Planning and scheduling

Anyone who doesn’t try to schedule exercise in their life runs a high risk of quickly giving up on his or her exercise campaign – your exercise time must become habitual rather than occasional, if you’re to succeed. Although sometimes you may feel full of energy, at other times you simply may not be in the mood for exercise. It’s vital that you don’t succumb to the ‘easy life’ messages given out from your brain, and getting into the ‘exercise habit’ is one of the best ways of achieving this. It’s true that you can ‘get used to anything’ – especially inactivity. Meet the challenge head on, and get used to activity instead.

Look at your weekly diary and work out when you can best find the time to exercise. This may be early in the morning, over your lunch hour, or first thing in the evening. Some part of your normal schedule may have to be changed but anyone should be able to find an extra 2–3 hours a week in which to exercise.

Getting fit usually requires more effort than keeping fit. Thus when a certain level of fitness has been reached, less time and effort are required to retain it.