January 16, 2025 • 24 mins
#126 - In this episode, I talk about five daily fitness habits to help you succeed in your health and fitness journey in 2025. I also share tips and tricks to build healthy habits and experiences from my personal fitness journey.
Topics Covered:
- Learn five daily fitness habits to help you succeed in 2025
- Tips and Tricks to help you build healthy habits
- Discover books and podcast episodes to help you in your journey
Your Host
Richard Conner
Richard is a strategic marketing professional with experience in B2B marketing. Richard is the founder of Inspire to Run and is passionate about helping others reach their goals. He is a Connecticut native, a husband, dad, writer, Star Wars fan, and, of course, a runner!
Resources:
- Incrediwear: Code for 10% off RICHARDCONNER
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever heard the saying it takes four weeks
for you to notice your bodychanging, eight weeks for your
friends to notice and 12 weeksfor the rest of the world to
notice?
Well, one of the biggestchallenges that most folks face
in even getting to the firstfour weeks is lack of
consistency.
Today I'm gonna talk to youabout some daily fitness habits
(00:20):
that will help you kickstartyour journey, but also the tips
on how to build those habits andget the consistency needed to
get results.
Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast.
Here you will find inspiration,whether you are looking to take
control of your health andfitness or you are a seasoned
runner looking for community andsome extra motivation.
You will hear inspiring storiesfrom amazing runners, along
with helpful tips from fitnessexperts.
Now here's your host, richardConner.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hey, my friend, 2025 is off to a roaring start and I
know that we all have fullyreturned to the hustle and
bustle of life after theholidays.
For my own fitness journey, Ifeel like I'm off to a good
start.
I've been prioritizing strengthtraining to kick off the year
as one of my main goals is toget stronger and faster and, you
(01:17):
know, as time progresses, I'llease back into more miles and
specific trainings for my racesthis year.
So, thinking about your startto the year and fitness goals
like, how is that going for youso far?
And it's okay if you say thatyou haven't really started in
earnest or maybe something'sjust gotten in the way recently.
But now you have an opportunityto begin and it starts with
(01:40):
habits.
I talked about this a little ina previous episode, where
habits play a big role andsomeone may underestimate how
much their habits actuallyimpact their lives, good and bad
.
So here I'm going to give youfive simple daily fitness habits
that will help kick off theyear strong.
(02:01):
Then we'll get into actuallyhow to develop those healthy
habits.
So let's get into it.
The first one, the first dailyfitness habit, is to hydrate.
I told you these are going tobe simple Hydrate your body
during the day, and it'ssuggested that you even hydrate
(02:21):
immediately after waking up tokickstart your metabolism.
So the suggestion is to drinkyou've all heard this 8 to 10
glasses of water each day.
That's about 64 to 80 ounces.
I personally try to targetaround 100 ounces, just given
the activity that I have andrecommendation from my coach.
(02:42):
So I try to get a little bitmore than the eight to 10
glasses of water.
But this is kind of the genericor general recommendation.
One thing that I would add,above and beyond the
recommendation, is you know, formany of us who are active or
thinking about getting active,it's really important to get
your electrolytes as part ofyour hydration.
(03:04):
And this is something that Ikind of learned the hard way,
which is super embarrassinggiven that I've been running for
a long time I've been runningsince high school and honestly,
it's just not something thatI've really actively thought
about until that point in timecame where I realized that I
just wasn't getting enoughelectrolytes.
So I use Arbonne for my dailyelectrolytes and then I have
(03:27):
other electrolytes that I usefor my actual runs and races,
like Tailwind Nutrition, whichyou know we had a whole episode
with the founder co-founder ofTailwind Nutrition on the show
and we talked about, you know,the appropriate hydration for
your races.
So this is a very simple dailyfitness habit that you could do
(03:48):
every day without muchchallenges, but it's just being
thoughtful about getting in thatwater each day throughout the
day.
Next daily fitness habit is tomove every day.
Now, what does this mean?
This means walking, running,strength training, yoga, pilates
(04:11):
, taking the stairs whatever youcould do to move your body and
it could be, you know, acombination of those things.
So for me, my routine consistsof running most days of the week
, so I run about five to sixdays a week.
I wasn't doing as much strengthtraining over the years so,
again, one of my main goals isto get stronger and faster.
(04:33):
So I'm building in a lot morestrength training now as I get
into 2025.
And I'm doing other things interms of mobility and really
just trying to stay healthy withmy body, but I'm moving every
day.
I even bought a Peloton bikejust a few months ago as a way
for me to do something ascross-training at home but also
(04:55):
help my family kind of getinvolved and get active.
Many years ago, during thatperiod of time when I wasn't
running and I wasn't nearly asactive as I am now.
One of the things that I did totry to keep moving was I worked
in an office building and Iworked on the seventh floor of
that building.
So I remember one of mycolleagues came into the office
(05:16):
through the stairwell.
I was like what do you do?
And he's like, yeah, I take thestairs every day coming up to
the office.
And my first thought was that'scrazy, we're on the seventh
floor.
But I just realized that Iwasn't moving.
I really wasn't doing anythingbut sitting at a desk and
working all day and then goinghome and taking care of the kids
and my kids were young at thetime.
