We’re three weeks into the New Year and I am observing people struggling in getting started with their program. The New Year came and went, and so did their discipline. We’re right at that point where you can’t reference the year as “new” anymore. By February 1st, it’s just the year 2020.It’s not new anymore, similar to when you purchase a car and it depreciates as you drive it off the lot. The problem with the holidays is that people start to loosen up their self-control around Thanksgiving. Think about it, we have a holiday that we celebrate the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World by eating as much as possible. I admit I fall into that trap. What other holiday would you eat 2 servings of pie? The problem is that Thanksgiving leads right into the Christmas and Passover holidays. It starts with the work annual luncheon or party, followed by over indulged meals with family and friends.
What many people don’t realize is that over this span of 45 days, we’re slowly making poor eating choices and missing our workouts a habit. The New Year initiates not only starting a new positive habit of exercising more and eating better, but also breaking the bad habits of missing your workouts and eating poorly. I wanted to discuss a few simple tips you can use to help during this transition.
The first step is planning out your training schedule. People experience a huge improvement when they hire a trainer for the simple fact that they have to schedule an appointment. The fact of having someone keep you accountable is huge, but what doesn’t get noticed is that it’s the practice of looking at your schedule and mentally making the time. I’ve seen people make improvements doing this alone. As Woody Allen once famously said, “80 percent of success is just showing up”.
The next thing you have to do is embrace the process. It’s in the daily small tasks which you do that make big changes happen. It’s summed up perfectly in that classic old joke. A couple is driving around lost in New York’s lower east side. They are running late for a concert. They come to a stop light and the female passenger rolls down the window to ask a bearded man standing on the corner for directions. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” she asks. The man looks up and says “Practice”. The problem that many people have is that they are measuring the wrong thing for success. Many want to see a drop in weight every day or weekly. When they don’t achieve this, they interpret this as failure. In this scenario, they are measuring the wrong thing. What they should be keeping track of is how consistent they’ve been with their exercise. The success is acknowledging you’ve trained 50 times in the last 3 months, on your way to hit 200 for the year! You have to make the mental shift in being happy for putting in the time. The progress will be a by-product.
The last step is realizing your brain builds habits (good or bad) using a 4 step cycle. It has a cue, which creates a craving, followed by a response, and then you receive a reward. James Clear discusses this in depth in his best seller, Atomic Habits.
The summary of the concept is that a cue triggers a craving. You smell fresh baked cookies and now you want one. The aroma is the cue. The trigger is having the motivation to want the cookie. The response is what you have to do get the cookie. The reward is not actually eating the cookie, but the thought that you have decided to have the cookie. This feedback loop is the motivation behind every habit. What I recommend is that you have a strategy for the cue. I smell the cookie and remind myself that I’ll have a dessert at the end of the month once I complete 17 workouts. The probability is that once you complete the 17 sessions, the trigger will have faded. This is a tactic of making choices with the rational part of your brain, instead of the emotional.
In summary, my 3 steps to help you become more consistent in exercise are:
1. Plan out when you’re going to work out ahead of time.
2. Embrace the process of showing up for your workouts.
3. Have a strategy to deal with the cues you will experience that can take you off your path.
I’ll see you at the studio.