How I Started Exercising Again

I’d fallen off the exercise band wagon. It happened last fall when my studio and personal life were ramping up for the holiday season. It’s ok I told myself, I’ll start up again in the new year. Well January came and went and I hadn’t started. February and then March and still no health resolutions. Clearly I had a problem.

I made excuses (weather, weather, weather).
I convinced myself I needed to do research, so I googled for exercise ideas.
Maybe I needed some new workout clothes?
Either way I still didn’t know what to do or where to start.

So you wanna know what I did? The following Monday I just started. I thought to myself I’ll just do some yoga today and figure it out later. The next day I decided to go jogging. Good. Then back to yoga on Wednesday.

I printed out a blank calendar and added a star to each day I moved with intention. I was only going to hold myself to weekdays, but slowly I was becoming more active on weekends too.

So I’m just going to leave myself this little note for next time this happens…

Dear Future Self,

It’s ok to take a break once in a while. And when you’re ready to start exercising again, here’s all you need to know:

1. Just do it. Stop researching and just do it. And do it with grace, not perfection.

2. Set easy and specific goals. 10 minutes of intentional moving is good enough to get a gold star.

3. And speaking of gold stars, track your progress on a calendar, all those rows of stars will help you shine.

Love Your Body

How about you? Have you ever fallen off the exercise wagon? How did you start exercising again? Share your stories in the comments section below.

Side Note – Does anyone else hate the word “workout”? It just sounds so intense and vigorous and, well, like work…