(05:37):
So I tried it every day.
And the cool thing about it isI didn't have to start off by
walking up seven floors ofstairs right out of the gate.
So I just walked up maybe acouple of stairs and I got to
the first floor where we had anoffice which was the fourth
floor, and that was great.
So that was kind of the halfwaypoint and then I could take the
elevator if I just couldn'tmake it the rest of the way.
(05:58):
But eventually I got to theseventh floor.
Eventually I got to the seventhfloor.
So I built that habit to go upthe seven floors, but I usually
would always take the stairs, atleast going down.
So at the end of the day Iwouldn't take the elevator, I
would take the stairs going down, but most days I would do my
best to take the stairs going up.
(06:19):
So that was my way of stayingactive at that time.
So that was just an example.
So just make sure that you havea balanced plan for your
strength, for your cardio andfor your mobility.
And if you're new to running,you don't have to run every day.
So I shared with you my plan ofrunning five to six times a
(06:39):
week.
But I have very specific goals.
So if you're new to running andjust kind of getting into it or
you don't have the same type offitness goals that I have,
that's perfectly fine.
I mean, even a Couch to 5Kprogram schedules you to run
only about three days a week andwe happen to have one of those.
So if you come to Inspire toRun Podcasts on Instagram, you
(07:01):
can DM me C25 K, literally couchto five K, but use those exact
letters C to five K and I'llsend you a couch to five K
program.
So so the bottom line is moveevery day.
Find a way to do it betweenrunning, walking, strength
(07:21):
training, cardio.
Just move your body every day.
The third daily fitness habit isto prioritize sleep and
honestly, this is kind of one ofmy favorites.
I like to sleep.
So the recommendation is thatyou aim for about seven to nine
hours of sleep and that's goingto help support muscle recovery
(07:42):
and your overall health.
So again, this is very simple.
This is not new, but we don'talways do this.
We either stay up very late orwe get up very early, and I know
everybody kind of has their ownthing whether or not they can
sleep for seven to nine hours.
There's a lot going on, whetherit's with them physically or
other things going on in theirenvironment.
(08:02):
But it's really important toprioritize sleep and do the best
you can to get that seven tonine hours of sleep.
For me personally, I had beenhaving trouble getting restful
sleep, so not necessarily thenumber of hours, but I would
wake up in the morning and Ijust wouldn't feel rested.
So what I did about a year anda half ago maybe is that I
(08:25):
bought an Oura ring to help mewith that.
So it was just to help meunderstand what are the days
that I'm getting good sleep,what are the days that I'm not
getting good sleep, and thenhelping me understand what could
be the reasons or the causesfor that, and then I could do
more of the things that werehelping me and then do less of
the things that weren't helpingor contributing to restful sleep
(08:49):
.
So as a baseline, just get somerest.
Tip number four the dailyfitness habit number four is
have balanced nutrition.
Number four the daily fitnesshabit number four is have
balanced nutrition.
I'm not a nutritionist, I'm notprescribing anything specific
here, but this is generalinformation to plan your meals
(09:09):
to have protein, fats and carbs,and I personally had a macro
plan that I followed thatabsolutely worked for me, had a
macro plan that I followed thatabsolutely worked for me For a
long time.
I just really struggled to getwhere I wanted to be physically
and fitness-wise, and thenfollowing this plan really,
really helped me, and so Ipersonally believe having a
(09:31):
macro plan and tracking what youeat will help you.
It will help you get to whereyou want to be.
Not everyone believes that.
I mean, there's a lot ofdifferent philosophies out there
.
I know a lot of people areagainst tracking because it's
hard to do and if you don't doit you don't get the benefits of
it or maybe there's shame thatcomes with it.
(09:52):
I personally want the data.
I want to see what I'm eating,when I'm eating it and I can
adjust accordingly, because Idon't think many folks really
know how much they're eating orwhat their macros look like or
how much of an impact it'shaving on you.
So tracking it, even if it'sjust for one week, just gives
you that baseline and it tellsyou where you are and then from
(10:14):
there you can make kind of thechanges that you're looking for
right to get the results thatyou're looking for right To get
the results that you're lookingfor in life.
So I shared with you what I do.
Absolutely work for me won'twork for everybody.
It just depends on yourpersonality and the way you work
.
But I've had a couple of guestson the show, a few guests on the
show who have talked about thistopic and I would encourage you
(10:37):
to listen to one of theseepisodes.
So I'll share with you a couplehere.
The first one is episode 65.
How can running and nutritionlead to a better life.
With Ashley Terry.
So really great perspective,really wonderful story.
She talks about her weight lossstory through running and
nutrition and everything thatshe did.
So I would recommend that youtake a listen episode 65.
(11:00):
The next one is episode 78.
Can intuitive eating help youreach your health goals?
With Eva Rodriguez.
This is a replay.
This was such a greatconversation that I had earlier
in the time that I started thepodcast and I summarized it and
took really the best parts andput it into one episode, because
it was a two-part episodebefore.
(11:20):
But Eva talks about intuitiveeating and a lot of great tips
around that.
