Creating Your Weight Loss Routine

April 5, 2024

People are creatures of habit, and exercise is no exception. We form habits when our mind accepts that whatever we’re doing, is how things are done and it should expect it. This creates neural pathways in your brain that helps it and your body before, during, and after exercise.

When It Feels Natural

Like any habit, it forms over time with lots of practice. Eventually, your mind pitches in with helpful mental shortcuts and behaviors that eventually let exercise become a part of your routines, no different from the first thing you do when you get home.

Our most successful clients reported that you know your exercise routine is successful when it feels natural—no different from the route you take to work. That means not only has your mind internalized the behavioral clusters around exercise, they’re ingrained so deeply that not doing them is a signal that something is wrong,.

When It Moves The Needle

That signal is why an experienced runner, for example, will start to get antsy after a few days without any exercise. Getting here is important, because when you consistently meet the exercise your body and mind expects.

Your body and mind are designed to find a comfortable routine and stick to it. This is why starting anything new is hard, but once it’s part of your life, it’s difficult to see life without it. The same goes for your body, because it will adapt to your exercise and accept its new weight, shape and form

When You Miss It

At this stage, your exercise routine becomes part of who you are. In the same way someone who paints identifies as “artistic” or a “creative”, so too will someone with an exercise routine identify as a “fitness buff”, “athlete”, or “gym rat”

Taking away exercise at this point is no different than taking away the paint brush and canvas of a painter. Making new habits can be hard, but once it becomes a part of you, they will reward you for the rest of your life.