Ep #210: Three Ways to Get Consistent with Your Exercise Routine

Welcome to the Not Your Average Runner podcast. If you’re a woman who has never felt athletic but you still dream about becoming a runner, you are in the right place. I’m Jill Angie, a certified running and life coach and I teach women how to start running, feel confident, and change their lives. And now, I want to help you.

Hey Rebels, how are you this week? I have to say, I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now. When things started to open up this summer, I had a lot of plans. Well, obviously getting married, but then a ton of stuff from last year that got rescheduled.

I’ve been meeting up with friends, doing fun things. And then last week I just kind of hit a wall. And believe it or not, I’m actually a pretty introverted person, even though it seems like I’m an extrovert because I’m super talkative with people that I know.

But lately I have been in social situations around a lot of strangers, and I’m good for like 15 minutes of conversation and then my brain just shuts down. It just wants me to run away and rest and like hide in the ladies room. And I used to be good for maybe 30 minutes. The last year and a half of being so socially isolated, I’m good for 15 minutes. And then I’m just like, I’m done. I can’t be around that many people anymore.

And it’s not like I’m uncomfortable or self-conscious meeting new people. I mean, I could chat with a wall. I could have a whole conversation with a lamp, it’s not that kind of thing. It just, I don’t know, it just sort of saps my energy. I don’t know what it is.

Do you ever feel that way? Because, I mean, I love people, just not in large doses. And I mean, even with my girlfriends, I get together with them and then after a few hours, I’m like, “My brain is done and I have to be alone.”

And I think that’s kind of why I like running, because it’s just me and my brain. And we actually get along really well most of the time. And I think the other piece of it is with the recent rise in Covid cases I actually don’t want to be near anybody that I don’t know. Both for my own safety and because I don’t want to accidentally spread it to anyone else. Even though I’m vaccinated I just want to be careful.

So I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed right now with everything. And yes, I know, it’s my thinking about the circumstances that’s creating the overwhelm. I know that. But I’m still trying to decide what do I want to do with my thoughts and feelings about it?

And did you know, by the way, that it is okay to feel something like overwhelm and recognize, “Yeah, I’m creating that with my thoughts, and I’m still going to choose it. I’m still going to choose to feel it.” Because that kind of overwhelm is, I think it’s a lot different than feeling overwhelmed and believing the world is causing it. Because that, to me, feels super disempowering.

But owning it like, “Yep, I’m overwhelmed right now, because I’m thinking lots of stuff that’s creating it. And I will change that when I’m ready.” That feels much less stressful.

So anyway, that’s just a little peek inside my pandemic brain in case you can relate. I might need to just do an entire podcast on overwhelm. But today we’re actually talking about how to become consistent with exercise. Because speaking of overwhelm, one of the best ways that I know to combat overwhelm is actually to work out. To go out there and move your body.

There’s just something about the endorphins of exercise that seem to calm down the rest of my neurotransmitters so I can relax and sort out my thinking. And I just kind of, I just feel better.

But interestingly enough, overwhelm is a big reason that we skip exercise. Like, “I’m so overwhelmed. I don’t have time, something’s got to go.” So we skip the one thing that’s actually going to help us. It’s a catch 22.

And, you guys, I have struggled a lot with consistency over the years with exercise. You name it, I’ve tried it and I’ve quit it, or not shown up for it. I have signed up for so many classes. In some cases I’ve put down hundreds of dollars upfront, and then just ghosted.

Orangetheory, I did three classes out of a 10 pack, ghosted. Pilates classes, I did two classes out of an eight pack, ghosted. Jazzercise, it was the 90s. Jazzercise, I literally did one class out of a two month pass, ghosted. CrossFit, I have actually booked and paid for CrossFit sessions and then just didn’t even go. Not even to the first class.

Okay, so you name it, I have spent money on it and then quit it. And then each time right I felt very discouraged, disappointed, frustrated, because for the most part I actually liked those things. Even the jazzercise, I took a class, I had fun. I thought, “Wow, this is amazing. I want to do this all the time.” And then like nothing.

I would just make a bunch of shitty excuses. Never go back, feel worse every time. And I know there are at least a few of you out there that can relate, probably more than a few. And even with running, you guys, even with running I struggled for years to be consistent.

Literally, I started running 97, 98 right around there. And it probably wasn’t until like 2015 that I really got into this deeply consistent groove. I started getting consistent maybe around 2013, 2014. By 2015 I was like, “Oh, yeah, like this is a thing.” And that’s when I started coaching other people.

Interesting, and I didn’t even mean to talk about this. But I wonder if that has something to do with it. All right, that’s a podcast for another day.

But seriously, with the running I struggled for years. I’d run, I’d start seeing progress, and then it was like my brain would short circuit. I would have these thoughts, “This is amazing.” And then I’d have other thoughts and there would be this like short circuit in my brain and I’d forget how much I liked it. And I’d quit for a couple months, sometimes for up to a year.

