When I talk to new clients and class participants, something that comes up with almost everyone is that people don’t prioritise feeling good. They expect that exercise will be hard and unpleasant because they are unfit and as they get fitter it’ll get easier and they will enjoy it. But that’s not how it works. If you push yourself to your limits, when you get fitter you will just push yourself more as your limits move so it will not be any more pleasant. This is one of the main reasons why people give up. It’s hard. It’s unpleasant.
If, instead, you prioritise feeling good, you will never push yourself past that point where it becomes unpleasant. You will be able to push yourself more and still feel good as we get fitter and that’s really exciting to see, and because you feel good, you enjoy it so we’ll want to keep it up!
It’s so simple yet we all get it wrong. We get it wrong because the fitness industry gets it wrong – the whole society gets it wrong.
It’s time to change that. I see what I like to call ‘feel good fitness’ working so beautifully with my clients and course participants, it’s so simple yet totally life-changing, so I’d encourage you to open your mind, give it a chance, and realise that the way we’ve been approaching fitness is wrong and doesn’t work.
The simple fact is – if exercise does not make you feel good about yourself, you’re doing it wrong!
Exercise should not be painful, make you feel like you’re about to collapse, too unfit, not good enough, not motivated enough, not trying hard enough… It shouldn’t make you feel bad about yourself/your body or ashamed if you miss a workout or like a failure if you give up. It shouldn’t be something you do because you ‘have to’ do it and it shouldn’t be boring. There should be no guilt or shame.
If exercise makes you feel bad in any way, the problem is not you: the problem is the approach – the class/instructor/programme is not for you. It’s not that you are not good enough – the programme is not good enough for you! You do not have to change to make yourself ‘fit in with the programme’; the programme needs to be adjusted to suit you or you need to find another one.
You deserve to enjoy moving and to feel good about yourself and your body and you CAN feel good now. You do not need to change before you can feel good – in fact, feeling good is the only way to make change easy and possible! Feeling good is the key to success so if it doesn’t feel good, something needs to change, otherwise, your chances of success are the same as with diets (because the mentality is the same), which is about 3-5%.
Next time you go for a walk or a run or do any exercise, focus on feeling good and notice the difference it makes!