How to build a workout habit, and how 365 days of continuous workouts taught me about doing things I dread

Introduction

When COVID-19 struck, and Singapore went into lockdown, with nothing to do, I started working out. I was always a fitness junkie.

But when I returned from England in September 2019, I started eating a lot of junk.

Biscuits. Chocolate. Beautiful buns!

I ended up gaining 8kg in a month.

And from September 2019 to April 2020, despite getting a personal trainer, going for weights training 3 times a week, and swimming 2 times per week, I still stubbornly stayed at 68kg. I even started lifting, packing, and moving the furniture around my home, just to get more exercise.

It’s almost as if my body refused to change.

Everyday, I would look at the mirror, smack my tummy, hear it go ‘PIAK!’, and wonder,

When will anything ever change?

I even tried strange diets. I was grinding lemon peels and celery juices, after reading somewhere that it would raise my metabolism. Well, it didn’t.

It did raise my disgust for such vegetables though.

Don’t try it.

When COVID struck, I was bored. I had nothing else to do.

I started exercising daily.

Since then, I have not stopped. It’s been 365 days.

And more importantly, I stopped bulk-ordering bakes at the cafes I visited. Breads, cookies, cakes. I just stopped.

And there’s been a radical transformation.

I hope there are some lessons you can learn from my journey. Wherever you are in yours, I hope you’re committed to make positive changes to your own health.

It’s still difficult everyday

People wonder,

John, how do you do it? Don’t you ever get tired?

Isn’t it difficult to exercise everyday?

Yes, every single day.

376 days later, I wonder why I’m still doing it.

Sometimes, there isn’t a reason. You do it, because you have to do it. It’s like going to work. There are days you don’t want to get out of bed. There are days when you want to stop. There are days when you dread work, and it’s painful.

But you do it, because, well, you have to get your paycheck.

Workouts or work don’t get easier the longer you do it. Instead, you get stronger. To resist what the natural course is – lie in bed, and not do anything.

What helps me to overcome this natural instinct?

The power of habit

It’s 8pm. There are nicer things to do. Watch YouTube, read my book, lie on my bed.

But still, I put on my trainers.

I lie to myself.

I tell myself,

I’ll just do this for 10 minutes.

And after that, I can do whatever I want.

But often, it doesn’t stop after 10 minutes.

You continue.

What’s the lead-up to your habit? If you’re looking to build a positive habit, breaking it down into its constituent parts help. For example, let’s say you want to write more.

Don’t leave it to chance.

Break it down.

1. Sit at desk at 630am.
2. Write out 3 points, with the accompanying argument, example and point.
3. Write out the first draft.
4. Send the first draft to 2 guest post sites.
   

When you break down the sequences leading to your positive habit, it no longer becomes arcane and confusing. You’re clear.

We procrastinate because we find the next step unclear. This morning, I wanted to write this article.

But I procrastinated by cleaning my home, moving things around, eating my lunch (at 10am), going for a run, because the thought of sitting down and writing an article scared me.

I mean – an article! I could only think about how ephemeral an article sounded like. It sounded like the top of a mountain, and I was at the bottom. It was easier to keep running away from the mountain, rather than take steps, however tiny, towards the top.

Breaking it down helps you be clear.

It’s about the commitment, not the motivation

As James Clear pointed out in his book, Atomic Habits, we often make the assumption we need that motivation before the workout. But what we don’t realise is that motivation begins after the workout.

It is starting it that matters.

There are definitely days that I want to quit.

That’s why you depend on your commitment, and not your motivation. Motivation doesn’t last. Commitment does.

Your motivation tells you that you need more coffee (or help/money/time) to get something done.

Your commitment starts you with the end in mind. You may not know how to get there. But you commit to the journey. Whatever it takes, however painful it becomes, you take the steps there.

An easy way of committing is to focus through a goal. As cliché as this sounds, there’s a reason why people still talk about goals.

It doesn’t matter where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re going.

But if you do, then it becomes clearer.

Be okay with being just enough

You’re not going to knock it out of the park every time you have a workout. What I mean is that you’re not going to be great, every time you get down to it.

Like work. You may not churn out great work everyday, but the fact that you’re creating matters more than the creation itself.

It’s the effort that counts as much as the end product.

When I started my fitness journey, I wanted to feel great, before I went for my workout. I had to have a good pre workout, have a good meal before that, and then the perfect post workout meal to ensure that the gains were met.

If there were workout routines I felt were not going well, I would be very frustrated. I would be close to walking out of the gym.

But then I realised that aiming for good enough, was much more important than aiming for perfect.

Many people harp on how we are always in pursuit of perfection. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that it can be tremendously crippling. It’s far better to tell yourself that I’m going to do it…

Whatever the result.

Internal validation

For 90 days, day after day of workouts seemed to yield little. Yes, my weight dropped by 4kg. But externally, nothing seemed to change. I still had the same chubby cheeks, my tummy was still wobbling whenever I walked around, and my shirts still didn’t seem to fit.

But internally, something was happening. I didn’t know what… but something was.

Then the weight started peeling off like layer after layer of fat.

Weight is something deeply personal to all of us, because it can be deeply damaging to our personal self-esteem. No one sees it but you. And when people see it, often it’s to say how much weight you’ve put on (or hopefully lost).

That’s why internal validation matters much more than external ones.

You need to celebrate yourself, before you wait for someone else to celebrate you.

You need to know why you’re doing this, because no one else is going to tell you why.

You validate yourself.

Don’t wait for something/someone else to validate yourself.

If you asked me what kept me going during those 6 months stuck at 68kg, despite swimming 2 times a week, working out 3 times a week, it was all internal validation.

No one cared whether I was working out 5 times a week, or none. It was all me.

That’s why before you even start working out, building a system of internal validation helps.

Accepting yourself where you are, now, matters, more than trying to accept yourself when you get there.

It can be a crazy treadmill, where you are always looking at the next weight to drop to before you tell yourself

This is okay.

What helps? Every night before I sleep, I write down what I’m proud of doing. Mind you, this is what I’m proud of doing. Not what I’m proud of achieving.

It’s the action that counts more than the achievement or outcome.

Validate your actions, not your achievements.

Working towards the next targets

After 376 days of working out, I realised that the targets that brought me here, will not bring me to the next segment of my growth.

I’ve found myself stagnating, and indeed, putting on more kilograms than I care for.

It’s time for new goals.

When you reach the place you want to be, it’s tempting to leave it, and move onto something else. But the beautiful thing about fitness is that it’s a lifelong journey, with yourself. There’s no one else competing with you. It’s just you.

Working on your own personal targets helps you to be galvanised by something anew.

Conclusion

I’ve been looking back recently at the photos over the past year. I’ve been amazed at how far I’ve come. I never thought I would drop to a weight like this, nor did I ever think it was possible for me to find so much joy in the exercise anchor… despite doing it day after day.

More importantly, this is something you can do for yourself too. Whether you like it or not, you can put on your shoes, go outside, and start lifting some weights. Tell yourself that you will do it for 10 minutes, and nothing more.

What are you waiting for?

Comments?

What stops you from working out?

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John is excited about helping young adults to live with passion and purpose at liveyoungandwell.com