How to stop making excuses and start exercising

The motivation to exercise can be difficult for most people.

Coming up with excuses is so much easier and much quicker to do. The truth is, choosing to get up and move isn’t something that comes easily to many people.

Even though there is so much variety when it comes to exercise options, many people still need serious motivation to willingly get up and move.

In 2018, the World Health Organisation stated that the lack of exercise was one of the leading risk factors for death worldwide. It also stated that insufficient physical activity is a key risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.

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With that said, we need to ensure we exercise in order to prolong our lives.

Here are five tips and tricks to help you kick the excuses and get moving:

Be reminded of your goal

Set a goal and write it down on a couple of those sticky note pieces of paper. Stick them in convenient places like your bathroom mirror, dashboard of your car or even on your desk at work.

Actually seeing your goal every day will be that constant reminder that you need because if it’s not written down, it’s easy to simply forget.

Picture: iStock

Get a fitness buddy

Find a training partner with the same or similar goal and make a pact to keep each other accountable to your goals. If you agree to train three days a week together, work hard to stick to that.

Share your workouts

Start a WhatsApp group with a group of friends and agree to share your daily exercise activities on the group.

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Track your progress

If you have a goal where you want to lose centimetres around your waist (for example) without focusing too much on the numbers, take a piece of string and wrap it around the widest part of your waist and cut it. Hang it up on your wall.

A month later, repeat the exercise with another piece of string. Stick the second string next to the first one. The difference between the two strings will show you your progress, or lack thereof.

Repeat this exercise every month and, hopefully, the difference each month will motivate you to stick to your healthy diet and regular exercise.

Picture: iStock

Make an appointment with yourself

Set reminders on your phone. Schedule your exercise sessions the same way you schedule work meetings. Look at it as you essentially setting a meeting with your health. Be strict with these appointments.

If a meeting request comes up in the time where you already have your health appointment, don’t over ride it. Tell the person requesting that meeting that you are unfortunately not available at that time.

Be strict with your health appointments because if you are not well, everything around you can’t be well.

Zulu is a qualified biokineticist and co-founder of PopUpGym. Follow her on Instagram: @letshego. zulu; Twitter: @letshegom; Facebook: Letshego Zulu

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