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My old gym had a cheesy quote on its membership card:

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going!

Part of me is really annoyed that I let the gym really got into my brain with this clever piece of marketing jargon. The other part of me appreciates the quote whenever I find myself slipping out of a routine.

Habit is the most important, and the most difficult part of getting smarter-fitter. So what makes forming good habits so hard? And how do I we turn an occasional weekend fit-stint into a routine?

zen habits describes an interesting approach to habit-forming with a few tips specific to exercise: Engineer your habit change so that it’s harder not to form the habit.

Here’s the basic idea:

1. Increase positive feedback for the habit - Create a log or journal, join a forum or a real-world club, reward yourself early and often…
2. Decrease negative feedback for the habit - Reduce exertion by starting slowly with an exercise routine…
3. Increase negative feedback for not doing the habit - I don’t know that I like this one idea because it seems to imply punishment, and that’s not really healthy, is it?
4. Decrease positive feedback for not doing the habit - Get rid of the things that tempt you to not do your habit, like TV, Snickers bars, whatever…

Link

Related posts:

1. Attitudes and Eating Habits
2. Weight Plateaus and Fuzzy Mathematics
3. Running Every Day
4. How to break a bad eating habit
5. Extreme Motivation: Tips for Maintaining an Exercise Habit

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