Fitness is simple. Just P.R.A.Y.

I’ve recently gotten back into exercising and I’m having some trouble with staying consistent. With the holidays coming up and traveling I feel like it’s going to be more difficult to keep a consistent routine. What are some tips you would recommend to help me with my consistency? – Josh G.

Great question, Josh! I hear this from a lot of people and, you’re right, consistency can get more challenging during the holidays with traveling, shopping and family visiting. But it doesn’t have to! Once you’ve developed the habit of consistency it, then, becomes more difficult to become inconsistent. So how do we develop the habit of consistency? You P.R.A.Y. for your fitness!

Prioritize

This is the most important part of building the habit of consistency. I speak with so many people that try to fit in their fitness routine and end up running out of time or energy. The day gets busy, interruptions lead to backed up work or the kids have homework and after school activities. Trying to fit in fitness is a sure way to become fit-less. Prioritizing your exercise is the only way to develop the habit of consistency. Just like you have that afternoon meeting with your boss scheduled in your calendar, schedule your exercise time in there as well. I’ve found that working out first thing in the morning helps with prioritizing it. Get it done before the day gets busy and the interruptions start. You may find that working out early helps you focus more throughout the day and gives you more energy to get things done. Oh, and you’ll get used to waking up a little early after a week or two!

Resources

How will you get your workouts done? What do you enjoy doing? If you simply like running, then the only resource you may need are shoes (and treadmill access during the summer rainy months). Resources can also mean friends and family to help push you to stay consistent. Working out with someone holds you both accountable to show up to the gym and your success rate of reaching your fitness goals drastically increases. If you’re looking to lose weight or tone up, then you might need access to weight equipment, a full offering of cardio equipment, a health coach and/or a personal trainer. Personal trainers are great at keeping you consistent, even if you just use one to start out for help with developing the habit of consistency. We have a health coach and personal trainers at Anytime Fitness, Winter Park who are great at helping people become more consistent with their eating habits and fitness routines. Reach out to us for a complimentary consultation with either or both!

Anytime Fitness

Alright, so I’m obviously a bit biased here and this also falls into the resources section, but it deserves to be highlighted for a couple reasons (plus it helped my acronym work). I was recently in the Cleveland, Ohio, area for about a week and wanted to work out while I was there. I went to anytimefitness.com, typed in the address of the hotel I was staying in on their search tab and it told me that there was an Anytime Fitness a mile away from me! The weather was so nice I just walked it. My membership in Winter Park gets me access to over 3,000 Anytime Fitness clubs worldwide with no upcharges. I’ve done this in Tampa, Louisiana and Maryland and been able to workout while out of town. So if you’re traveling during the holidays and have a membership with any Anytime Fitness, look up the closest one to where your traveling to and keep your consistency going!

You

What do you want to achieve and why do you want to achieve it? Focus on your goals and keep the reason you want to achieve those goals in mind. You only get one body, so be sure to take care of it. Setting a goal, writing it down, telling others about it and keeping it top-of-mind will help you prioritize your workouts and help you have fun reaching your goals. Focus on you, P.R.A.Y. for your fitness and you’ll have an easier time with forming the habit of consistency!

Patrick McGaha Jr., member experience manager at Anytime Fitness, Winter Park, is dedicated to building a welcoming environment in the club, conducive to helping members and clients reach their health fitness goals. To get your fitness and nutrition related questions answered by a certified personal trainer, or for a free personal training session, call us at 321-972-5833 or email [email protected]