You have been working from home, dealing with children and pets invading your home office on a regular basis. Life as you know it has been drastically different and you may have been neglecting your personal health and fitness for several months now. As your life is starting to return to this “new normal,” you are struggling with settling into a routine and getting back into your regular fitness habits. While habits are generally hard to break, they are equally, if not more so, hard to establish.
The first thing you will need to do is determine what types of fitness and health habits you would like to create. There are habits you will perform several times a day and those that you will typically perform once a day. Avoid being overly ambitious with your goals and habits. Start small. Once those habits become automatic in your routine, you can then move to larger behaviours and habits. For example, you are most likely not going to go for a run several times a day (usually a once a day activity); however, performing 3-5 push-ups or burpees every hour is a habit you can easily accomplish several times a day. Try linking the routine or habit to a certain time of day (ex. every hour, every day before breakfast, or every day after work, etc.).
We frequently hear that it takes approximately 3 weeks, or 21 days, to establish a habit. Studies have shown, however, that on average, it takes closer to 66 days to form a new habit, but that number can vary anywhere from 18-254 days (Lally et al.). Try not to get hung up on the 21-day philosophy and become discouraged when you are still struggling with establishing a solid fitness habit after 3 weeks. More complex behaviours, such as a regular fitness routine, will take longer to become habits. Do not give up! Trust the process and the routine will become stronger and more automatic.
Want to know an easy way to track and measure your habit formation? Write it down! Track your behaviours either with pen and paper, or within an app. Hold yourself accountable or connect with friends and family to create an accountability group. Habit formation is not easy and takes day-to-day effort. In due time, you will start to see the benefits and it will take less mental and physical effort to follow the routine.
Article by: Janice Keown, BSc. Kin. CSEP-CPT, ACSM EP-C, Fitness and Sports Instructor, CFB Kingston Personnel Support Programs