“This year, I am certain I will be continuing with my weeding ‘practice’ because, well, I’m rather liking it now.”—me, writing last year in Fitness Corner: Change your life in 20 minutes a day.
Apparently not!
I was so excited and pleased with myself last spring, when I thought, this is it! I will do my yard care every day, most days, forever!
Life said, nope. As it often does. I had worked so hard to transform it into a part of my everyday routine last year, but I still did not continue my weeding practice.
But guess what happened this spring? I looked outside, decided the weeds were unacceptable, got my stuff out and started weeding my yard again for 20 minutes a day. No drama, no
negativity, no resistance. In fact, from the first day I felt an unexpected sense of familiarity and ease. Most surprisingly, I am truly looking forward to my yard care every morning.
“We can all find 20 minutes daily (most days) on our calendars,” I wrote last year.
I wouldn’t be here right now, surprisingly happy about working again in the yard, if I hadn’t committed to those 20 minutes a day in the first place. But it got me to thinking about what it really means to be consistent with a practice, as I had already been working on this very thing around my strength training routine (or lack thereof).
For many years now I have been disconcertingly inconsistent in my own strength training program. Our muscle mass peaks around age 30-35 (for women especially, it’s critical to prioritize strength training as we age) and we are all susceptible to quality-of-life issues later in life if functional strength is lost.
I have struggled for years now to maintain a strength training routine. Lots of starts and stops. Lots of “I don’t feel like it.” Plus, quite a few “life” things have hit me in the last decade, like injuries and tragedies and upheaval. My habit has been repeatedly interrupted!
In January, I decided it was time to (a) re-start my workouts and (b) embrace a new perspective, so that I’d be prepared for the same pitfalls I’ve encountered many times. So, for what felt like the millionth time, I committed to my workouts (most days) but this time with a new mindset:
1. Expect inconsistency. I’ve not been consistent with weeding throughout the year, but every spring I get right back to it when necessary. Why not approach strength training with the same attitude? Instead of feeling like I failed because I stopped for a while, now I. . .
2. Plan for interruptions. Travel is an obvious example where I always tend to fall out of a workout routine and find it hard to resume when I return home. This March, I lost three weeks to travel and recovery time. But after that I simply started my workouts up again. It was much easier to do when I remembered that it’s important to . . .
3. Start small/do less. This is my age-old advice for starting or re-starting any exercise program. Not just light weights/bodyweight but shorter time frames, such as 10-20 minutes maximum length. It’s not just to avoid injury or tweaks; it also helps ease me back into routine because I now know to . . .
4. Expect discomfort. Restarting a routine generally involves some level of mental or physical discomfort, or both, especially when your brain gives you the very powerful “I don’t feel like it” urge. It just is what it is. What helps me the most is to . . .
5. Schedule and plan everything. I’ve become a huge fan of using my calendar to schedule my workouts. I also write my workouts out in advance as I would do for a client. It gives me an objective structure that is less susceptible to thoughts and feelings such as “I don’t feel like it”. Then I just show up and get it done. That separation also helps me to…
6. Act from self-love and care. Somewhere in my past I learned to be extremely hard on myself, but it doesn’t serve me anymore (as if it ever has). Working out is a way to lift myself up; berating myself for not doing so isn’t helpful in returning to or maintaining a long-term program. I have also learned to . . .
7. Reduce expectations. Unlike weeding, I don’t expect myself to workout for 20 minutes every day. My current goal is to lift weights four times per week, somewhere around 15-25 minutes. Maybe someday it will be more. If it’s less, it’s less. If I miss it for too many days, I just revisit mindset #1, “expect inconsistency” and mindset #2, “plan for interruptions” and start the process again.
Four months in, I am making progress, in the slowest way possible. Best of all, I’m finally enjoying my workouts again. Often, I even warm up with some yard care!
If there’s one certainty of habit and consistency, it is that we will all, at some point, fall out of it. But each time this happens, I’m getting much better at quickly and easily finding my way back into routine. That is its own form of consistency.
Bring on the inevitable interruptions! I’m ready.
Coach Pritam Potts is a writer and strength coach. After many years of training athletes and clients of all ages as co-owner of Edmonds-based Advanced Athlete LLC, she now lives in Dallas, Texas. She writes about health & wellbeing, grief & loss, love & life at infinitecapability.substack.com and www.advancedathlete.com.