So, again, if tracking andmacros and all that stuff is
just too much and it's notsomething that really aligns
with the way that you work andjust what you want to do, this
is a really great episode foryou to listen to to teach you
about the kind of the guidelinesaround intuitive eating.
(11:44):
So these are the two episodesthat I recommend, but I have a
number of other episodes onnutrition and hydration, you
know, especially as you progressin your fitness journey and
your races if you do that.
So there are many philosophieson this topic, but having a plan
that's sustainable is reallythe key to long-term success and
(12:08):
the number five.
So the fifth daily fitness habitthat I'll share with you is
write down or mentally commit toyour fitness goal for the day,
and I'm sure you've heard thesaying if you plan to fail.
I'm sure you've heard thesaying if you fail to plan, you
plan to fail, and this is amental game just as much as it
(12:29):
is a physical one.
So I personally schedule all ofmy workouts for the week, as I
use my calendar all of the time.
So if it doesn't go on thecalendar, most likely it's not
happening anyway, but it'sreally helpful to have that you
know visually there, to knowwhat I'm going to do that day
and what I need to do for theentire week.
In addition to that, I also usemy tasks.
(12:53):
So I have a task in my phoneand again, it's right there
along with everything else thatI need to do, and that helps me
figure out, okay, that I need todo.
And that helps me figure out,okay, I need to do these three
or four things in other areas ofmy life, but I need to do my
eight mile run for my fitness.
So that's number five, and theseare the five daily fitness tips
(13:15):
that I wanted to, or dailyfitness habits I should say,
that I want to share with you.
So, again, these are verysimple, very, I would say, easy
to do, but we don't always dothem and we don't always do all
of them.
So it's really important thatyou build all these daily
fitness into your daily lives.
Now, how do you actuallydevelop these daily fitness
(13:38):
habits?
How do you actually developthese daily fitness habits?
It's not as easy, or it's noteasy, as habits are kind of
mental shortcuts that our brainscreate to save energy and
navigate daily life.
So when you're building a newhabit, you know that takes time,
and research shows that it cantake anywhere from 18 days to
(13:58):
all the way up to 254 days, withthe average person taking
around 65 days to incorporate anew behavior or habit into their
routine.
So that all depends right, itdepends on you, it depends on
the complexity of the habit, itdepends on your level of
motivation.
Now, a simpler way to look atit is the 2190 rule, and this
(14:21):
was first introduced by DrMaxwell Maltz, and it's a
concept that suggests forming anew habit takes 21 days of
consistent action and then anadditional 90 days to make it a
permanent part of your dailyroutine.
So, again, still depends on thecomplexity of the habit, your
(14:43):
motivation and your personalcircumstances, but it's an
easier way to think about.
You know that first 21 days tobuild that habit and then the 90
days to really kind of cementit into your daily practice.
So how do you do that?
How do you actually build a newhabit?
So I'm going to share with youfive ways to build a new habit
to support the daily fitnesshabits that we talked about, and
(15:05):
I did something a little funwith this one.
I wanted to have fun and Iwanted to hear from the Inspire
to Run community, so I put itout on Instagram and I said
share with me.
You know kind of those bestpractices or you know tips that
have really worked for you, soI'm going to share these with
you.
So the first one is from Markel,and Markel says start small.
(15:26):
So you want to begin with aneasily achievable version of
your habit, whether it's fiveminutes of exercise instead of
30, or it's walking instead ofrunning.
This is so important becausethis reduces the barrier to
getting started.
How many times have you satdown to do something, whether
(15:47):
it's building something fromIkea or it's something that you
just mentally, you're like thisis going to be tough, this is
going to be long, this is goingto be difficult.
Those are all the barriers thatcan stop you from building
those healthy habits.
So, thank you, markel.
That first one is start small.
(16:08):
The second one is from Grace.
Grace says write it down,materialize the thought and then
put it into practice.
So this is really powerful,especially the writing it down
part.
So that's really powerful froma mental standpoint because
that's really going to solidifyit in your subconscious.
(16:29):
I would also add a few othersalong.
This point is be specific anddon't overcommit, and this is
something that I personally havebeen working on is not
overcommitting, and this isgoing to be my year.
I have my plan, I'm sticking tomy plan and I'm not going to
overcommit.
I would add one more to this isuse this as when you write it
(16:51):
down, use it as a reminder in aqueue, so whether or queue, so
whether it's on a sticky note orwhether you have electronic,
which is what I use.
I use my phone, I use my taskson my phone and my calendar, so
it just shows up in front of youand it's a queue for you to do
that activity, and it also showsyou that it's just as important
as all of your other activities.
(17:12):
So, thank you, grace, write itdown, materialize the thought
and put it into practice.
Number three is stay flexible.
If you miss a day, acknowledgeit, learn from it and get back
on track.
And this one's from GregThompson Appreciate you sending
this in, greg, and I found aquote and a couple of things
I'll add to this is success isnot final and failure is not
(17:37):
fatal.
And this is by WinstonChurchill, and this is what I
think about often when I don'tsucceed at something, or in this
case, like if I miss a day orwhatever the case might be, it
is really about showing up andbeing consistent, but it's not
all going to.
You're not going to really missout from just one day.
(17:57):
In fact, maybe your body coulduse the rest, right?
