Here’s what Socrates thought about exercise:

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training.  It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

To reshape your body, especially if you’re overworked, undernourished and overfat seems like a big, I mean, a huge ask.  And did I mention over 50!  It feels quite impossible to wrap your mind around the thought, let alone figure out where to begin.

Let me suggest you begin in a bit of an unusual place…in your mind.  Be open to learning because so there’s so much that’s been uncovered.  Next, revise your relationship with physical activity/exercise by understanding physical activity/exercise is an essential component to life.

And here you thought I was going to tell you to hit the track every day for 2 to 5 miles.  Well, I might but that’s later…much later.

There probably have been many times when you sat yourself down for that time-to-get-real talk.  And you begin to look at what seems like a mountainous chore.  You may be thinking that putting in the time alone will be a hard go, maybe even totally impossible, a chore, why, forced labor almost.

I would hate that, too, if that was my starting point.

Here are some obstacles that people tell me that get in their way:

• There’s too much work to get done.
• Too many responsibilities, put others in front of their health
• Think of self-care and exercise as luxuries
• Exercise is what you do when you have time to spare
• Don’t have the know-how, don’t know where to start
• The body is holding up fairly well, so there’s no need
• It’s a lost cause so why bother
• Afraid of getting injured
• Afraid of failing

If any of these resonates, ask yourself, ‘How well are these beliefs serving me?’

How to Revise Your Relationship with Exercise

Rather than spending time on the obstacles, take some time to get rid of those limiting beliefs.  It may well require a kick start to begin.  It’s time to get inspired!

A Great Kick Starter for Inspiration (3)

Here’s a great inspirational kick starter.  Create a visual image of your fit future-self experiencing what this path would look and feel like.   Put yourself in that vision.  Spend a few minutes there and ask yourself some questions:

• How good would you feel? How would you look?
• How many more activities would you be able to participate in? Which ones would you chose?
• Would you be proud? Would your family be proud?  Would your doctor be a happy camper?

Keep those images and vision at top of mind and reflect on the value you’ve created.  Claim your goal deep within that person in that vision.

Reflect on achieving this goal and what that might represent to you.  Could it encompass strength, love, beauty?

Feel free to change images as many times as you want or need to as your path moves forward.

Set An Intention

Set an intention to exercise today and commit to it.  Include your future-self image as part of your intention.  Put yourself in the space of experiencing your vision.

You can also think of this as opportunity to “step into your power”.  That strong, beautiful image you have conjured up is waiting for you to don it with all its potential.

As you execute your intention, you’ll be shaping the direction of your path.

This is where empowerment begins.

Don’t Worry, Motivation Comes Later

I often hear people tell that they lost their motivation somewhere along the way.  When actually, it’s their inspiration that’s been pulled out from under them, and in its place, the more familiar state of being steps in.

Know that motivation comes into play only after the action has begun.  Once you start doing the work, you feel good and are motivated to continue.

But motivation doesn’t last very long.  This is one of the reasons why it’s not motivation you need to look for but rather, inspiration.  This is the time to harken back to your vision, your image and your goal.

Reset your intention.  Your motivation will come later.

Look for Expanding Rewards

As we age, we lose up to 13 percent of dopamine receptors with each decade.  Exercise can prevent this decline.  Exercise can help your reward centers look like those who are decades younger than you.

As you become more consistent, you’ll build more and stronger reward centers.  Consistent exercise remodels the reward system, and higher levels of dopamine circulate and increases dopamine receptors, too.

And this is certainly one of the best parts…your brain will start to anticipate the pleasure.  Your enjoyment centers expand and so does your capacity for joy.  What could be a better motivator than a pleasure reminder!

Sounds like a very pleasant fountain of youth.

My clients often come back from the doctors busting with pride.  They received the “Atta way to go” from their doctor.  They are so excited and are anxious to share the good news.

They have noticed the increase in their energy and so has their family and their friends. You will, too.

Soon, you’ll be noticing some changes in your appearance and attitude shift.  You’ll be proud of the choices you’re making.

