Ep. #412: How to Make Exercise the Best Part of Your Day

Welcome to the Not Your Average Runner podcast. I’m Jill Angie, a certified running coach, and your running BFF here to help you start running. Feel confident and love the journey no matter your size. Now, if you’ve ever felt like you just weren’t meant to be a runner, think again. I believe that running is for all bodies, even yours.

This podcast is your warmup buddy, giving you tips, motivation, and the support you need to lace up and get moving. I’ve helped thousands of women become runners, and now I wanna help you. Let’s go.

Hey friends, and welcome back to the show. It’s time to get real. Does exercise feel like the best part of your day, or does it feel like that annoying task that you keep moving down the to-do list until you finally give up until yourself? Fuck it. I’m just gonna do it tomorrow. Now, if it’s the best part of your day, this might not be the podcast for you, but if it’s not, if it’s the second one, or if you want it to be the best part of your day, even if it’s in the middle on the list, maybe this is the show for you.

So for most of us. We kind of are like, oh, gotta exercise. I gotta do that thing. And it just feels like a task that we need to check off. We treat it, you know, like laundry. It’s something that has to get done eventually. It never feels exciting. And honestly, no wonder it doesn’t feel that way if we have been taught.

That exercise is about fixing our bodies and proving that we’re disciplined, right? That’s not something you look forward to, but what if it could be different? What if your walk, your run, your yoga session, your weightlifting, whatever your movement looks like, was the thing you anticipated, like your first cup of coffee or your favorite TV show?

So today I’m gonna show you how to design your day so that exercise isn’t the chore that you dread. The highlight that you live for. Okay, so first things first. You gotta stop saving exercise for when you’re exhausted. So one of the biggest mistakes that I see is waiting until the end of the day to sort of squeeze in a workout.

’cause you’re like, that’s when, that’s when I have time. I mean, I get it, but by then you have given your best energy to everyone else. Your family, your boss, your coworkers, your parents, your partner, and by the time you think about moving your body, your tank is empty, right? It’s like saving the crust of the sandwich for last instead of enjoying the good stuff in the middle, right?

No wonder it never feels fun. So if you want exercise to be the best part of your day, you have to stop saving it for the scraps of time and energy that you have left over. Okay, so find a pocket when you’ve still got something in the tank. For some of you that might be morning before the chaos starts.

For others, it might be during your lunch break. Some people, like a mid-afternoon walk, some people are like, I, I wanna get it in like right before dinner. There’s not a lot of chaos, and so I’m gonna, I’m gonna call GrubHub, or I’m gonna call DoorDash and I’m gonna do my workout. While I’m waiting for that, while I still have some energy.

The key here is just please stop waiting until you’re exhausted. Protect a slice of your day when you actually have capacity, and this doesn’t need to be a huge slice. I’m not saying take a whole hour in the morning, right? 10 minutes. Give yourself 10 minutes. Second piece of this is to create a movement ritual.

So think about the daily rituals that you savor. Right. Maybe it’s your morning coffee. Maybe it’s your skincare routine. Maybe it’s scrolling TikTok in bed before you fall asleep. We all love that, right? What makes them so good is that isn’t that they are big life changing events, it’s that they are predictable, comforting rituals that are yours, right?

You can do the same with movement, and I’m not saying stop watching TikTok in bed and start moving instead. Instead, I’m saying. Use the principles behind that to create a ritual around movement. Okay. So instead of saying, Ugh, I have to exercise, you’re like, oh, I get to do that little thing I like. So it might be playing your favorite song while you’re lacing up your sneakers.

It might be making sure that you are walking the dog just as the sun rises when the world is quiet and it’s just, hmm, it’s that chef’s kiss moment. Um, it might be. Lighting like a super yummy candle to have in the background while you’re doing yoga, right? To make it feel comforting and and relaxing. Um, maybe it is you’re, you know, like listening to a chapter of an audio book that you’re.

Absolutely digging while you ride on your indoor bike. You’re like, all right, I’m gonna listen to a chapter in my book every time I get on the bike. When you ritualize it, it stops being random and it starts being something you anticipate. Like that first sip of coffee, right? And speaking of anticipation, I want you to build anticipation like it is Friday night in 1992.

All right, so let’s throw it back for a second. Do you remember looking forward to Friday nights when you were, uh, a teenager or early twenties or in that general age range? There was probably pizza, blockbuster rentals, uh, maybe a bag of M and MSS to share, maybe a sleepover with your best friend. Half the fun was that anticipation of like, oh my God, I can’t wait to do it.

It’s gonna be so awesome. So let’s build the same anticipation around e exercise. Okay. Make a playlist of your favorite eighties and nineties jams that you only listen to while working out. Uh, pick a podcast or an audiobook you’re obsessed with. One of my favorite podcasts, by the way, is my favorite murder.

It is true crime. True true crime with a side of humor. Hilarious. Highly recommend, um, but pick something you’re obsessed with and then only allow yourself to listen to it when you’re doing a walk or a run or maybe on your, um, indoor bike. Okay. So that you’re like, anticipate I can’t wait to find out what happens this week and I have to go for a walk or run to do it.