Maybe that one day is going tobe good for you, but don't miss
it consistently, right?
If you just miss it.
As Greg says, if you miss it,acknowledge it, learn from it
and get back on track.
Also, accept that perfectionisn't required, right?
It's really just having youknow getting to the level that
(18:18):
you can perform, that you candeliver.
If you know that that's thebest that you can do, that's
great and that will get you towhere you want to be.
Number four is use a habittracker app, journal or calendar
to log your fitness activities.
So this is going to help yousee your progress as well as
(18:39):
build motivation.
So for me, I use an app that mytrainer provides for my
workouts.
I also use JE Fit, which iskind of cool because you can see
a calendar and they put alittle blue dot on every day
that you worked out.
So that's kind of cool.
You say, hey, you knowsometimes I'm doing really well
and sometimes I'm not, but itgives you a visual way of seeing
(18:59):
those times.
So that's really helpful for meand I feel good about it if I
see a lot of blue dots.
Another one is Strava.
Strava is great.
Strava will show you how manymiles you've run for the week.
Strava will share your successwith others and they may cheer
for you, or they may commentwith others, and you know they
(19:19):
may cheer for you or they maycomment.
So all of these things you knowtrack your progress and is
motivation for you to continue.
Number five is remove anyobstacles to success.
So, as an example, set out yourworkout clothes the night
before.
So for me personally, I go fromthe office to the gym.
So I pack my gym bag the nightbefore and I found out that if I
(19:45):
come home from the office andthen change, I waste a lot of
time and there is a good chanceI may not even make it to the
gym, just depending on what timeit is right.
So I stay at the office alittle bit later.
Oh, I got time.
I get home, I'm wasting time athome and then, before you know
it, it's really late, and then Idon't get my entire workout in,
(20:05):
because then I need to get backhome, I need to do things here,
or I don't go at all.
So this way I remove theobstacle.
I pack my gym bag at night, Igrab it in the morning, I go to
the office, I leave the office,I go right to the gym, I do my
workout.
End of story.
The other example that I have isthis year I started something
(20:26):
where I wanted to wake up early.
So I have a lot of things thatare going on and I just felt
like I just didn't have enoughtime in the day and, as I
mentioned before, I like tosleep, so I wake up a little bit
early to get some things done,and I always say that my brain
works best in the morning.
So, as I'm kind of planning,mapping this out, I want to wake
up early.
I didn't want to wake up earlyon the weekends.
(20:49):
I'm like gosh, I could do itduring the week, but on the
weekends it just felt liketorture or punishment.
So I didn't want to do that.
So I researched.
I'm like you know what, maybethere's something here where I
can get a little bit of reprieveon the weekends.
And I researched it.
And the research well, research, I Googled it.
So I don't know if you callthat research.
Maybe there were some papers inthere that I read.
(21:10):
But basically the consensus waswaking up at the same time
every day was the best way to go.
So if you don't do that, thenit could mess up your circadian
rhythm and it just wouldn'tmaybe get me the full benefit
that I was looking for.
So, as disheartening as that wasbecause I really wanted to
sleep in on the weekends I setthe same alarm during the week
(21:32):
as I do on the weekends as I didduring the week.
So I'm happy to say, as I'mrecording this, I think I'm on
day five, which includes theweekend.
So I did it at least for thefive days.
But as you know, I need thatfirst to get to that first 21
days.
So I still got a long way to go.
So that's number five removeobstacles to success.
So if you find you know, thisreason kind of keeps you from
(21:57):
drinking water every day ormoving your body every day or
getting enough sleep, try toremove those obstacles from your
life, start to recognize it andstart to remove those obstacles
so you could build those dailyfitness habits.
I'll give you a bonus one here,and this is really important and
admittedly I don't know if I doa good job really important and
(22:20):
admittedly I don't know if I doa good job.
So I would love your feedbackand your input.
If you do things here that havehelped you, that you really
enjoy, you can come to theepisode show notes and there is
an option here where you cansend me a message or send me a
text.
I'd love to hear from you whatdo you do to reward yourself,
reward yourself even for smallsuccesses and that reinforces
(22:41):
the positive behavior and alsobuilds momentum.
And this was also mentioned inthe research that I've done, as
well as in the book AtomicHabits by James Clear, which is
excellent.
I know I've mentioned it before, but really enjoyed that book.
But you have to train your mindto want to do these things
(23:01):
eventually and this is a greatway to do that is to reward
yourself.
So go to the show notes At thebeginning of the show notes.
You should see an option thereto send me a message.
I'd love to hear what are thetypes of things that you do to
reward yourself when you havethese successes.
So that was a bonus.
One was to reward yourself.
So I hope this was helpful foryou.
(23:22):
I shared with you those fivedaily fitness habits that are
really going to help you as youkick off the year, and then I
shared with you the five plusthe bonus ways that you could
start to build those habits.
And if you're new to runningand you're looking to run your
first 5K this year, I wouldencourage you to come visit
(23:43):
Inspire to Run podcast onInstagram DM me C25K.
I'll send you the Couch to 5Kprogram and I'd love to chat
with you if you have anyquestions, but really looking
forward to seeing the Inspire toRun community be successful
this year, no matter where youare in your journey, and would
love to hear from you.
