Weekly Motivation: Making Exercise A Priority.

Prior to year 2012 I didn’t know or care about the concept of setting New Year’s Goals (or Resolution). Five years ago in 2012, inspired by someone on the internet, for the first time in my life I scribbled some lines down on a piece of paper as my New Year’s Goals. Since then it’s become a tradition for me to write down my goals for every brand new year but sadly I’m not good at reaching my goals in any of those 5 years. The problem, now I realised, is because I don’t take sufficient actions to achieve my desired results.

For example, the past 5 years I’ve almost always had “be fit and healthy/lose weight” on my list. But instead of losing 5 kilos as wished, I’ve put on 8 more kilos. Why? Because I don’t like exercise and don’t exercise. If I could sit down, I wouldn’t stand up; if I could lie down, I wouldn’t sit. I’m a naturally a big eater and can never resist the temptation of food. As reluctant as I’d like to admit, the age factor is catching up – I’m no longer able to eat enormous meals, stay sedentary and maintain a lean body built.

Since 2015 I’ve becoming more and more aware of my long list of personal weaknesses and decided to build good, long lasting habits gradually. One of the good habits I’d like to have is exercising regularly. The common saying is it takes 21 one days to form or break a habit, but for me the process is definitely much, much longer. I think it took me roughly about 2 years to make it a habit to exercise first thing in the morning. My form of exercise is to just simply stretch and do pushups at home, instead of going to the gym, fitness classes or going for run etc.

What motivated me to exercise regularly?

Because:

I want to be a better person. I don’t want to stay lazy, sluggish and undisciplined all my life.

I want to be stronger and have more energy.

I want to get rid of my excess body fat, tone my body and most importantly, be fitter and healthier.

My actions.

Incorporate exercise in my morning routine:

Put on yoga gear and lay down the yoga matt the first thing after I get out of bed.

Start with gentle stretch then do 20 push ups and 90 seconds of plank.

Only in the last 2 month, have I seen myself doing this regularly and diligently (a sign of this habit is finally formed?) I even feel something is missing and slightly agitated if I don’t do my 20 push ups in the morning.

The result?

I feel less tired after my morning exercise. As a matter of fact, I start to feel energised and happy after it.

A few month ago, no matter how hard I suck my stomach in, my waist line are not visible. Now I can see my waist line clearly in the mirror when I suck in my stomach.

You might be expecting the next line of report, something like I’ve lost xx kilos because of my morning exercise. Sorry to disappoint everybody, myself included – I’ve put on extra weight in 2016. They say losing weight is 80% of diet + 20% of exercise. I think they are right. The large portions of food consumed by me certainly contributed to my continuous weight gain. So my next goal is to really eat healthy meals in smaller portions.

But for now, I want to keep making exercise a top priority. Maintain the habit of morning exercise, no matter how busy or reluctant I could be. I haven’t had a quote on the blog for a while, so here is one for this purpose:

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

-Jim Rohn

There are some great places for inspiration and assistance if you want to add more exercise to your routine. For example, nourishedenergy.com.au is a good place to start for those interested in yoga.

Here’s to a year of healthy and happy living!