Making Exercise a Habit (AGAIN!)

Isn’t it just as hard to create a new habit as it is to break an old one? Making exercise a part of my daily routine is not an easy task. It’s not that I don’t have the TIME to set aside for exercise, it’s more of an issue with remembering to schedule it. And, it's not that I am unfamiliar with daily exercise - I used to run 7 miles a day until I left for law school back in 1990, then for about a year, beginning in 2000, I walked to the office each morning, until I moved the office to my home. It's just that now, I don’t even think about exercise until the end of the day, and by then, it’s too late.

What can I do to remind myself earlier in the day that I need to exercise? Well, the app I wrote about a few days ago, Lose It!, has a "Motivators" section that I decided to explore, and found another app that will work in conjunction with Lose It! that would, among other things, remind me to get my exercise in for the day. However, this app would cost me $99!

$99 for basically a reminder seemed a little steep. So, what I’ve decided to do is create a daily task with reminders in Outlook. I use Outlook every day and have reminders set for just about everything I do, including the task of watering my plants, so why not a task for exercise. This will surely be of great benefit to me in making exercise a daily habit. A reminder will pop up at 6 am and 11 am to be sure I “remember” to go to the gym and work-out.

I have read that it takes a minimum of 21 days to create a new habit. Day 1 - Here we go!

Alone Again, Naturally

Okay, I guess I am going this alone so I better get to writing. Today I worked out for the first time in almost 9 months! Yes, I have procrastinated long enough. I stayed on the elliptical for only 15 minutes and I was pushing to get to that point. Whew! It is going to take some time to build my stamina back up. On the diet side, I downloaded the Lose It! app to keep track of my daily calories. I love this little app. You can pick your foods by name brand, restaurant or scanning the bar code of the grocery item. My sister also gave me a month's supply of Plexus Slim with accelerator and it really helps curb my appetite. My goal is to lose 47 pounds at 2 lbs/week. While I will not post my weight on this site, I will keep track of my weight loss progress.