And then I sort of figured out that secret sauce to staying consistent and learning to really, really love exercise. And once I got that, like once I really, really got that, it wasn’t a chore anymore it was something that I loved. I started to become really consistent.

Not perfect, of course, I’m human. Some days I have thoughts that keep me from exercising. I had some of those thoughts today. Today was a walk day for me and I got up this morning and it was pouring down rain. And my thought was, “I really want to spend the day in my pajamas.” And so I did that. I did that for several hours this morning. Hung out in my pajamas with my laptop on the couch, and I was like, “That’s my choice today.”

But like 90% of the time I do it and I like it. I don’t do it and think, “Oh, this sucks.” Once I get out there, I’m like, “This is a reminder of why I love running.” So I can pretty much guarantee, you guys, any thought you’ve had about exercise I have either had it myself and worked through it, or I’ve helped one of my clients work on it.

And just before we go any further, I’m not here to convince you that you should start exercising. If you’re listening to this podcast, it’s either something you want to do, something you think you should do, something you’re trying to do. And maybe you’re not doing it and want to figure out how to change that. Or maybe, I don’t know, you just like to hear me drop f bombs. And of course, that’s totally cool too. Please write me a review on iTunes about how the swearing is your favorite part of the podcast.

Anyway, here are my top three tips for becoming a consistent exerciser. And here’s the thing, these are not going to be little like set your alarm 15 minutes earlier or put affirmations on your bathroom mirror. This is not those kind of tips. These are tips that are actually going to work. But they’re going to require a little more thought from you.

All right, so tip number one is redefine what counts as exercise. And this might seem obvious to some of you and others of you might be like, “Oh, that’s a cop out.”

But hear me out, when you think about exercise, especially if you’re somebody who’s not doing it regularly, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Well, it needs to be at least 30 to 45 minutes of hard activity. I’ve got to break a sweat. I got to get my body in the heart rate zone. Got to do it five days a week. And if it doesn’t hurt, it’s not worth it and it’s definitely not going to be fun.”

So if that’s your thought process around exercise, guess what? When you think that way you’re sure as shit not going to do it. So if that’s your paradigm or your belief system around what counts as exercise, we need to have a chat and we will.

Now if you Google the word exercise, you’re going to find a bunch of definitions. Such as exercise is 20 or more minutes of getting your heart rate into the aerobic training zone, or something along those lines. What the fuck does that even mean, right? What is the aerobic training zone?

That is one question I get asked so often from my clients, what should my heart rate be? I’m like, I don’t know. It’s different for every person. Okay? So when you get this like, “Get your heart rate into the aerobic training zone,” that tells me nothing. So those definitions are bullshit.

So, again, I don’t know what my heart rate should be. I don’t know, what is an aerobic training zone? So again, you’re shut down because it’s confusing, it sounds hard, you’re probably going to do it wrong. And you’re like, “Well, I can’t do that.”

So we have to redefine or define for ourselves, what counts as exercise. Please don’t let the Google tell you what counts. Because if you do, if Google tells you or you’re listening to some Instagram coach who’s like, “Go hard or go home.”

What happens is then you go for a 10 minute walk, and you’re like, “Well, that doesn’t really count as exercise because my heart rate wasn’t in the zone. Or it wasn’t long enough, or I didn’t go hard enough.” Or whatever the fuck you’re thinking about it. You’re like, “I’m a failure because I did a 10 minute walk, that doesn’t count as exercise. I’m not consistent. I suck.”

So that kind of perfectionist thinking, which I do think gets skewed by some of the misinformation that’s out there on the internet, that perfectionist thinking is a huge barrier to becoming a person who exercises consistently. We’re going to talk about that in tip number three.

But here’s my definition of exercise. And this works really well for me and my clients. I’ve got a lot of really consistent clients because I believe that exercise is simply the deliberate movement of your body for the purpose of self-care. And that’s physical or mental. So the deliberate movement of your body for the purpose of physical or mental self-care.

There’s no amount of time that, and I’m using air quotes here, “counts” as exercise. There’s no list of “approved activities” in my definition. If you move your body with the intention of caring for your body or your mind it’s exercise. So guess what, that means a five minute walk at lunch, exercise. Because that five minute walk is self-care. Maybe you’re having a rough day and that walk gives you that five minutes alone in the sunshine to regroup, let your body take over for five minutes so that your mind gets a break.

The point of exercise in my world is not to burn a bunch of calories or lose weight. It is to help you feel better mentally and physically, whatever that looks like for you. And what happens when you give yourself some space around the definition of exercise, is you start doing it more often. You don’t fail ahead of time with unrealistic expectations.

