Burned Out by Diet Culture? Here’s how to Start Exercising Again

If you’re anything like me, you spent years exercising to lose weight and had a disturbing side helping of disordered eating. Then you probably thought you’d healed all that, enter your #strongnotskinny era where you buy protein powder in bulk and a few matching gym shark sets, only to discover that you can’t commit to 4 hour long gym sessions per week. Plus, setting up barbell hip thrusts is really annoying.

Then comes the fuck it, what is the point? stage.

If I can’t get to the gym and lift heavy and do it OpTiMaLlY then why even bother??

Do I even know how to exercise without obsessing over something?

The Impossible Balancing Act

I guarantee that anyone you perceive as having a good relationship with exercise is either a man, lol, or a woman or non binary person who has been through all of the above and had a serious stage of doing absolutely nothing.

When I have coaching calls with members of my fitness community, you probably won’t be surprised to learn how many people are stuck in this phase currently.

You know exercise is good for you. You know your life will probably get a tinsy bit better if you could do some more of it. Yet you just…don’t.

There are a few little research snippets I like to tell people in this boat to see if we can nudge the needle towards moving just a little.

Start Small

Ridiculously small. I mean it. Not even a 30 minute workout. Make it 15-20. Once per week.

Even a little bit helps alot.

One study on people who did little to no activity found that even a small increase in physical activity (18-24 minutes) was associated with improvements in physical capabilities, quality of life, well being, depression and fatigue.

We also know that vigorous cardio is great in small amounts but I like to save this conversation for another day, if you’re currently doing nothing, lets not even talk about getting overstimulated by cardio.

Walking IS exercise

Moderate intensity aerobic exercise (like a fucking brisk walk) is really effective. It can improve sleep quality and daytime function and can consistently improve VO2 max and resting heartrate. Despite wellness wankers telling you walking isn’t exercise, it can be a great way to stay consistent.

Seeing walking as the exercise box ticked for a day is a great way to reframe your brain that all movement counts.

Try an Exercise Snack

Exercise has an accumulative effect. Meaning you can do shorter bursts throughout the day and the benefits will all add up.

Breaking up a workout into smaller chunks can be easier to stick with, more time efficient and more flexible than doing one long workout. I am constantly doing one set of push ups at random times during the day. Or I’ll work on some deep squat mobility for a couple of minutes while I’m between tasks.

Social Support Is Key

You think you can do this lone wolf style but it just works better if you have support.

In studies, effect sizes were larger when interventions used centre based exercise, were delivered in groups and used intense contact between interventionists and participants.

Research consistently shows people may be more motivated when influenced by clinicians, family or friends, keeping costs low and enjoyment high.

This builds self efficacy, leading to more exercise and other health behaviours. A happy spiral.

When I set up my fitness community, I knew the super power would be the members and how they support eachother. That’s why the group chats were set up and after 3 years, I am still blown away by how members respond to others.

Stop Being a Dick Head (to Yourself)

Cognitive restructuring of negative and self defeating attitudes and misconceptions increase self efficacy and self management skills. In other words, understanding how our brains work, the fact we are not lazy and that health is more than what we can see are all proven ways to increase exercise. Also makes us less of a dick to ourselves and others.

It’s ok not to feel motivated constantly. Motivation is abit of a myth. No one is lazy and people have real barriers in the way of getting started. I spoke in detail about this in the procrastination webinar, the replay of which you can find in the Snack Pass members hub.

Getting Started

If you want a place to start for FREE, you can find my playlist of 5 minute, progressive, no bullshit, fun exercise snacks over on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe over there so you always know when a new workout becomes available.

There’s absolutely no diet culture, no equipment needed and plenty of ways to modify so you can find something that works!