So with that, I hope this washelpful for you and I wish you a
(24:07):
great day.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
That's it for this episode of Inspire to Run
Podcast.
We hope you are inspired totake control of your health and
fitness and take it to the nextlevel.
Be sure to click the subscribebutton to join our community and
also please rate and review.
Thanks for listening.
Have you ever heard the saying it takes four weeks
for you to notice your bodychanging, eight weeks for your
friends to notice and 12 weeksfor the rest of the world to
notice?
Well, one of the biggestchallenges that most folks face
in even getting to the firstfour weeks is lack of
consistency.
Today I'm gonna talk to youabout some daily fitness habits
(00:20):
that will help you kickstartyour journey, but also the tips
on how to build those habits andget the consistency needed to
get results.
Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast.
Here you will find inspiration,whether you are looking to take
control of your health andfitness or you are a seasoned
runner looking for community andsome extra motivation.
You will hear inspiring storiesfrom amazing runners, along
with helpful tips from fitnessexperts.
Now here's your host, richardConner.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hey, my friend, 2025 is off to a roaring start and I
know that we all have fullyreturned to the hustle and
bustle of life after theholidays.
For my own fitness journey, Ifeel like I'm off to a good
start.
I've been prioritizing strengthtraining to kick off the year
as one of my main goals is toget stronger and faster and, you
(01:17):
know, as time progresses, I'llease back into more miles and
specific trainings for my racesthis year.
So, thinking about your startto the year and fitness goals
like, how is that going for youso far?
And it's okay if you say thatyou haven't really started in
earnest or maybe something'sjust gotten in the way recently.
But now you have an opportunityto begin and it starts with
(01:40):
habits.
I talked about this a little ina previous episode, where
habits play a big role andsomeone may underestimate how
much their habits actuallyimpact their lives, good and bad
.
So here I'm going to give youfive simple daily fitness habits
that will help kick off theyear strong.
(02:01):
Then we'll get into actuallyhow to develop those healthy
habits.
So let's get into it.
The first one, the first dailyfitness habit, is to hydrate.
I told you these are going tobe simple Hydrate your body
during the day, and it'ssuggested that you even hydrate
(02:21):
immediately after waking up tokickstart your metabolism.
So the suggestion is to drinkyou've all heard this 8 to 10
glasses of water each day.
That's about 64 to 80 ounces.
I personally try to targetaround 100 ounces, just given
the activity that I have andrecommendation from my coach.
(02:42):
So I try to get a little bitmore than the eight to 10
glasses of water.
But this is kind of the genericor general recommendation.
One thing that I would add,above and beyond the
recommendation, is you know, formany of us who are active or
thinking about getting active,it's really important to get
your electrolytes as part ofyour hydration.
(03:04):
And this is something that Ikind of learned the hard way,
which is super embarrassinggiven that I've been running for
a long time I've been runningsince high school and honestly,
it's just not something thatI've really actively thought
about until that point in timecame where I realized that I
just wasn't getting enoughelectrolytes.
So I use Arbonne for my dailyelectrolytes and then I have
(03:27):
other electrolytes that I usefor my actual runs and races,
like Tailwind Nutrition, whichyou know we had a whole episode
with the founder co-founder ofTailwind Nutrition on the show
and we talked about, you know,the appropriate hydration for
your races.
So this is a very simple dailyfitness habit that you could do
(03:48):
every day without muchchallenges, but it's just being
thoughtful about getting in thatwater each day throughout the
day.
Next daily fitness habit is tomove every day.
Now, what does this mean?
This means walking, running,strength training, yoga, pilates
(04:11):
, taking the stairs whatever youcould do to move your body and
it could be, you know, acombination of those things.
So for me, my routine consistsof running most days of the week
, so I run about five to sixdays a week.
I wasn't doing as much strengthtraining over the years so,
again, one of my main goals isto get stronger and faster.
(04:33):
So I'm building in a lot morestrength training now as I get
into 2025.
And I'm doing other things interms of mobility and really
just trying to stay healthy withmy body, but I'm moving every
day.
I even bought a Peloton bikejust a few months ago as a way
for me to do something ascross-training at home but also
(04:55):
help my family kind of getinvolved and get active.
Many years ago, during thatperiod of time when I wasn't
running and I wasn't nearly asactive as I am now.
One of the things that I did totry to keep moving was I worked
in an office building and Iworked on the seventh floor of
that building.
So I remember one of mycolleagues came into the office
(05:16):
through the stairwell.
I was like what do you do?
And he's like, yeah, I take thestairs every day coming up to
the office.
And my first thought was that'scrazy, we're on the seventh
floor.
But I just realized that Iwasn't moving.
I really wasn't doing anythingbut sitting at a desk and
working all day and then goinghome and taking care of the kids
and my kids were young at thetime.
(05:37):
So I tried it every day.
And the cool thing about it isI didn't have to start off by
walking up seven floors ofstairs right out of the gate.
So I just walked up maybe acouple of stairs and I got to
the first floor where we had anoffice which was the fourth
floor, and that was great.
So that was kind of the halfwaypoint and then I could take the
elevator if I just couldn'tmake it the rest of the way.
