Here are some practical suggestions I’ve learned along the way to help make exercise a daily habit:
1)Set a time. Decide whether you’re more likely to stick with it in the morning or lunchtime or evening, and stick with that time
2) Send yourself a reminder. there are a number of ways to to keep yourself reminded like set a reminder or text reminder, so you’ll never forget.
3) Start small. The key: only do 20 minutes in the beginning, and do it nice and easy. Nothing hard. Even 10-15 minutes is fine at first, if you’re just starting out
4) Progress later. Once your body is used to daily exercise, you can slowly start to increase the amount and intensity of your exercise. Wait at least two weeks before starting to increase .
5) Make it pleasurable. If you associate a habit with pain, you will shy away from it. But if it’s fun, you’ll look forward to doing it.
6)Lay out your gear. The fewer obstacles and less friction there is in forming your new habit, the more likely you are to be successful. If you have to not only wake up early but get a bunch of gear together while half awake, you might just want to go back into bed.
7) Just head out the door. My rule is just to get my running shoes on and get out the door.
8) Don’t skip a day. It’s easy to say, “No problem, I’ve been doing it for five days … I’ll just skip today!” But that will make your habit formation harder.
Consistency is key, so try not to skip a single day. If you do, don’t beat yourself up, don’t judge, don’t feel bad
Just start your 30-day challenge over again, and try to identify the obstacle that led to your skipping a day and prepare for it this time.