is no need to compare with others
Everyone’s body is different. I learnt to just focus on improving myself and to exercise according to my body type and condition.
The results so far? Today at 35 years old, I can run 2km non-stop without much effort. It’s not much – but it’s already more than what I could do when I was 15. At 15, I could not even run 1km non-stop. I’m grateful for this improvement. 😊
- If you stop, just start again no matter how long the break
Things happen sometimes which makes me stop exercising. But no matter how long the break, I’d put on my exercise shoes and just start moving again.
That’s it. Hope this helps. I’m also sharing this video which hopefully can help you further.
All the best! 🍀 Thank you! 💛