(05:58):
But eventually I got to theseventh floor.
Eventually I got to the seventhfloor.
So I built that habit to go upthe seven floors, but I usually
would always take the stairs, atleast going down.
So at the end of the day Iwouldn't take the elevator, I
would take the stairs going down, but most days I would do my
best to take the stairs going up.
(06:19):
So that was my way of stayingactive at that time.
So that was just an example.
So just make sure that you havea balanced plan for your
strength, for your cardio andfor your mobility.
And if you're new to running,you don't have to run every day.
So I shared with you my plan ofrunning five to six times a
(06:39):
week.
But I have very specific goals.
So if you're new to running andjust kind of getting into it or
you don't have the same type offitness goals that I have,
that's perfectly fine.
I mean, even a Couch to 5Kprogram schedules you to run
only about three days a week andwe happen to have one of those.
So if you come to Inspire toRun Podcasts on Instagram, you
(07:01):
can DM me C25 K, literally couchto five K, but use those exact
letters C to five K and I'llsend you a couch to five K
program.
So so the bottom line is moveevery day.
Find a way to do it betweenrunning, walking, strength
(07:21):
training, cardio.
Just move your body every day.
The third daily fitness habit isto prioritize sleep and
honestly, this is kind of one ofmy favorites.
I like to sleep.
So the recommendation is thatyou aim for about seven to nine
hours of sleep and that's goingto help support muscle recovery
(07:42):
and your overall health.
So again, this is very simple.
This is not new, but we don'talways do this.
We either stay up very late orwe get up very early, and I know
everybody kind of has their ownthing whether or not they can
sleep for seven to nine hours.
There's a lot going on, whetherit's with them physically or
other things going on in theirenvironment.
(08:02):
But it's really important toprioritize sleep and do the best
you can to get that seven tonine hours of sleep.
For me personally, I had beenhaving trouble getting restful
sleep, so not necessarily thenumber of hours, but I would
wake up in the morning and Ijust wouldn't feel rested.
So what I did about a year anda half ago maybe is that I
(08:25):
bought an Oura ring to help mewith that.
So it was just to help meunderstand what are the days
that I'm getting good sleep,what are the days that I'm not
getting good sleep, and thenhelping me understand what could
be the reasons or the causesfor that, and then I could do
more of the things that werehelping me and then do less of
the things that weren't helpingor contributing to restful sleep
(08:49):
.
So as a baseline, just get somerest.
Tip number four the dailyfitness habit number four is
have balanced nutrition.
Number four the daily fitnesshabit number four is have
balanced nutrition.
I'm not a nutritionist, I'm notprescribing anything specific
here, but this is generalinformation to plan your meals
(09:09):
to have protein, fats and carbs,and I personally had a macro
plan that I followed thatabsolutely worked for me, had a
macro plan that I followed thatabsolutely worked for me For a
long time.
I just really struggled to getwhere I wanted to be physically
and fitness-wise, and thenfollowing this plan really,
really helped me, and so Ipersonally believe having a
(09:31):
macro plan and tracking what youeat will help you.
It will help you get to whereyou want to be.
Not everyone believes that.
I mean, there's a lot ofdifferent philosophies out there
.
I know a lot of people areagainst tracking because it's
hard to do and if you don't doit you don't get the benefits of
it or maybe there's shame thatcomes with it.
(09:52):
I personally want the data.
I want to see what I'm eating,when I'm eating it and I can
adjust accordingly, because Idon't think many folks really
know how much they're eating orwhat their macros look like or
how much of an impact it'shaving on you.
So tracking it, even if it'sjust for one week, just gives
you that baseline and it tellsyou where you are and then from
(10:14):
there you can make kind of thechanges that you're looking for
right to get the results thatyou're looking for right To get
the results that you're lookingfor in life.
So I shared with you what I do.
Absolutely work for me won'twork for everybody.
It just depends on yourpersonality and the way you work
.
But I've had a couple of guestson the show, a few guests on the
show who have talked about thistopic and I would encourage you
(10:37):
to listen to one of theseepisodes.
So I'll share with you a couplehere.
The first one is episode 65.
How can running and nutritionlead to a better life.
With Ashley Terry.
So really great perspective,really wonderful story.
She talks about her weight lossstory through running and
nutrition and everything thatshe did.
So I would recommend that youtake a listen episode 65.
(11:00):
The next one is episode 78.
Can intuitive eating help youreach your health goals?
With Eva Rodriguez.
This is a replay.
This was such a greatconversation that I had earlier
in the time that I started thepodcast and I summarized it and
took really the best parts andput it into one episode, because
it was a two-part episodebefore.
(11:20):
But Eva talks about intuitiveeating and a lot of great tips
around that.
So, again, if tracking andmacros and all that stuff is
just too much and it's notsomething that really aligns
with the way that you work andjust what you want to do, this
is a really great episode foryou to listen to to teach you
about the kind of the guidelinesaround intuitive eating.
(11:44):
So these are the two episodesthat I recommend, but I have a
number of other episodes onnutrition and hydration, you
know, especially as you progressin your fitness journey and
your races if you do that.