And then this is where the magic happens, on some of those exercise adventures you might even go longer than five minutes. Because once you drop the story that you hate exercise, or you’re not good at it, or you’re doing it wrong, guess what? You start to do it because it’s fun and it feels good. And you know, “Oh, if I go out for a 10 minute walk today, I’m going to feel so much better.” Boom, you’re a consistent exerciser.

All right, so tip number one, redefine what exercise means to you. Now, tip number two, this is where I’m going to lose a lot of you because you’re going to be like, “Oh, I was all fine and good until you said number two, become aware of your thought patterns.” Because I know there’s a lot of you out there that are like, “I don’t want to look at my brain, it’s messy in there. It just doesn’t feel good to look at the brain.”

But I have taught you a thousand times on this show, at least a thousand times, probably more about how your thoughts create your feelings. Your thoughts create your emotions, and your emotions drive your actions. Which means if you are taking the action of consistent exercise, it’s because of your thinking.

And if you are not taking the action of exercising consistently it is also because of your thinking. It’s not because of the weather or that your boss made you work late or that you got six kids. Those are the circumstances and you have thoughts about those circumstances that are driving emotions, that are creating that action of not exercising.

Now you might call those thoughts “reasons,” again with the air quotes. But you would be wrong, my friend. Reasons are the thoughts that get you to take action. Excuses are the thoughts that get you to avoid action. And I talk about this in the How to Become a Consistent Exerciser workshop that I’m teaching on August 29th. And I’ll give you details at the end of this podcast on how to join that.

But really this is an important thing to understand. Because we say, “Well, the reason I didn’t go for a run is because it was really hot.” I’m like, “No, no, that was your excuse.” Because excuses make us avoid action reasons get us to take the action that we want to take.

So here are some thoughts that you might be having that are keeping you from exercising. All right, so raise your hand, and if you don’t want to raise your hand in public, that’s fine. Raise your mental hand, if any of these sound familiar to you. And these are thought patterns that are blocking you from exercise.

So you think I don’t like it, or I hate getting sweaty. I think I’m doing it wrong. I don’t like getting up early. I’m just not interested in working out. I don’t know what exercise to do. I don’t know where to go. I don’t have any friends that will do it with me. I don’t want to exercise by myself.

I don’t want other people to have opinions. I don’t want people to judge me. I don’t want people to think, “Oh, look at her, that so cute. She’s out there trying to be a runner.” I don’t like what my ass looks like and stretchy clothes. Everybody’s ass looks better in stretchy clothes by the way. Just FYI.

I don’t have time. I might get injured. It’s going to be hard. I don’t want to spend money on a gym membership. I don’t want to spend money on a trainer. I don’t want to buy a treadmill. I don’t like it when it’s hot out. I don’t like it when it’s cold. I don’t like the rain. I don’t like the snow. I’m not making progress fast enough, quickly enough.

So if you have any of those thoughts, that’s why you’re not exercising. And by the way, those thoughts are not circumstances. They’re just your opinions about the facts. So here is the million dollar question, Rebels, if you are not exercising, but you want to be, what are the thoughts getting in your way?

I promise, the heat is not the reason. It’s your thought about the heat that’s blocking you. Because there are a lot of people, if the heat was really the reason you weren’t exercising, nobody would exercise in the heat. If the circumstance was I can’t work out because it’s hot out. Nobody would work out when it’s hot out.

It’s you, you have decided that the heat is a problem that you don’t want to solve for. So let me say that one more time, if you’re not exercising consistently, your circumstances are not the problem. It is your thinking.

Now, if you’re not exercising and you’re not interested in starting, that’s it. There’s no further action needed, your model is working just fine. But if you want to be exercising and you’re not, it starts with that awareness of your thinking.

So that’s tip number two. And a lot of times, becoming aware of your thinking and recognizing that your thinking is a story you’re telling yourself about the facts versus actual fact, that’s enough. Because I can’t exercise because it’s hot out is just an opinion.

There may be circumstances where you actually can’t exercise. You’re tied up with chains. Like you’ve been literally tied down and cannot get yourself out of it. Okay, fair. That’s a circumstance that actually is creating the result of you not being able to exercise. I don’t know, I think that’s kind of it.

In almost every situation it’s a choice that we’re making not to exercise. And so I want you, and in the next tip we’re going to talk about your thought errors. We’re going to analyze your thinking and look and see, where are these thoughts that maybe I can change so that I can get out of my own way?

All right. So number three is to correct your thought errors. And I said this earlier, I’m going to say it again, the action of exercising comes from a feeling, which is an emotion, that comes from your thoughts. Now the problem is that most of us want to change the action we are taking without examining our thoughts about it. We want to put the cart before the horse. We want to keep having our shitty thoughts like, “I hate exercise,” but suddenly magically be somebody who exercises consistently.

