New Habits

New workout routines are hard to just start up and maintain. New Year's Resolutions are just around the corner, and the majority of those who started strong last year have fallen off the wagon. With impending food obstacles, its important to develop health as a habit beforehand! Many times people won't see the value in starting a new habit unless there is something that makes it real to them. The Health Belief Model states:

"... a person's health-related behavior depends on the person's perception of four critical areas: the severity of a potential illness, the person's susceptibility to that illness, the benefits of taking a preventive action, and the barriers to taking that action. The model also incorporates cues to action (e.g., leaving a written reminder to oneself to walk) as important elements in eliciting or maintaining patterns of behavior. The construct of self-efficacy, or a person's confidence in his or her ability to successfully perform an action... has been added to the model, perhaps allowing it to better account for habitual behaviors, such as a physically active lifestyle." -http://www.csupomona.edu/~jvgrizzell/best_practices/bctheory.html

So what this means is that if its not important to a person, or if they don't think they can accomplish it, they won't do it. Seems like common sense. By making it a habit, it becomes bonded into our daily regime. Some things are so engrained in us at an early age that its nearly impossible to break. For example- brushing our teeth. Our society has established that as young kids, we brush our teeth and it turns into a twice daily part of life. If fitness is developed into such a habit that it feels wrong to not have it in our life that day, then the battle is won without it even being a battle.

Ways to make it a Habit-
*Write it on the calendar in a public highly visible place "g" or amount of calories burned.
*Go at the same time of day on alternating days/daily
*keep a fully stocked gym bag in the car/by the door
*Have a workout buddy or hire a trainer- you are 50/50 going to go on your own, and 99% going to go if you PAID someone to meet you there. and it offers guidance
*make fitness your coping mechanism- many times people grab a drink, etc to cool off, go for a run/workout instead
*reward yourself for accomplishing a set amount of gym attendance per week

KEEP IT FUN!
Good Luck and Happy Workouts :)