So there are many philosophieson this topic, but having a plan
that's sustainable is reallythe key to long-term success and
(12:08):
the number five.
So the fifth daily fitness habitthat I'll share with you is
write down or mentally commit toyour fitness goal for the day,
and I'm sure you've heard thesaying if you plan to fail.
I'm sure you've heard thesaying if you fail to plan, you
plan to fail, and this is amental game just as much as it
(12:29):
is a physical one.
So I personally schedule all ofmy workouts for the week, as I
use my calendar all of the time.
So if it doesn't go on thecalendar, most likely it's not
happening anyway, but it'sreally helpful to have that you
know visually there, to knowwhat I'm going to do that day
and what I need to do for theentire week.
In addition to that, I also usemy tasks.
(12:53):
So I have a task in my phoneand again, it's right there
along with everything else thatI need to do, and that helps me
figure out, okay, that I need todo.
And that helps me figure out,okay, I need to do these three
or four things in other areas ofmy life, but I need to do my
eight mile run for my fitness.
So that's number five, and theseare the five daily fitness tips
(13:15):
that I wanted to, or dailyfitness habits I should say,
that I want to share with you.
So, again, these are verysimple, very, I would say, easy
to do, but we don't always dothem and we don't always do all
of them.
So it's really important thatyou build all these daily
fitness into your daily lives.
Now, how do you actuallydevelop these daily fitness
(13:38):
habits?
How do you actually developthese daily fitness habits?
It's not as easy, or it's noteasy, as habits are kind of
mental shortcuts that our brainscreate to save energy and
navigate daily life.
So when you're building a newhabit, you know that takes time,
and research shows that it cantake anywhere from 18 days to
(13:58):
all the way up to 254 days, withthe average person taking
around 65 days to incorporate anew behavior or habit into their
routine.
So that all depends right, itdepends on you, it depends on
the complexity of the habit, itdepends on your level of
motivation.
Now, a simpler way to look atit is the 2190 rule, and this
(14:21):
was first introduced by DrMaxwell Maltz, and it's a
concept that suggests forming anew habit takes 21 days of
consistent action and then anadditional 90 days to make it a
permanent part of your dailyroutine.
So, again, still depends on thecomplexity of the habit, your
(14:43):
motivation and your personalcircumstances, but it's an
easier way to think about.
You know that first 21 days tobuild that habit and then the 90
days to really kind of cementit into your daily practice.
So how do you do that?
How do you actually build a newhabit?
So I'm going to share with youfive ways to build a new habit
to support the daily fitnesshabits that we talked about, and
(15:05):
I did something a little funwith this one.
I wanted to have fun and Iwanted to hear from the Inspire
to Run community, so I put itout on Instagram and I said
share with me.
You know kind of those bestpractices or you know tips that
have really worked for you, soI'm going to share these with
you.
So the first one is from Markel,and Markel says start small.
(15:26):
So you want to begin with aneasily achievable version of
your habit, whether it's fiveminutes of exercise instead of
30, or it's walking instead ofrunning.
This is so important becausethis reduces the barrier to
getting started.
How many times have you satdown to do something, whether
(15:47):
it's building something fromIkea or it's something that you
just mentally, you're like thisis going to be tough, this is
going to be long, this is goingto be difficult.
Those are all the barriers thatcan stop you from building
those healthy habits.
So, thank you, markel.
That first one is start small.
(16:08):
The second one is from Grace.
Grace says write it down,materialize the thought and then
put it into practice.
So this is really powerful,especially the writing it down
part.
So that's really powerful froma mental standpoint because
that's really going to solidifyit in your subconscious.
(16:29):
I would also add a few othersalong.
This point is be specific anddon't overcommit, and this is
something that I personally havebeen working on is not
overcommitting, and this isgoing to be my year.
I have my plan, I'm sticking tomy plan and I'm not going to
overcommit.
I would add one more to this isuse this as when you write it
(16:51):
down, use it as a reminder in aqueue, so whether or queue, so
whether it's on a sticky note orwhether you have electronic,
which is what I use.
I use my phone, I use my taskson my phone and my calendar, so
it just shows up in front of youand it's a queue for you to do
that activity, and it also showsyou that it's just as important
as all of your other activities.
(17:12):
So, thank you, grace, write itdown, materialize the thought
and put it into practice.
Number three is stay flexible.
If you miss a day, acknowledgeit, learn from it and get back
on track.
And this one's from GregThompson Appreciate you sending
this in, greg, and I found aquote and a couple of things
I'll add to this is success isnot final and failure is not
(17:37):
fatal.
And this is by WinstonChurchill, and this is what I
think about often when I don'tsucceed at something, or in this
case, like if I miss a day orwhatever the case might be, it
is really about showing up andbeing consistent, but it's not
all going to.
You're not going to really missout from just one day.
(17:57):
In fact, maybe your body coulduse the rest, right?
Maybe that one day is going tobe good for you, but don't miss
it consistently, right?
If you just miss it.
As Greg says, if you miss it,acknowledge it, learn from it
and get back on track.
Also, accept that perfectionisn't required, right?
It's really just having youknow getting to the level that
(18:18):
you can perform, that you candeliver.
If you know that that's thebest that you can do, that's
great and that will get you towhere you want to be.
