From envy to success
Two months ago, I completed the RED January challenge and raised £169 for mental health charity Sport in Mind by exercising every day in the first month of the year. Over those 31 days I walked, cycled and sweated through 22 online workout sessions ranging from HIIT, weights to barre.
Pretty good, right? No. it was nothing short of incredible.
Eleven months ago, the only exercise I’d ever done regularly was walking.
I owned a set of light dumb bells that gathered dust and workouts were sporadic at best - usually instigated by a fleeting sense of guilt at having eaten something I shouldn’t, or hopeless anxiety over my health.
So how did I end up making fitness a habit?
It started with envy.
In March 2020, while flicking through a magazine, I came across an image of a woman dressed in skin-tight running gear. She was the very opposite of me, a size 20 and dressed in the black camouflage of the overweight.
Hot envy curled within my chest. How does she look like that? She must’ve been born wearing Lycra. I bet she never eats!
But… I realised I wanted to be fit like her.
In the past envy has been a motivator for me.
When I was seven years old, my clever, middle class school friend hauled a thick book from her plastic My Little Pony rucksack; Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers, five stories in one hefty hardback.
I was impressed she was reading the biggest book in the world and I felt a prickling of envy as I told myself, I want to be smart like her. By the end of the following week, I’d borrowed Mallory Towers from the library and devoured the first three books. I discovered that I had a hunger for stories and also a talent for reading. Finally, I was good at something!
Over twenty years later, envy led me to success again. But how, you might ask? I started by answering my own question - How do these sporty women get so fit?
I did what I always do when faced with a conundrum, I made a list.
They work hard.
They exercise regularly.
Exercise is a habit.
I grabbed hold of the idea that these women make exercise a habit. Notice the absence of statements like ‘they diet’ or ‘they punish themselves’, beliefs which had in the past convinced me that exercise wasn’t for people like me.
Instead of restriction or punishment, I would add to my life.
National lockdown and no commute meant I had two glorious extra hours a day, so I resolved to add in three exercise sessions to my week. After six weeks those three workouts turned into four and sometimes five. When December 2020 came round and with the darkest month of the new year looming, I knew that exercising every day would pull me through January. Here’s what I’ve learned.
How to start exercising
1. Just begin
At this stage the aim is to just move more. Go for a walk at lunchtime. Get up from your desk every hour and walk round the house. Find a free 10 minute workout on You Tube and do it twice a week. You may not be able to run a marathon in your first week (and I wouldn’t advise it!), just start where you are and you will see progress quicker than you think.
2. Find your why
Do it for you. Rarely do changes stick when you’re doing it to make someone else happy. Do it for your mental health. Do it for more energy. Do it for better sleep. You’re worth 10 minutes a day (and more!) Remind yourself why you’re doing this when you feel like skipping a session.
3. Be consistent
The most important aspect of improving your health and fitness is consistency. You can have an expensive sports watch and all the Lycra you want but consistent movement is key to building fitness. If you miss a session, that’s fine. Make sure you turn up to the next one. Keep your focus forward.