| By: Julie Eibensteiner PT, DPT, CSCS The art of sticking with it….or getting back to it is no joke. Jan 17th was Quitter’s Day. The day where typically the majority of people fall off the wagon with their good intentioned New Year’s resolutions. Habits are tough. Good ones are constantly a challenge to keep. Bad ones are always tempting you to return to lazier more convenient ways (Read Atomic Habits for all the reasons this is true!) And I sure do feel this. ——————- After being a competitive athlete all my life and completing 2 Ironman races (that’s a 140.6 mile race) in the last 9.5 years, I have moved to a simple goal of 1-mile-a-day on the treadmill as a means to get back to it (“it” being a basic and regular workout routine) and stick with it again. This may be the 8th, 9th, or 10th attempt since my last Ironman in 2017. ——————- I work for myself, I own a gym I can access at any time, and I have the know-how of what I need to do – you’d think this would be easy.The demons are real. ——————- But I can tell 2025 is going to be different, I am going about this a different way and I just think it’s going to stick. It feels different. If you put the Quit in Quitter’s Day already or are struggling to keep positive momentum working on goal you set for yourself, here’s how I am tackling it in case it resonates with you. 1. Drill down to your “why” and make that your north star. Experts say you should drill down on your “why” five times to actually get to the core of the matter. Why are you working out Julie? Because I signed up for X race. Why? Because I used to do those races.Why? Because I still want to be competitive. Why? Because I use to be fit, clothes fit me better. Why? Because I felt a lot better overall when I was more fit and clothes fit me better. Every time I chased something for the first 4 reasons it never stuck. If I had a dollar for every race I signed up for the past 7 years that I thought would surely keep me accountable, but didn’t (including another Ironman)…I’d have a lot of dollars. This year it feels different because I am doing it for me at the core of it. 2. Start so simple it’s silly not to be able to do it. Focus on mastering the process not the outcome. Hence the 1 mile a day on the treadmill. That’s my goal for January – so simple it’s silly not to do it. I also tie it to a 4-exercise, 3-set strength routine I do immediately before or after. No rules on the 1 mile run, just get it done – sometimes I run it faster, sometimes run it slower, sometime it’s intervals – just get it done. Same with the strength training, I pick my exercises based on how I feel on a day – just get it done. I’m setting the foundation with bricks made of PROCESS. 3. Write it down. Most days I track my time and 1 min heart rate recovery on the run. Sometimes I don’t and just mark an X next to the day, but either way I log it. There is real power in writing it down and looking at it regularly. I find the progress I’ve made on the time and HR recovery over time to be motivating when I look at it as a trend. 4. Have someone hold you accountable. This past week I had real demons trying to derail me. I missed 2 days in a row so I purposely told Greg and Mike (co-workers) about it and that I was going to make it up this weekend with longer workouts. I asked Mike to check-in with me by noon the next day to make sure I got it done.Knocked it out by 8:30am the next morning. Winning. I feel better when I get it done and I doubled down on that. 5. Plan in chunks. My process goal is 1-mile a day (or equivalent to) on the treadmill for a year. That’s it.I have a sneaky suspicion it is going to turn into something bigger for my health and habits 12 months down the road, but I am focused on January right now. I only specifically planned for January in my notebook at present. I’ll see what I do for February – maybe the same? Maybe a bit more? Let’s see what a month at a time for 12 months brings….it’s much easier to process that way. |
 Ironman Wisconsin 2014 – I am there somewhere, along with 2300 others. We all started at once. It was known as the “human washing machine”, they have since change the swim start for safety reasons – glad I got to experience it though. Lots of mental demons slayed that day! Quick Recap 1. Habits are hard! 2. . Most people give up on New Year’s Resolutions by Jan 17. 3. 5 things that may help make it stick – Anchor it to a why 5 layers deep – Keep it so simple it’s silly at first – but be specific. – Write it down. – Invite others to specifically hold you accountable. – Plan in chunks and focus on 1 chunk at a time. |