So you, you bring that excitement. Um, you could also, this is super fun, is choose like a comfort rewatch. We all do this, right? We have, thanks to streaming, you can watch every episode of Seinfeld or Friends or Big Bang Theory or The Office or the X-Files, right in order. All over again. So choose one of those that like really, you just really love and enjoy.

It feels comforting and fun. Um, or pick a new series. You could do a new series if you want to, but only let yourself watch it while you’re on the treadmill, on the indoor bike while you’re stretching or you’re doing something. That you want to create anticipation over, and that way the fun starts before you even move, right?

You are conditioning your brain to see exercise as something exciting and not a chore. Now the next thing is to stack the payoff, so link exercise to something you already love. It doesn’t have to compete with your pleasures, right? We are not trying to take away your bedtime TikTok time, okay? Or your bedtime Instagram or whatever it is that you’re scrolling on your phone before bed.

I don’t, you don’t have to compete with that, but we can add to it, right? So go for a walk in the evening and then come home and pour a glass of wine and scroll TikTok. Um, do a quick stretch session. Then settle in for your Netflix binge. Be like, all right, I’m a, I’m a binge Netflix for a few hours tonight, but first thing I’m gonna do is get a nice long stretch, and then maybe like every 45 minutes during your binge, you do stand up and do another quick stretch just for, for shits and giggles.

Um, you could go for your run in the morning and then reward yourself with your super fancy latte if that’s your thing, because we don’t wanna steal time away for your workouts. We want to make it enhance. Your day and we want to enhance the workout so it feels fun and exciting. So if you are stacking the payoff, it sets the, the scene for the next thing, the payoff, right?

The TikTok time, the Netflix, the wine, the latte, whatever it is, it’s sets the, the scene for that thing to feel even better. ’cause you’re like, oh, I’m enjoying this even more. ’cause I got my exercise done and I had fun with it. I have clients who tell me that their run is the only time of day. Nobody is asking them for anything.

So think about this, right? There’s no emails, there’s no mom. Where’s my hoodie? There’s no partner that’s like, I can’t find my, whatever it is. It’s just 20 minutes of freedom. That’s why it’s the best part of their day. So you can actually think of, you know, if you are somebody who’s super busy taking that 10 or 20 minutes, think of it as your freedom time.

Um, I have another client. She walks on her lunch break at work. She goes out for 20 minute walk and she listens to her favorite True Crime podcast. She’s also in my, my favorite murder aficionado. Um, and she’s like, I look forward to that than the actual, more than the actual food I’m eating for lunch.

Even if I have a really yummy lunch. It’s like that podcast time where I get to like, walk away from my computer and not have any of my coworkers need my time and I can just like dive into whatever true crime mystery of the day. She’s like, it is the best part of my day. And it’s not because she’s obsessed with fitness, right?

It’s because she built it into her day as a treat, right? So make exercise a treat, figure out a way to make it a treat. Okay? So let’s make this real. Here’s how to start this right now, right this week. Number one, pick your time when you have the most energy for yourself, not the leftover energy, the most energy.

So is it morning lunch, afternoon slump? Is that when you need like a little kick? Again, it doesn’t need to be a whole hour. 10, 20 minutes, plenty of time. Create a ritual for yourself, right? Maybe it’s the candle, maybe it’s the playlist. Whatever it is, create a ritual around it so it feels comforting.

Something you can rely on to feel good and then pair it with something you love. Right. Again, a podcast, a book, uh, a like scenery. If you pair it with the sunrise, oh my gosh, that’s the best. Find a friend, pair it with a friend. Maybe you have a bestie at work and maybe that 20 minutes where you get to gossip about how terrifyingly shitty your other coworkers are is the best time of your day.

All right? So pair it with something you love and then start noticing the payoff, right? It, we don’t track calories burned. Just notice how you feel. Do you feel calmer, energized, proud? What is it? So try it for seven days and you may be shocked, okay? Try it for seven days. And what I mean is if you, if you have the most energy in the morning, figure out a way to do 10 minutes in the morning.

Do that for seven days. You may be shocked at how quickly your brain starts to rewire exercise into something super fun and exciting. Making it the best part of your day. Okay? So wrap up exercise does not magically become the best part of your day. You have to make it that way, okay? You gotta move it out of those leftover time slots and create rituals and anticipation and make it realistic again.

Um, and then stack it with things you already love. So when you stop treating it like punishment and something on your to-do list and start treating it like your daily highlight reel, everything changes. And if you want help creating that movement plan that actually feels doable and joyful and fun and not.

Ugh. Right. The Midlife Movement Makeover program is here for you. It is 30 days long, um, and you will be amazed at how easy it is to implement and succeed at it, and make exercise the best part of your day. Okay? You can learn more about it at not your average runner.com/midlife. That’s not your average runner.com/midlife, or go to the link in the show notes.

It’s only $29 my friend. $29. Okay. That is it for this time. I will see you next week. We’ll talk on Thursday. We’re gonna have some fun next week. I have a great episode planned for you. We’re gonna talk all about the mysterious ways you are already exercising that you didn’t even know. Okay? So look forward to that.

I’ll see you on Thursday. Have a good one.

Real quick before you go, I’ve got a fun challenge for you. Take my exerciser personality quiz to find out exactly what kind of exerciser you are and how to make running feel easier and more enjoyable.

Just head over to not your average runner.com/quiz to take it and get your results. That’s not your average runner.com/quiz.