Why Is Exercise Hard?

Grabbing a towel after a grueling workout and wiping the sweat off your face can be the most rewarding feeling…”I’m done! I can reward myself now with a warm shower and hot breakfast (with maybe a dessert:)!”

Is this how you feel after going through a workout every day or is it one of those things you keep pushing off thinking that the workout fairy will grab you and say, (in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice) “It’s time for bootcamp!! come with me if you want to live!”

No!! We hate working out. Our bodies hate eating healthy. Unless….You find a way to beat procrastination and make it worth it for yourself. If you do not find motivation to beat procrastination, you will never succeed and accomplish your weight loss goals.

Procrastination is the theme and the main reason we are average.

According to the book, “The Productivity Project” by Chris Bailey, there are 6 TRIGGERS of PROCRASTINATION. The more UNATTRACTIVE  a task or project is to you, the more likely you are to put it off. There are 6 task attributes that make procrastination more likely:

  1. Boring
  2. Frustrating
  3. Difficult
  4. Unstructured
  5. Lacking in personal meaning
  6. Lacking in intrinsic reward (it’s not fun or rewarding…at that moment)

WOW, I believe that exercise might fall under 3-4 of the above for many of us! No wonder why we don’t stick to a routine. According to what Chris Bailey mentions in his book, your brain is constantly trying to justify tasks that you engage in daily. Would watching your favorite show on TV be a very painful, boring or frustrating task? No. Is working out and changing your diet take work and effort? Yes. It can be very frustrating, difficult, boring, etc. but what about the benefits long term? How you feel immediately after eating what you want might feel good at the moment (igniting pleasure sensors in your brain), but how about 2-3 months…2-3 years…or even 25 years down the road? Your body will thank you for making small steps in the positive direction each day.

I think of training and life very similarly, like interval training. Take a minute each day to reflect on what important things need to be done and tackle them with intensity, rest and perform something fun! (preferably nothing that will reverse positive action from the previous activity).

Below are a few tips that are mentioned in the book to do each day:

  1. Have a daily goal (what is the most important thing to get done today?)—this aligns with your month goal, year goal, etc.
  2. Set aside 3 ACTION STEPS that help achieve the daily goal
  3. If you are procrastinating, write down your frustrations on paper and ask yourself how you can take care of those things immediately.

Remember why you are performing each task everyday and why it is important to you.

 

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