Overcoming One of the Biggest Weight Loss Challenges with Tiny Bites of Exercise

How Mini Exercise Habits Can Lead To Lasting Change

Video Transcript:

Hi Everyone.

So, awhile back I posed on the website a question and it got a lot of response. Essentially the question was - What do you find easiest about your weight loss Journey? And what do you find most challenging? (Scroll down to the comments if you want to read them!)

And I went through, the comments were great. And what I noticed was that, surprisingly enough (or not surprisingly enough) one of the challenges for many of us was getting into any type of exercise routine.

There were lots of comments like these...

• "Most challenging is exercising. I hate to exercise." ~ Cynthia
• "The most challenging is exercising. I have to make a goal each week and mark my calendar busy to get my work out in." ~ Gerri
• "The most challenging is the exercise – need to make it more part of my daily routine." ~ Linda
• "Exercise motivation, i have none!!!!!?Hate it." ~ Crystal

And I can totally relate to this. I do practice yoga now, I do teach yoga - but I still don't consider myself an exercise enthusiast.

Restorative yoga photo courtesy of flickr - lululemon

Um, the only way it's been able to work for me is that I've found things that I really enjoy doing and really help me to feel better. And that's one way I've been able to stick with it.

So, what I thought would be really fun, is to really help you get moving by helping you to understand and realize that an exercise practice doesn't have to be overwhelming.

Sometimes I think why we struggle most is because we are trying to do too much. We're trying to be too... We set goals that are really just unrealistic and it's really not the best way to get started with anything.

The best way to get started is slowly and simply and as tiny as you can.

End Old Bad Habits By Starting New Tiny Habits

I've been doing a lot of research around the concept of tiny habits and mini habits and this can really work with exercise too.

Related: Celebrate Small Successes Giveaway!

So, what I'm planning to do here on the website is share more, little, tiny, yoga videos with you as well as other mini exercise videos - just to help show you that you can get going with something as simple as one pushup. And make your goal on any given day that basic - start with that and see where it leads.

Now a lot of people would say, what's one pushup going to do?

And, it's just magical in that because of the law of physics, um one of the rules is that a body in motion stays in motion. So once we take that first step, it's often very much easier to keep going and do a little bit more.

One of my favorite yoga teachers has always said that doing a little bit of yoga often is much more beneficial than doing a lot occasionally. And I think that holds true for so many things in life. Including not just yoga but all forms of exercise and other things that we do in our lives.

So, in these videos I'm going to share with you, they're called little yoga bites and they're just a way for you to start moving gently and very occasionally just to get your body going.

And when you start doing that more and more and more, pretty soon it adds up to the point where you are getting benefits. Where you may find yourself exercising maybe for five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five minutes a day.

That's all it really takes to get going. So, I hope you’ll tune into these yoga bites and other exercise bites and given them a try.

You can read all the comments here from my question, What do you find easiest about living a healthy balanced lifestyle? and What do you find most challenging? (Scroll down to the comments!)

Here's an interesting article where my sister discusses overcoming exercise inertia and getting motivated to begin with the help of essential oils

Two Minutes of Movement to Help Kick Start Your Day

Yoga Bites: Kickstart Your Day with this Simple 2-Minute Routine

Looking for a Simple Approach to Lasting Weight Loss???