How to Make Exercise Automatic - Part 1 of 2

Exercise becomes automatic when there is a executable plan. A plan that considers short-term, long-term, and lifetime goals. -Nate

(Prevention,)  - Part 1.

Truth is, people who stay faithful to their exercise plans don't actually have willpower. They don't need it. What they have is a habit. A routine. Exercise for them is like brushing their teeth. They don't spend a single brain cell making decisions about it. They just get up and do it.

And they feel great about it.

"It's been said that if you could put the benefits of exercise in a pill, it would be the single most prescribed medication in the world," says Kerry Courneya, Ph.D., assistant professor at the University of Calgary, Alberta, and author of numerous studies on what makes people stick to an exercise routine. No small part of those benefits is the effect of exercise on weight loss. Studies show that when people have lost weight and acquired an exercise habit, they're more likely to stay trim than are people who try to keep the pounds off through dietary changes alone.

Turning an exercise routine -- and all its benefits -- into a permanent resident in your life is a matter of housecleaning your priorities, setting up a schedule and toning up your motivation (until you're hooked, that is). Here's the five step plan:

Step one: Make exercise a priority

Take a look at the agenda that's behind tomorrow's agenda. That is, take a look at the priorities that are driving your calendar. Put exercise on that priority list. High on that list. Next to working and bill paying and watching Dan Rather. "If exercise is my third priority and it's your fifteenth, you're not going to find the time to exercise, and I am," says Dr. Courneya.

Where people run into trouble is in making something like "getting fit" a priority but then not making the tasks required to get there a priority, too. "I often say if you want to get to the top of the stairs, you must negotiate the steps," says time-management consultant Virginia Bass, who teaches people to organize their lives through Day Timers, Inc. "If you continue to put a lower priority on the task or activities required to reach your goal (exercising in the evenings, for instance) than on the goal itself (improving health, for example), then you're not going to make it."

Step two: Find the time

Waiting for exercise to fit into your life "when I have the time" is like waiting to win the lottery when you haven't bought a ticket. You have to find the time. Try this: For about a week, write down where you've spent your time, as if minutes are checks that you're entering in your checkbook. This gives you a picture of how you're spending your time, says Virginia Bass.

Chances are, there are points that can be nipped and tucked to free a bit of time every day. Maybe you're on the telephone with a neighbor when you could both be walking around the neighborhood together. Maybe your CNN addiction could be sated from the seat of a stationary bike.

If reshuffling this time inventory still hasn't yielded a full 30 minutes for exercise, wipe your schedule clean, reach for your priority list and highlight those activities of highest importance (including exercise) on your daily calendar. Then let the rest of your life flow around those immovable time commitments.

Part 2 will run next week.

No time better than December 19th 2014 to make a plan for a lifetime of fitness success. Click here, and fill out the free fitness profile form to get your customized program