Through this post, I would like to share some reflective thoughts that I did in January. I lost motivation to write in this past few weeks but now I get it back on the track. So, I’m going to talk about my stories to build a new habit of exercise. Since mid-January, I made a commitment to myself to workout every morning. I chose some workout plans in Pinterest and tried to stick with the plan for about a week. The urge simply came from two factors: #1 Prove myself that I could be more determined and stop wanting without action; #2 Prove the statement of “get-those-abs-in-2-weeks”.
In order to give you a better understanding, let me share the plan:
- Warm-up: 10 mins
- 10x crunches
- 10x bicycle crunches
- 10x mountain climbers
- 10x side-lying leg lifts (both side)
- 10x dynamic planks
- 10x knee touches
- 10x toe touches
- 10x leg lifts
- 10x crunch claps
with 3 levels of difficulties:
- Level 1: repeat 2 sets
- Level 2: repeat 3 sets
- Level 3: repeat 4 sets
The first day I started this challenge, I tried not to push myself too hard. For some particular movements like dynamic planks and leg lifts, I just did for 1 set because it’s super tiring. As expected, my muscles were sore throughout the day, but I could endure the pain and on the other side, I felt proud of myself too.
So, continue to the next day, I found that the reason behind I often lost my motivation isn’t caused by aches. Yet, it’s hard for me to commit to this set goal: wake up early and get up. Hence, once I failed to wake up early, the thought of failure affected my motivation to workout because I felt that the whole plan is collapsed.
So, I tried to change my goal to this one: do at least 1 set of exercises each morning. It means that I don’t care if I wake up late or have no time to do the exercise. What I should do is roll out the mattress and just do it. I just need to keep the habit consistent every day. Strangely enough, it made me easier to stick with these new habits and I don’t feel pressure to do this exercise every morning.
From psychological aspects, I felt like my confidence is increasing because I could prove myself that I can be more determined toward myself. On the other side, it is a method to practice self-love because I exercise in order to promote a healthier lifestyle. Bonus point, my clothes feel looser and I succeed to drop a pant size within 3 weeks (FYI, I don’t restrict my calorie intake and eat like usual).
This journey is still a long way to go… It’s only been a month of me doing it consistently, but I still need to prove myself that I could make it a habit for the long term. I’m planning to add more variation in my exercise and build a new habit to run at least once a week. To close this writing, I will put a quote below as a reminder:
Baby steps still move you forward
