Up until a month and a half ago, Amy and I had a really solid gym habit that had been going on for more than two years.
We were going to the gym consistently about five to six times a week. I was tracking my food and following a fitness program—when it all came to a halt. With no more gym to go to, things pretty much went downhill.
The good news is we’ve transitioned reasonably to working out at home—although it’s nowhere near to what I was doing when we were going to the gym. The bad news is, well, the shift wasn’t the easiest.
One important thing to do during stressful times is to move.
I don’t mean packing up your stuff and moving to a different location. What I mean is physically moving your body in any way that you can.
A defining characteristic of any habit is the transition point, which for our gym habit was driving to the gym and walking into a dedicated space for working out. I’ve said before that my workout habit for the past couple years hinged on simply showing up at a gym. But that clearly wasn’t going to work with what’s currently going on.
It’s really hard to create a similar transition point when you’re at home almost all the time. This was exactly what we experienced when we began working out at home with the stay-at-home orders.
In the video above, I talk more about the transition and using physical movement as a way to play, reduce anxiety, and to be more in sync with how our bodies were designed to be.
This is part three of a series called This Can Help, about the little things we can do during times of greater uncertainty. Next in the series is Daily Declutter.