Spring Into Movement: 4 Steps to Start Your Exercise Plan and Make It a Lasting Habit

In this article:

• Warmer weather in spring can be a good time to establish or strengthen an exercise habit.
• It’s important to include safeguards in your plan so you can continue exercising long-term to maintain benefits. 
• Learn the recommendations for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities. 
• Identify your motivation and reasons for exercising. 
• Be specific about your plan, including types of exercises and when and where you’ll do them. 
• Identify likely challenges that will arise, and how you might overcome them.
• Lark can help you establish healthy habits around physical activity and other behaviors with 24/7 coaching towards your health and weight loss goals.

The start of spring can be a great time to get moving. Get started with an exercise program if you’ve been sedentary this winter, or continue or up your exercise game if you’ve been regularly active for a while. Either way, physical activity has physical and mental health ranging from lowering blood sugar, controlling weight, improving heart health, and boosting mood and focus. 

It’s critical to build and maintain a lasting exercise routine to be able to maintain the benefits you get from exercise. It’s not about a workout, or committing to a week, but thinking about how exercise can fit into your life for the long term. 

Here are some tips for establishing habits. 

• Start small and be consistent.
• Focus on consistency over perfection; missing a day is okay.
• Celebrate progress to reinforce motivation.

Being more specific can lead to better success. This article walks through four steps you can take to plan physical activity to turn it into a habit that keeps giving you benefits: identifying motivation and goals, planning an exercise routine, listing likely challenges you’ll encounter, and brainstorming ways to overcome those challenges.

Step 1: Identify Your Motivation and Goals

Think about why you want to exercise to increase motivation and help you set goals.  Here are some common reasons why people exercise. 

• Physical health: Lower blood pressure and blood sugar, improve blood lipids, lower risk of diabetes and heart disease, reduce the risk of certain cancers
• Weight management: Support dietary changes during weight loss or increase the chances of success in maintaining weight loss after losing weight
• Mental health: Improve mood, increase focus and confidence, reduce risk for cognitive decline
• Quality of life: Increase strength and flexibility, be more functional, keep up with family and friends, sleep better
• Stress management: Reduce negative impacts of stress and handle daily stressors more easily or effectively

Writing down your “why” makes it easier to stay committed. It can remind you of your reasons on days when you don’t feel as motivated. 

Step 2: Be Specific About Your Exercise Plan: What, When, Where

Decide which activity or activities you plan to do, which days and times you’ll do them, and where you’ll do them. Also figure out which shoes, clothes, and other equipment you’ll need, including things like water bottles, balls, and gym bags.

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If you’re up to it, plan your physical activity to achieve, or work towards, national guidelines.

• 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week (about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week), including things like brisk walking, hiking, cycling, swimming, playing tennis and basketball, and dancing
• Muscle-strengthening activities at least 2 days per week, including all major muscle groups, using body weight or any sources of resistance like weights, resistance bands, weighted balls, or household objects

Here are examples of physical activity programs that meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

If you’re not in shape to achieve the guidelines just yet, start at a level that is right for you. Be sure to talk to your provider about exercises that are safe for you, any physical limitations you may have, and anything else you should know before starting an exercise program or increasing your intensity.

Here are some tips for planning an exercise program.

• Consider indoor and outdoor activities to account for possible inclement weather
• Pick an activity or activities that you like. Keep trying new things until you find some you enjoy
• Keep it within your abilities to lower injury risk and increase consistency

Step 3: List Barriers and Challenges That Are Likely

Everyone encounters challenges sometimes. Identify obstacles that you often face or that you’re likely to encounter at some time that may make it harder to follow your exercise program. Also reflect on personal preferences and challenges. 

Here are some common challenges people face.

• Consistently having less energy or being tired at certain times of the day, such as night owls having trouble getting moving in the early morning
• Not enjoying hot, cold, wet, windy, sunny, or snowy weather
• Living in an area without good sidewalks or a nearby, safe park with a walking path, and not having access to a gym or fitness center
• Getting bored easily and wanting to quit
• Not having time, or running out of time due to sudden issues at work or needing to care for children or aging parents
• Not having energy
• Hating exercise
• Lacking motivation
• Not knowing what to do when it’s time to exercise

Being specific about your own challenges can help you make effective plans to overcome them.

Step 4: Identify Strategies for Overcoming Likely Barriers

For each of the likely challenges you listed, brainstorm some ways to overcome them or make them less impactful. 

Here are some examples. 

How Lark Can Help

Sticking with an exercise plan can be one of the most important things you can do for your health. Lark can help. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications. 

Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!