Number four is use a habittracker app, journal or calendar
to log your fitness activities.
So this is going to help yousee your progress as well as
(18:39):
build motivation.
So for me, I use an app that mytrainer provides for my
workouts.
I also use JE Fit, which iskind of cool because you can see
a calendar and they put alittle blue dot on every day
that you worked out.
So that's kind of cool.
You say, hey, you knowsometimes I'm doing really well
and sometimes I'm not, but itgives you a visual way of seeing
(18:59):
those times.
So that's really helpful for meand I feel good about it if I
see a lot of blue dots.
Another one is Strava.
Strava is great.
Strava will show you how manymiles you've run for the week.
Strava will share your successwith others and they may cheer
for you, or they may commentwith others, and you know they
(19:19):
may cheer for you or they maycomment.
So all of these things you knowtrack your progress and is
motivation for you to continue.
Number five is remove anyobstacles to success.
So, as an example, set out yourworkout clothes the night
before.
So for me personally, I go fromthe office to the gym.
So I pack my gym bag the nightbefore and I found out that if I
(19:45):
come home from the office andthen change, I waste a lot of
time and there is a good chanceI may not even make it to the
gym, just depending on what timeit is right.
So I stay at the office alittle bit later.
Oh, I got time.
I get home, I'm wasting time athome and then, before you know
it, it's really late, and then Idon't get my entire workout in,
(20:05):
because then I need to get backhome, I need to do things here,
or I don't go at all.
So this way I remove theobstacle.
I pack my gym bag at night, Igrab it in the morning, I go to
the office, I leave the office,I go right to the gym, I do my
workout.
End of story.
The other example that I have isthis year I started something
(20:26):
where I wanted to wake up early.
So I have a lot of things thatare going on and I just felt
like I just didn't have enoughtime in the day and, as I
mentioned before, I like tosleep, so I wake up a little bit
early to get some things done,and I always say that my brain
works best in the morning.
So, as I'm kind of planning,mapping this out, I want to wake
up early.
I didn't want to wake up earlyon the weekends.
(20:49):
I'm like gosh, I could do itduring the week, but on the
weekends it just felt liketorture or punishment.
So I didn't want to do that.
So I researched.
I'm like you know what, maybethere's something here where I
can get a little bit of reprieveon the weekends.
And I researched it.
And the research well, research, I Googled it.
So I don't know if you callthat research.
Maybe there were some papers inthere that I read.
(21:10):
But basically the consensus waswaking up at the same time
every day was the best way to go.
So if you don't do that, thenit could mess up your circadian
rhythm and it just wouldn'tmaybe get me the full benefit
that I was looking for.
So, as disheartening as that wasbecause I really wanted to
sleep in on the weekends I setthe same alarm during the week
(21:32):
as I do on the weekends as I didduring the week.
So I'm happy to say, as I'mrecording this, I think I'm on
day five, which includes theweekend.
So I did it at least for thefive days.
But as you know, I need thatfirst to get to that first 21
days.
So I still got a long way to go.
So that's number five removeobstacles to success.
So if you find you know, thisreason kind of keeps you from
(21:57):
drinking water every day ormoving your body every day or
getting enough sleep, try toremove those obstacles from your
life, start to recognize it andstart to remove those obstacles
so you could build those dailyfitness habits.
I'll give you a bonus one here,and this is really important and
admittedly I don't know if I doa good job really important and
(22:20):
admittedly I don't know if I doa good job.
So I would love your feedbackand your input.
If you do things here that havehelped you, that you really
enjoy, you can come to theepisode show notes and there is
an option here where you cansend me a message or send me a
text.
I'd love to hear from you whatdo you do to reward yourself,
reward yourself even for smallsuccesses and that reinforces
(22:41):
the positive behavior and alsobuilds momentum.
And this was also mentioned inthe research that I've done, as
well as in the book AtomicHabits by James Clear, which is
excellent.
I know I've mentioned it before, but really enjoyed that book.
But you have to train your mindto want to do these things
(23:01):
eventually and this is a greatway to do that is to reward
yourself.
So go to the show notes At thebeginning of the show notes.
You should see an option thereto send me a message.
I'd love to hear what are thetypes of things that you do to
reward yourself when you havethese successes.
So that was a bonus.
One was to reward yourself.
So I hope this was helpful foryou.
(23:22):
I shared with you those fivedaily fitness habits that are
really going to help you as youkick off the year, and then I
shared with you the five plusthe bonus ways that you could
start to build those habits.
And if you're new to runningand you're looking to run your
first 5K this year, I wouldencourage you to come visit
(23:43):
Inspire to Run podcast onInstagram DM me C25K.
I'll send you the Couch to 5Kprogram and I'd love to chat
with you if you have anyquestions, but really looking
forward to seeing the Inspire toRun community be successful
this year, no matter where youare in your journey, and would
love to hear from you.
So with that, I hope this washelpful for you and I wish you a
(24:07):
great day.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
That's it for this episode of Inspire to Run
Podcast.
We hope you are inspired totake control of your health and
fitness and take it to the nextlevel.
Be sure to click the subscribebutton to join our community and
also please rate and review.
Thanks for listening.
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