Schedule a Healthy Gym Habit

There are many facets to successfully developing a habit of exercising and staying fit — not the least of which is finding activities that you get some pleasure from doing — but scheduling and consistency also have got to be near the top of the list.

I’m pretty consistent with my workout schedule. I tend to exercise around the noon hour on most days — the ‘lunch-time’ classes suit me just fine! It is so much better to be working out rather than eating lunch.

It’s important to do advance planning and scheduling of exercise. It took a long time before I developed a normal, habitual routine of exercising almost daily. My schedule, developed over the last half-dozen years, is to try to arrive at the gym before 11:30, because that’s the deadline for “free coffee and tea”. So every morning it’s my goal to get there in time for green tea (lots of health benefits, but that’s another topic by itself), and I’m euphoric when I’ve beaten the clock.

My gym publishes a “Group Exercise” class calendar, and every month I study it to see if they’ve added any classes that interest me. But generally I’ve got the days and times of my favorite classes burned into my brain and it’s pretty much a consistent matter of habit. I’ve made myself into a regular attendee, so much so that I have the feeling that the teacher is counting on me, and if I don’t show up for a class or two, I’ll be missed. That’s a real motivator to show up — I don’t want to let anyone down, least of all myself.