Developing a routine to stay fit is more than just setting strict rules to follow every day. It is also about the little things you can do to reach your health and fitness goals. You don’t need to get from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye. It’s best to take the process step by step, and soon you will be surprised to see how far you’ve come.
According to a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it can take anywhere between 18 to over 200 days to form a habit. The span of time largely depends on what kind of habit it is and how dedicated you are to maintaining consistency.
The important thing is to get started as soon as possible. Only you can decide how long it will take for you to make exercise a habit, and it’s time to begin your journey towards a better and healthier life.
If your biggest question is how to get energy and motivation to work out, start by developing these simple routines:
Waking Up Early
Research has shown that getting up early leads to more hours of quality sleep and a boost in energy throughout the day. When you wake up early, you have time to enjoy a healthy breakfast, meditate, work out, and cross things off your to-do list. Another bonus of an early wakeup: less traffic!
An early start to your day is an excellent first step to a healthier lifestyle. This does not mean that you need to wake up at four in the morning to do yoga. Get up 30 minutes earlier than usual one morning, and try to keep pushing it back. You’ll soon discover that you have more time than you realized, and you can easily fit in a workout (or two).
Eating Balanced Meals
If you’ve been wondering, “what should I do every day to stay fit?” One key element that you need to incorporate in your day is a healthy and balanced diet.
Many people cringe away from healthy food because they associate it with a lack of flavor and enjoyment. The truth is that a nutritious meal does not have to be boring. These days, it is easier than ever to develop a daily meal plan that covers all of your nutrition requirements and tastes good, too.
Balanced meals will also give you plenty of energy so that you can fit in your exercise routine without feeling exhausted by the end of the day. A good start to getting your diet on track is substituting junk food with healthy alternatives.
For example, instead of reaching for a pack of chips and a can of soda for your mid-day snack, you can opt for mixed nuts and seeds instead. For breakfast, fiber-rich oats with fruit and yogurt can give you the energy boost you need. Lunch can be grilled salmon with a side of red rice, which takes care of your protein intake.
Dinner should be nutritious, but not so heavy that it will lead to trouble sleeping at night. Avoid spicy foods for dinner to keep heartburn at bay. A salad with a light vinaigrette can be your last healthy meal of the day. Easy enough, right?
In addition to eating healthy food, you must also stay hydrated at all times. It is very easy to overlook the amount of perspiration the body expends each day, especially when you have an active lifestyle. Make sure to compensate for the fluid loss by drinking at least one glass of water each hour, more when you have a vigorous workout scheduled.
Adequate hydration and a well-balanced diet will provide all the needed nutrients to power your fitness routine.
Sleeping Well
Many people relate sleep with laziness. The truth is that even the most active people need at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Sleep is when your body rests and recovers after a full day of activity.
Sacrificing sleep can lead to more negative consequences than you can imagine. Not getting enough sleep leaves you feeling exhausted throughout the day. It can even lead to a loss of motivation to continue your fitness routine, resulting in lethargy that’s difficult to reverse.
Not getting enough sleep also harms your brain. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation causes lower brain cell activity, leading to sluggishness, tiredness, and impaired decision-making.
When living an active lifestyle, you need your shuteye so that your muscles and joints can recover. Athletes actually need more sleep to give their bodies time to become stronger.
Setting Goals
Setting goals is critical to developing and maintaining a consistent workout routine. And this does not mean simply saying, “I want to be fit!” You need to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goals that describe exactly what you want to get out of your fit lifestyle.
Your goals need to be practical. You know yourself best, so if you set goals that are too difficult to reach within a certain period, it will be difficult to find the motivation to continue.
Get there step by step. Decide what you want and make a plan to reach your goals. Do you want to lose a certain number of pounds each week? Do you want to build muscle? Do you want to build up your endurance to run a marathon in a year? Do you just want to get your dose of daily cardio to maintain your baseline health?
Set up your goals in a productive way. This will allow you to remain motivated as you see the results of your workouts. You can keep the ball rolling as you hit every small goal and move on to the next one.
If your goal is to build muscle, instead of focusing on your entire body in one go, focus on one muscle group at a time. You can begin with heavy exercises for your abs. This does not mean ignoring the rest of your body; you can go through light exercises for all the other muscle groups. Balance your routine throughout your body over the days of the week. This will allow one area to recover as you bulk up the others.
If you are a person who thrives on strict scheduling, then plan your workouts weeks or months in advance. If you want more freedom and creativity, just set aside one chunk of your day that you can dedicate to any type of exercise you want—pilates, dance, yoga, cardio, strength training, HIIT, CrossFit, and others.
No matter what goals you wish to set for yourself, the important thing is to develop a consistent workout routine that will get you there.
How Gymbet Can Help
If you really want to understand how to make exercise a habit, Gymbet can hold you accountable, all through a simple app.
Working out is much more fun with your friends. Gymbet allows you to set custom goals for yourself while staying in touch with your workout circle in one place, whether it’s with your family or friends.