Discover your motivation, and keep it.

I think everyone finds it hard sometimes to drag themselves out of bed or out of the house to be physically active, and we all make excuses from time to time to not do something we know we should do.

Generally, I'm good at getting myself to the gym, but when my alarm pinged this morning I wanted to slap it across the room, turn into a little duvet burrito, and go back to sleep. Instead, thoughts of how good I'll feel after the gym, and my physical and mental health years from now gave me the motivation I needed to get up and throw on some yoga pants.

The decisions we make now shape our future. We don’t get the job offer of our dreams without applying for the job in the first place and prepping for the interview, or create good relationships with our nearest and dearest by shutting ourselves away from them. We have to put in the time and effort for what we want, and the same goes for our long-term mental and physical wellbeing.

So, start now, but start small to get into the swing of it if it's new to you. A morning or lunch time walk with a buddy if you struggle with motivation. Getting off the bus a stop earlier and walking an extra 10 minutes. Spending time in nature on weekends.

Regular exercise helps us manage stress better, improves mental clarity, and lowers our chances of heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and bone diseases. It also improves our sleep, weight management, and muscle strength. This all sounds great, right?

Discovering individual motivation.

Finding our motivation and keeping that in mind whenever we start to slack, is one of two important factors that will keep us on the path to change.

Motivation to exercise could be anything. It could be wanting to be healthy for your family, reducing your chances of obesity related diseases, wanting to take up a new hobby, or simply wanting to boost emotional welfare and self-esteem. These are all well and good, but impossible when we don’t put up roadblocks to curtail those annoying little temptations and triggers we all have to battle day to day. Common weaknesses we share with more people than we realise.

“Identifying weaknesses and destructive patterns will help in every aspect of life”

You don’t really need to be all that strict to benefit from an active lifestyle. Just be aware of your weaknesses. Only when we identify our vulnerabilities can those fleeting promises we make to ourselves become a reality and way of life.

Everyone has them. You might know someone who seems to be juggling so many things but somehow has everything under control, and you sometimes look at them and wonder “how is it so easy for you?”. It's probably not. Or at least for them in the beginning it wasn’t. When we want to make any kind of change, it's important to recognise all of the other changes we need to make.

Let’s take someone who has been trying to lose weight for five years, but hasn’t been successful. They work a 9-5 within an office so they tend to snack constantly and not move around much, regularly go out for meals rich in fat and sodium with friends, and while they might not sit and think about fatty foods, they can’t help but binge when in sight, and include multipacks of these foods in their weekly shop.

It’s obvious from that scenario why they’re not losing weight, but what small changes can they make? It’s important to recognise here that the environment they have created for themselves is the reason for their failure. Yes, we need to work, we need to buy food, and meeting with friends is important for our mental health, but what we do within these environments and situations is what harms or heals us.

Learning to control your environment.

Not including “junk food” in a weekly shop and instead buying a single item as and when they have those little cravings will mean more effort to obtain these foods which can act as a deterrent, and if they initially struggle which is perfectly natural, they’ll at least burn a few calories going back and forth to the shop!

They could also swap out milk chocolate and crisps for lower calorie snacks to graze on such as dark chocolate, nuts, and fruit, and create reasons to move around more at work like going to bathroom further away, taking the stairs instead of the lift, or going to speak to a colleague rather than emailing or calling. They can also make healthier versions of their favourite meals at home, and plan what they’re going to eat ahead of going out to choose the healthier option.

Embracing a new reality.

It can be difficult to really look at and evaluate our lives for what they are, because often it can mean addressing something we don't like about ourselves or our environment, and change can be scary. We know that we should change certain things, but even though it’s destructive, it’s far easier and more familiar to stay in the behaviours that ultimately reduce our quality of life.

Taking these small steps to remain in control of our surroundings and creating a supportive environment we can thrive in will make all the difference in slowly making our dreams a reality. Don’t look at increasing your fitness levels as this steep and daunting hill, but a gentle staircase. Building stamina and strength with each small step, going at a pace that feels most comfortable to you, and stopping every once in a while to look down in pride of where you came from.

So please. Choose an active lifestyle today.

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Please note that this article is not a replacement for therapy. If you are struggling, please get help: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/