As a coach I encourage my clients to make everything they do to get healthy, especially exercise, fun and enjoyable. Changing your mindset about exercise can really make a difference in being able to stick with a program and gaining positive results.

At the beginning of summer, I decided to step up my exercise program by running in addition to walking. I really hated running. Every minute was torture. I noticed that I had thoughts such as “I can’t do this” and “I hate this so much” playing over and over again in my head as I ran. At first I could only run 1/4 of the way around a track. I experimented with changing those thoughts in my head. I repeated thoughts like “you are an athlete!” and “this is fun and feels so good” over and over again as I ran. I noticed something…I was able to run longer and longer until eventually I moved off the track and onto the road. And best of all, those thoughts played automatically and I not only did not hate running, Iooked forward to it. Now I’d rather run than walk. And this Saturday, I am running my first 5K. I don’t run fast, but that’s OK…one goal at a time!

Holly Amarandei, MS
Yummy Life Coaching
http://yummylifeblog.com
http://www.yummylifecoaching.com

Thanks for sharing the video. Great idea that many of us as adults forget that we all like to have fun. I remember when one of my sons was young and I gave him a chore to do, he always turned it into a game.

Regards,
Harriet

Thanks Lauren for the cool video and the lesson — that’s why you are THE ultimate fitness and nutrition coach!

Lou