With the onset of Fall it is time to strategize how to stay physically active beyond the summer season, when life and our obligations often increase.
If you care about sticking with a physically active lifestyle throughout the year, here are five essential steps to help you:
Step 1 Become very clear about how moving your body helps the most important things in your life. Also, think through the specific goals with which exercise might interfere. Being aware of the benefits and costs of exercise is very important.
Step 2 Preview all potential changes in your schedule for the upcoming season and consider how your new schedule might impact your ability to stick with your program and goals.
Step 3 Determine a few alternates to build in flexibility.
Step 4 Preview the challenges that you are most likely to face, and take a minute to literally imagine the specific strategies that might prevent and overcome those specific situations. (Science shows this type of “if-then” planning ahead of time really works.)
Step 5 Create a formal “check in” with yourself in your calendar to evaluate how your Fall plan is going and modify as needed. (It can’t hurt to evaluate every 2-4 weeks until you get this season’s activity goals down.)
My friend Kris values how much better she feels when she is regularly active but juggling a full time professorship with three little kids stretches her time thin.
What’s her strategy for Fall? She’s learned that she has to fit fitness in first thing in the morning or it doesn’t happen. Placing her treadmill in front of the TV lets her use movement to achieve another important goal: staying current with the news for her classes. She puts the speed at a pace that feels good to do rather than choose a faster one she’ll dread waking up to. Kris will have to check in a few weeks after the semester starts to determine if her plan is interfering too much with sleep and whether she needs to create a different strategy to keep moving. She also knows this is a learning process and not about hitting the mark every time.
Feel free to use the chart below to think through these questions for yourself. It is based on the “Subjective Task Value” concept in an excellent motivation framework developed by Jacque Eccles and colleagues. The point of this exercise is to have you become mindful about the value and costs of physical activity so you are prepared to combat the challenges that come your way.
I hope these steps help ease your transition from summer to fall.
Moving Toward Happiness – one step at time,
Michelle