Posted by Janet Harriett on Feb.27, 2010

©iStockphoto.com - monkeybusinessimages

Physical activity is an integral part of overall wellness, but if you haven’t been making time for exercise, starting a fitness regimen can seem overwhelming. While going from a more sedentary lifestyle to regular exercise is a major lifestyle change, taking the change in small steps can help ensure a successful long-term change.

The first part of any lifestyle change, when you’re developing habits, is the hardest. The good news is that, if you can stick to something for 3-4 weeks, the habit is very likely to stick. The 30-day incremental plan for developing an exercise habit relies heavily on preparing yourself physically and mentally for a lifestyle change, then sticking with a commitment.

Day 1: Consult your Healthcare Provider

Before you start any exercise regimen, make sure you don’t have any medical conditions that may limit your exercise options. Since most insurance policies don’t cover this sort of exam for adults, you might consider folding this in with an annual physical. Your doctor can let you know if your blood pressure, resting heart rate or other health indicators may signal that you’ll want to take things especially slow or avoid certain types of activities.

Day 2: Find an Exercise You Like and Can Do

You’re more likely to stick with an exercise program if you enjoy the program, so find the type of exercise that is fun for you, personally. This may take a few tries to get right. I, myself, tried regimens of treadmill running, aerobics videos, pilates and bellydancing before discovering that I like cardio boxing. Consider having a menu of a few enjoyable exercise options.

A workout program also needs to be convenient. If getting ready for your workout or driving to the gym takes another 20 minutes on top of your actual workout time, you’re more likely to skip the workout as too much of a hassle. Especially as you start developing an exercise habit, try to make your program as expedient as possible.

Day 3: Set a Realistic Goal

As you start an exercise habit, have a clear goal in mind, and a plan for achieving your goal. The goal needs to be achievable. Set yourself up for success, not failure. Even though the official CDC activity recommendations set a minimum of 150 minutes a week, you may start off with a goal much lower than that. At first, your goal should be what you can do, not what you should do in an ideal world where you’re already in shape. Figure out how much time you can start off with devoting to exercise and fitness, and start your goal off with committing to actually devoting that time to fitness, even if it is well short of 30 minutes daily. As you manage to meet a weekly fitness goal regularly, you can work up.

Goals need to be concrete. “Exercise more” is a vague ambition. “Walk at 3 mph pace for 30 minutes, 4 days a week” is a goal. Your healthcare provider or a personal trainer can help you set exercise and fitness goals that are achievable. It may help to write your fitness goals down and post them on the fridge, bathroom mirror, or family bulletin board.

Day 4: Choose a Day to Start Exercising

Developing an exercise habit can be a major lifestyle adjustment. Life is busy, but choosing a less-busy time for the hard work of initially establishing a fitness habit can make you less likely to put it off and more likely to succeed. If you wait until you have nothing else going on, you’ll never start an exercise program, but if you try to start the week before vacation, the habit isn’t going to take hold. Pick a definite day to start your program and commit to starting that day.

Since exercise can affect your appetite, you may want to avoid starting an exercise regimen at the same time you make a major dietary change, like cutting calories to lose weight.  Let your body get used to one change at a time. If there isn’t a medical reason to make major changes to your eating and exercise habits at the same time, gradually phasing in lifestyle changes can make you more likely to stick with all of them. In some people, exercise actually suppresses appetite somewhat, making a dietary change easier to implement later. Personally, after I started daily 30 minute workouts, I lost all interest in food after about 3 weeks, which made choosing healthier options much easier since food was just something I had to do to fuel my body.

Day 5: Schedule Your Fitness Time

Set aside dedicated time every day for exercise. Even if you don’t work out every day–and especially at the beginning, you won’t, perhaps alternating exercise days and rest days–make a specific block of time your fitness time. On rest days, use the time for other personal development or quiet relaxation and recharge time. By having dedicated fitness time even on days that you’re not on the treadmill, or doing whatever other exercises you choose, the times you are working out aren’t encroaching on other things you would normally be doing.

