Ok, so you’re not exercising. Or you’re just not getting to those rehab exercises your Physio gave you.
You might think it’s because you’re lazy or unmotivated. You might think it’s because you’re too busy, or too tired.
But the real obstacles are more likely to be:
💮You don’t have a plan that feels achievable
– You either don’t know what to do and when
– You’re not 100% sure you’ve got the technique right, or
– It feels too long, too hard or too complicated
💮 You haven’t scheduled it in
– Every day feels different for you, so you assume you’ll just ‘fit it in’ at some stage during the day, somewhere, somehow (but you don’t actually know what that looks like)
💮 You don’t have a good enough reward
– You don’t enjoy the process, or
– You don’t have something nice to look forward to afterwards
So what to do?
✔️Make it enjoyable
– think about how you cna make the experience itself more enjoyable (eg. Listen to your favourite podcast, change up your walking route), OR
– Plan to finish off with something you can look forward to – (eg coffee in the sun, a warm shower, a bit of tv or an Instagram scroll)
✔️Schedule it in
– Sit down on a Sunday night and write in your diary which days and when you’ll do your exercise (even if it’s only 10mins)
– Discuss it with your partner / family to limit obstacles that might pop up.
– Set up your ‘exercise area’ so that you’ve got a dedicated place to do it
– Book in classes or or arrange to meet a friends.
✔️Make a Plan.
– Not just in your head! Write it down
– If you’ve already got a written plan, ask yourself if it needs to be simplified or you need to run through the technique again
– Decide when you’re going to do it and what’s going to prompt you (eg alarm going off, baby’s first nap, while the kettle’s boiling)