One Scary Fact About Fitness and How to Start Exercising atHome

Here’s the scariest fact in fitness. According to the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey, LESS THAN 3% OF PEOPLE MAINTAIN A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE FOR MORE THAN 6 MONTHS. The number of Americans who maintain a healthy lifestyle is 2.7%. You might be thinking “what do you mean by ‘healthy lifestyle’?” In the survey it meant you don’t smoke, you eat healthily, you exercise regularly, and you have a body fat percentage considered healthy for your age and gender.

If you’re in that 3% club which maintains a healthy lifestyle, then pat yourself on the back. If you’re in the 97.3% who struggle to live a healthy lifestyle, then this blog post is for you. After all, being healthy and fit is essential to operate at 100% and with all the demands we have in our daily lives who can afford NOT to be at 100%?

In my experience, there’s one major obstacle that keeps people from staying fit and operating at 100%. That obstacle is getting started.

As crazy as it sounds nothing is more challenge when getting in shape than simply getting started. So I’m going to give you a way to make the hardest part of getting in shape easy.

YOU READY? THE BEST WAY TO MAKE GETTING STARTED EASY IS TO… MAKE GETTING STARTED EASY.

You might be wondering what I mean. Let me give you an example.

Perhaps your goal is to do 100 burpees per day. That’s a worthwhile goal, and you’ll certainly improve your overall fitness if you do that. You’ll probably even lose some weight. The thing is, 100 burpees is scary and very difficult. So you put it off. You’ll tell yourself, “I don’t have time today” or “I don’t want to get all sweaty right now.” But deep down you know you’re just putting it off. So try the Milo of Croton approach instead (Greek Mythology reference for my nerds out there).

Start with 1 burpee. Yep, 1 burpee. It’s really hard to make excuses and procrastinate when your target is that quick and easy. And just like that, YOU GOT STARTED. The hardest part is over.

Tomorrow that 1 burpee will become 2, then the day after that 3, then 4 and so on until you’re up to 100 burpees a day.

Following this example you would be doing 100 burpees per day in just over three months. You might be thinking that’s too slow. You want to go faster. I know you do. 1 burpee seems stupid and pointless. It’s not.

Procrastinating for 3 months is stupid, which is what most people do. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of better.

Start small and build momentum. Whether it’s burpees, cardio, or making it into ProCore to get your workout, getting started is always the hardest part. So start small. If you do you’ll be in the 3% of Americans who live a healthy lifestyle much faster than if you continued avoid a “real workout” I promise.

THIS WEEK, ASK YOURSELF “WHAT AM I AVOIDING?” WHETHER IT’S FITNESS RELATED OR NOT COMMIT TO STARTING SMALL AND BUILDING MOMENTUM.

Starting small today is always better than starting “big” tomorrow. Let me know what you end up doing. I always love hearing from you! Until next week.