Desperate to get moving but just can’t? Try these 3 tips…
These tips are for you if you feel overtaken by life but are desperate to squeeze exercise in. You know that exercise is crucial for your health an wellbeing but you feel a bit defeated by the fact that it just seems impossible within your current life to find the time. You know it’s essential for your physical and mental health. You know it will reduce your risk of many diseases including cancer. You know it will improve the quality of your life and make you live longer. But your work and family circumstances, coupled with your mindset, mean that you are still not managing to fit it in.
Here are my 3 best tips for you…
Lower the bar.
You need to stop thinking that exercise has to be an hour long workout. It doesn’t need to be an hour, or even half and hour or 20 minutes. Stop thinking ‘workout’ and start thinking movement and let’s work out where it can fit into your day. I recommend you try a 90 second Circuit Breaker to get going. Try 8 squats, 8 lunges and 8 press ups against the wall/ kitchen counter. I recommend that you use James Clear’s concept of Habit Stacking to make this habit. So, do your circuit breaker at Breakfast time whilst the kettle is boiling for your first coffee, or before you eat your lunch… or both.
The purpose of this movement is to get you moving again, remind you how good movement feels, make you want to do more movement, improve your productivity and cognitive function, and break the ‘fast’ of not moving.
Consider your sleep
If you are lacking in energy, lethargic, poorly motivated and unenthusiastic it’s likely you are not sleeping enough. Sleep is at the heart of wellbeing, and if you’re not sleeping enough you are likely to be feeling like you can’t cope with the demands of daily life. This is an issue that is really common in perimenopause, as sleep disturbances are a really common symptom. As a consequence many perimenopausal women are lacking in energy as well as struggling with debilitating symptoms. So, what I recommend you do next is take an objective look at your sleep, and really ask yourself how well you’re sleeping and what part you are playing in that. For example, are you scrolling on your phone in an evening? Are you drinking alcohol or eating sugar in the evening? Are you staying up later to watch another Netflix episode because it’s the only time you get to yourself all day? Are you charging your phone by your bed, so you end up scrolling on it? Do your sheets need changing? Does your partner snore? Is your bedroom to hot?Are you checking work email before bed? Are you having a drink (of whatever) more than 2 hours before bedtime so your up even more times in the night to go to the loo?
Sleep is so crucial, and I know that parents of young children and perimenopausal women are up in the night due to circumstances beyond their control, but you have to take responsibility for what you can change, and take steps to change it.
Motivation isn’t a character trait
Okay so finally we have to remember that no-one, no-one, is motivated all the time. Motivation isn’t a fixed personality trait. It’s fleeting. And if you’re relying on motivation, that’s going to get you unstuck. You need to take action when you aren’t feeling motivated, and this is so much easier when you aren’t exhausted (see point 2). Motivated isn’t something the people just are, it’s something that they work on. And one way to work on it is by taking action (see point 1).
I hope you found this blog helpful.
If you need help helping started and with accountability, drop me an email, beth@movemehappy.me.
Speak soon xx