Dear Rain,

I feel like I want to start a better fitness and health plan, but I can’t seem to stay motivated to keep it going for longer than a week. Can you help me?

Dear Reader,

Health is so important to us in our stage of life. It helps us deal better with menopause and growing older while looking younger. I love that you said “my plan to better fitness and health” as to make something better is so much more attainable than perfect! Try these steps to make your life better in any area of your life, while gaining motivation to keep it going.

The first step is to write it down. Write it down and hang it up! A lot of people have a beautiful home that has nicely appointed pictures and paintings to compliment their comfortable furnishings. I think our home should represent who we are, what we want and how we are doing it. I encourage you to find a large piece of art or plain paper. Get out pens, crayons, paint, and colored pencils and create a colorful picture (abstract or otherwise) that gets your attention and makes you feel good. Then write your goal or a quote that reminds you of what you want to accomplish down in black ink on top of your picture. You might write “Powerful Fitness and Strong Health” or “Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states." by Carol Welch. Now pin it up where you and everyone else can see it all the time. This makes your goal a statement for your home environment.

The second step is to schedule it in. If you don’t already have a calendar or a list of things to do, now is the time to begin. Whenever we take on a new habit, it is extremely helpful to schedule it in! If you work well with time, use your planner to pick the time you plan to exercise and eat your meals (and describe what they will be.) If you work well with project completion (like me) create a checklist for everything you want to accomplish that day. It is important that you don’t over schedule! One way to make this happen is to have a weekly to do list. So you spread all your tasks evenly over the course of the week and always have time for your fitness plan.

The next step is to practice. Learning a new habit is like learning how to play an instrument. It takes a lot of practice! You can’t learn to play piano in a day and you can’t change your health and fitness habits in a day either! Practice, Practice, Practice!

The final step is to treat yourself with kindness and keep moving forward. No matter what your day or week was like, just keep moving forward! Don’t use the days that are not perfect as a reason to feel bad about yourself. Treat yourself as a baby learning to walk. Encourage every step and smile and coo at yourself, “You are doing it, yes you are!” Why shouldn’t we treat ourselves with the love and encouragement we give to others? To stay motivated, you can write down your positive statements and successes to yourself on sticky notes and you can post them on your original artwork goal that you created in the first step. They might say things like, You did it, today! Love the healthy meal you cooked today! You are amazing at caring for your body! You will begin to see all the positive work you are doing as the days go by and the sticky notes fill the space. You can inspire yourself to keep moving forward!

Now if you have done any one thing on this list, it’s time to congratulate yourself. Afterall, you have started your plan to better fitness and health. Do me a favor and congratulate yourself in two weeks, for me!

smiles and inspiration!

Rain

Copyright 2008 by Rain Fordyce Send this Article To a Friend