Pick a workout time that works with your schedule. If your mornings are hectic, work out in the afternoon or evenings. If evenings are family time, carve out time in the mornings or afternoons for your exercise, or make exercise part of family time and get your kids and partner active, too. Your workout time should be the time you’re most likely to actually work out.

Day 6: Show Up

As the saying goes, 90% of life is just showing up. Having laid a foundation of proper planning to make a major lifestyle change, you’re in a good position to take the plunge. Commit to following through on your realistic goal, and start working out today. Your workout doesn’t have to be intense. Just get moving.

Day 7: Put Away the Scale and Pay Attention to Your Body

Weight loss doesn’t necessarily follow immediately on starting an exercise program. Usually, the first effect of exercising is increased energy level, followed by lost inches before the number on the scale finally starts to inch downward, according to personal trainer Kelly Cole. If you check the scale daily, the lack of movement is likely to be discouraging. For the first month, put away the scale and don’t worry about your weight. Pay attention to muscle tone, the fit of your clothes and your energy level to assess your progress at first.

Day 8-14: Start Slow

For the first week of an exercise program, don’t push yourself too hard. Eventually, you’ll work up to the recommended 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 30 minutes of vigorous exercise 5 days a week and strength training at least two days a week, but that’s in the far future. For starters, just work on moving. These first weeks are for developing a habit of exercise, then you can work on how intense the exercise is.

Day 14: Assess Your Roadblocks

After the first week of exercising, congratulate yourself on a week of working out! You should have an idea of the things that may get in the way of your exercising. If you fell short of your fitness goal at any point this week, look at what led to it and how you can overcome that obstacle.

• Kids getting in the way? Get them in on the exercise habit, too.
• No time? Make exercise a priority. If necessary, work in shorter bursts of exercise throughout the day instead of one longer session
• Sore? Start at a lower intensity.
• No energy? One of the first effects of exercise is an increase in energy levels, so stick through it and you’ll get there.
• Bored? Find an activity you like. You may need to change from the activity you initially selected, or mix up types of exercise on different days.
• Forget? Work exercise into your day with a trigger you know you’ll remember daily. Some women exercise during a favorite TV program. My own trigger is when I’m done with the morning e-mail check.

Day 15-21: Motivate Yourself to Keep Going

For the second week, commit to keeping up your new fitness routine. As with the first week, just keep showing up, no matter how hard you work during your fitness time. Motivation may start to flag and you may find yourself coming up with excuses to avoid your workout time. Keep reminding yourself that you and your family are worth attention and time paid to your fitness. Work hard enough that you feel your heart working, but don’t overdo it or hurt yourself.

Day 22: Reward Yourself (But Not With Food)

By Day 22, you’ve stuck with exercising for two weeks, and that’s no small accomplishment. Reward yourself, but now is a good time to start getting out of the habit of seeing food as a reward. Instead of a cupcake or candy, choose a reward like a new color of nail polish or extra time playing your favorite computer game.

Day 23-29: Build Up Intensity

In the third week, try to build on the work you did in the first two weeks by showing up, and keep sticking with your daily fitness time. If you can start building up intensity or making the workouts a little bit longer each day, go for it, but don’t burn yourself out.

Day 30: Congratulations!

Most reliable studies on the subject show that it takes 3-4 weeks to develop any habit into an automatic behavior. If you’ve kept with your exercise program this long, there’s a good chance it has become an integral part of your daily routine, and you’re starting to see and feel the benefits of exercising. If the habit is still shaky, another week of work should solidify the routine.

With the commitment to exercise established, and inches starting to come off, you may want to reward yourself with a new exercise outfit that shows off the fit body you’re developing.

Related Articles

Keep Your Fitness Resolutions

Get Fit with Video Game Exercise

Get the Most from Your Exercise

Inexpensive Exercise with Homemade and Found Equipment

Safety Tips for Outdoor Exercise

Share

Posted under Fitness For Body & Mind, Health & Fitness.