And it never ever works that way. Because when you think to yourself, “I hate exercise,” you feel resistance. That’s the emotion you feel. And when you feel resistance, are you more or less likely to work out? Way less likely. Way, way less likely. So you got to start by understanding the thoughts that you have, like we did in step two so that you can address them. Otherwise you’re going to keep struggling.

So I like to call any thought that keeps me from taking the action that I want to take a thought error. It’s like a bug in the software, it makes the program run incorrectly, it makes the program glitch out. So here are some common thought errors around exercise. And you may hear yourself in some of these. These are things that I have said to myself in the past.

It doesn’t count unless I do X minutes or get my heart rate up to the aerobic zone. Does that sound familiar? I have to do it at least five times a week or it’s not worth my time. I have to burn a certain number of calories, or I’ve wasted my workout. If I have to walk sometimes, I can’t call myself a runner. If I can’t run a 5K without stopping, why even bother? And by the way, you can’t run a 5K without stopping until you learn how to walk a 5K, but anyway.

So those are some common thought errors. But mostly like it doesn’t count unless I do a certain number of minutes. I think that’s probably the most common one that I hear. But these are all examples of perfectionist thinking, which is very sneaky. And it seems really true and really important.

But it’s going to keep you from taking action because if you think to yourself, it doesn’t count unless it’s at least 45 minutes, you’re going to feel defeated. And when you feel defeated, the action that you take is do nothing. Not even 10 minutes, because why bother? Because you believe that it has to be 40 minutes. So you do nothing at all, you fail ahead of time, and you reinforce your story.

So the way to counteract this is, again, become aware of where you’re thinking this way, when you’re in that all or nothing belief system. And then start working your way to a new thought pattern that results in the action of exercising.

So, again, if your belief now is, “Well it doesn’t count, unless it’s an hour,” you might want to work towards any exercise counts. Because if you believed that any exercise counted, you would remove the barrier to going for a 10 minute walk. And by the way, we already did that in the first tip in this episode. So I’ve already fixed one of your thought errors for you.

Another belief that gets in the way of exercise is it’s too hot outside or it’s too cold outside. And when you think that thought you feel blocked, frustrated, defeated, discouraged. And then you don’t exercise.

But instead, what if you decided to think, “How can I exercise indoors right now?” Or “Is there a time of day when the weather is cooler or warmer and thus more comfortable?” Or “Can I look at the weather report and pick the days where it might be cooler or it might be warmer?” Or even what if you decided that exercising in the heat or the rain is a great way to ensure that you’re ready on race day if it’s unexpectedly hot or rainy?

So there’s a lot of alternative ways to think about the weather that are going to result in you feeling empowered, and then getting out there and exercising. Okay, so you guys, thought errors are simply brain mistakes. They’re just a glitch in the code, you do not have to believe them. You are in charge; you get to rewrite your story.

Okay my Rebel friends, I have something fun for you this week. On August 29th, and I mentioned this earlier, on August 29th I’m teaching a half day virtual workshop all about how to become a consistent exerciser. So we are going to dive deep into exactly why you are not exercising right now. Or why you are struggling to be consistent. And how we’re going to fix that.

So first of all, we’re going to figure out what’s holding you back. How do we remove those barriers? And then I’m going to help you create a customized workout routine that is just for you. So my goal for every student in this class is to learn the tools to manage your thinking so that you can stick with exercise and get all the amazing benefits of consistency.

Now, the class is going to be held over Zoom. It’s from noon to three eastern time on Sunday, August 29th. It is $39 to attend, and it’s going to be recorded. So if you cannot come live, I will literally email you a link to the recording Sunday night. So there’s no risk here.

Now, the class is perfect for anybody who is just starting out as an exerciser. Maybe you’re like, “Oh, I’m just dabbling and I’m not really sure how to stay motivated to stick with it.” But it is also perfect if you are someone who’s struggled with consistency over the years. If you’re like me, and you’re just like, “Oh my god, I keep quitting and starting and quitting and starting.” Boom, perfect class for you.

All right. So all of the details on how to join can be found at notyouraveragerunner.com/workshop. Then just read the information, the sign up link is there. Again, that’s notyouraveragerunner.com/workshop. I hope I’m going to going to see you there, my friend, because it’s going to be a game changer.

So go to notyouraveragerunner.com/workshop to join. You can also go to the link in the show notes. And yeah, I hope I’m going to see you there because I want to help you become consistent with exercise because it will change your life.

Okay, my rebellious friends. That is it for today. I love you, stay safe. Get your ass out there and run and I will talk to you next week.

Oh, and one last thing. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you have to check out the Rebel Runner Roadmap. It’s a 30 day online program that will teach you exactly how to start running, stick with it, and become the runner you’ve always wanted to be. Head on over to rebelrunnerroadmap.com to join. I’d love to be a part of your journey.