Get Fit on Autopilot: A Workout Habit as Steady as Laundry Day!

You know what? I secretly look forward to laundry day. It's a non-negotiable-automatic-activity, and I love it because there's no decisions involved; it's just a simple task that happens without fail every Thursday.

I've been pondering how to make exercise feel the same way - like something that is so routine, we don't have to be 'motivated' to do it; it just happens.

To be honest, even though I am a personal trainer,  I'm not the kind of woman who leaps out of bed at dawn all ready for a workout, or one of those fitness enthusiasts who lives and breathes the gym life. So, I HAD to figure out how to make workouts automatic for me too.

This is what I came up with…

Work out at the same times each week

Here’s why:

• Your body starts to associate exercise with a certain time and ramps up to get ready, just like getting hungry at a regular mealtime.
• Just like not having to think about doing laundry, not having to decide when to work out reduces decision fatigue and procrastination. 'I work out on Tuesdays and Saturdays.' Simple.
• You're more likely to actually do the workout because you won't have something else scheduled and other people get used to you being busy at that time.

Those of my clients, who work out with me at the same time each week, have accountability because it’s booked and paid for, but more than that, they have simply repeated the same habit until it’s become automatic.

Those of us who don't have a personal trainer can create our own consistency. A good (habit stacking) strategy is to schedule workouts before or after another commitment, or at an hour that you HAVE to do them because there are no other suitable times.

For example, if you're too tired to walk after work, then you  HAVE to go in the morning. Then you HAVE to be finished in time to leave for work. Or you could walk to your weekly Spanish class so that you are stacking a new habit (walking) to an existing one (Spanish class).

You can make exercise feel automatic by sticking to the same time every week until it simply becomes second nature.

Want to get weekly content like this straight to your inbox? Grab it HERE

Clara xx