This post is one of a series in which Nyssa, a pseudonym for an anonymous woman, updates My Bad Habits readers about her progress as she changes her exercise habits. Habit Guy comments on her progress and provides insight. For previous posts in the series, please see the collection of links on the sidebar.
Nyssa writes about her progress so far this year.
The year is off to a pretty good start. For the last two weeks, I met my objective of working out four times per week. Admittedly, my workouts were the last four days of the week (Thursday—Sunday) both weeks. This week I hope to spread it out a bit more evenly.
I found working out in the morning to be quite challenging. I need to get to work early, and getting up before six is simply awful. Also, the early mornings ruin my evenings because I have to be in bed really early in order to get enough sleep to be able to function at work the next day.
My revised plan is to mix-it-up between evening and morning workouts. I have switched to evening workouts during the week. I plan to go only twice a week. I am hoping that I will have the discipline to do it two out of the five working days. I am also planning to continue working out in the morning (late morning) on the weekends. This strategy worked really well these past two weeks. What I love about a morning workout is that you can pat yourself on your back all day long. Also, I found it gave me a great energy boost to tackle my weekend errands.
Till next week, Nyssa out
Nyssa has settled into a rhythm and that’s good. I want to point out a couple of things about this state of affairs, though.
First, although Nyssa has found a way to fit exercise into her rather busy life, and although the fit is in some ways rather “obvious,” it was not easily achieved. Nyssa did a lot thinking, planning, failing, re-thinking, and re-planning to get this far. Habit change is a hard business. Nyssa is tenacious!
Second, now that Nyssa has found her rhythm, her habit change project is beginning. Now, she has to keep on truckin.
What could I mean? After all, Nyssa has found her rhythm. Isn’t this the easy bit?
No, I say! This is the hard part. Now, there is every chance that Nyssa is actually going to DO IT. It looks like she’s going to introduce a new habit into her life. This is a huge huge big deal.
Nyssa is at the “Repeat, Repeat, Repeat” part of habit change. It’s the easiest part to say and, of course, it is rather obvious. It’s the doing of the repetition, that’s the challenge. Nyssa’s in a rhythm, to be sure. But her new habit, only two weeks old in its current guise, is not fully formed. She is probably not yet automatically putting on her workout clothes every Saturday morning. We wait for the day when Nyssa gets ready for her exercise routine without giving it even a moment’s thought. That’s when we’ll know she has an in-grained habit on the go.
And there are other considerations that come with having a new routine. Like most people, Nyssa is busy and time is one of her most precious commodities.Is she prepared to guard her exercise time? What about unavoidable events that interfere with her exercise? Does Nyssa have a back up plan?
What does the future hold? Will Nyssa be able to "Repeat, Repeat, Repeat," or not? I think she can do it, but only time will tell . . .
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