Take this opportunity to recognize the reward from all the work you’ve put into your vision, goal and your health and fitness.

The time and energy that you put on improving your health and fitness will be one of the best investments you will ever make!

It’s an experience I’m honored to have seen a million times.  No one ever gets tired of sharing all this goodness.  This I can promise you!

Exercise gives you a chance to renew every day, and by practicing it, you get to experience the beauty and strength that your body is capable of.  It gives you the opportunity to challenge your body and your mind.

Become A Scheduler

Yes, even regular exercisers have to make adjustments to keep their exercise habit in good working order.  They do it by scheduling their workouts.  Yes, they make and record workout appointments in their calendars with themselves for themselves.

Even with busy schedules like yours, exercisers negotiate time within their busy schedules to include their workouts and make adjustments to their calendars as needed.

While there are different schools of thought as to how many workouts a week, you should go for 5-6 times a week with one or two days as rest days.  Rest days are classified as days without structured workouts.  You can still stroll down the street after dinner.

The difference between structured exercise vs physical activity is usually the intensity of the work.  For achieve certain health benefits, however, some high intensity physical activity is required.

For instance, jogging vs walking at a leisurely pace would be a great example of the difference in intensity.

Tips to Consider When Scheduling

I generally put my rest days on my busiest days so that I don’t have to squeeze a workout in on top of everything else that’s going on that day.

The workout appointment in the calendar should be considered as non-negotiable.  Meaning, that workout is prioritized as a ‘will-do’ commitment, just like other appointments in your calendar.

Oh, it may slide up and down the page, because life does come at us and unexpected things happen, but the effort is to keep that appointment on the page, as you scheduled your week.

If there is no other choice but to move the workout appointment to another day, then perhaps, the day you’re moving from becomes your day of rest.

In order to give yourself the most flexibility, schedule workouts in your calendar one week out.  Further out than that generally doesn’t accommodate schedules as well with too many things that could go sideways.

Making your workouts regular events, scheduled on a weekly basis and sticking to it, is the key to success.  The key to success in achieving fitness and health goals is CONSISTENCY.

Then, the big High Five is all yours for the asking.

Tons of Discipline Or Is It A Habit?

When you catch yourself looking wistfully at someone who obviously exercises regularly, wishing you had their ‘discipline’, just know that exercise is a habit.

Building an exercise habit does take some time, but it’s definitely available for you, too!

Consistent exercisers have spent time building the exercise habit.  What you’re seeing is them keeping their habit routine in good working order and enjoying the benefits.  You can get to that same place.

When you focus on one area of life, other aspects of your life change.  Zeroing in exercise has so many benefits, impacts all aspect of your life.

It’s this huge impact on every aspect of your life that exercise garners the title “The Keystone Habit”.  And just like the keystone that holds up the archway, exercise holds up the doorway to a good life.

Build Your Habit, Build Your Body, Build Your Brain

Did you know you could restructure your brain in 56 days?  We all have the capacity and ability to re-invent ourselves because the brain is never fixed

And that means that your behavior or behavior patterns aren’t fixed either.  Yup, you can even re-invent those old die-hard patterns, too.

With exercise, you’ll be able to reshape your brain, increase neurons and their activity from one synapse to another.  In other words, your brain’s neural network gets stronger.

Think of exercise as nourishing your neurons.  And all that practice just makes that neural network better and better.

Spending 2% of your week exercising will give you a 98% gain in feeling better, looking better and sleeping better.  And if you’re not good with percentages, that’s an astronomical ROI.

You can reap exponentially huge paybacks from relatively little effort.

You can make exercise become an automatic habit where just thinking about it can stimulate anticipation of pleasure by hitting the dopamine bell and where endorphins rush in.

Most people, however, who have tried and given up, or who haven’t tried at all, approach exercise in a way that sets them up for failure.

So, if you’re saying, I’ve really got to get on the bandwagon, now’s the time.  And we have some things that’ll help you get started.

Addressing daily challenges for a higher quality of life.