Create habits that work for you

One of our readers posted a message to one of the forums today ( 12 step fitness program: 4 Create a training schedule that works for you) - and I thought it was such a good subject I would continue the theme here.

Habits are essential especially when you are starting out. We need to prompt our minds and our bodies that we need to exercise, and by creating a habit (or more than one habit) is vitally important.

• You do need to create a schedule that works for you. Learn to be a little selfish when it comes to your exercise and health. You are just as important as everyone else, so work out some times when you can focus on you for a change. How do you create a schedule for your exercise and health? You do need to be honest - if you are not a morning person, don't tell yourself you will get up at 5am and go for a walk, then repeatedly turn over and hit the snooze button. Not only are you setting yourself up for failure, your mind will enjoy telling you - "see I told you so".
• What do you do in your lunch breaks? Assuming you have a lunch break - why not take your trainers / track pants into work and go for a power walk during your break. Multiple benefits to this one - you don't spend money, there is less time to eat and you get some cardio into your exercise and health routine.
• Make sure you are prepared. Keep a spare set of gym clothes in your car, that way you can "hit the gym" before or after work. 30 minutes 3 times a week can give you more benefits than a single 1 hour session, and we can honestly find time to put 30 minutes aside a day to exercise, it can be a little harder to find an hour.
• Use incidental exercise as much as you can - these are easy habits to get into and can dramatically improve your exercise and health. Waiting on the telephone - why not do lunges or squats? I know it may look odd, but .... Stretch regularly and take a moment to run up and down a flight of stairs when you get the chance. If you are in an office block, why not use the stairs to go to a loo on another level for instance. Walk to the shops, only carry a small backpack so whatever you buy fits into it. Not only do you get cardio, but if you wear the backpack you get to add some weight bearing exercise to your incidental exercise and health session.

A lot of the time, and I do agree with our reader on this - we need to be aware of what we are thinking about, so always look at your exercise and health as a must do, can't get out of, enjoyable process and you will create habits that work for you - and you will improve your exercise and health as a result.