You are about to leave for the gym. As you are opening the closet to grab a jacket, you glance outside and notice it is pouring rain. Immediately, your brain starts the process. “It is miserable outside; maybe I should stay home and work out here.” You put your jacket away, and you head downstairs to the small gym area set up in your basement. “I will warm up on my treadmill and then do a few weights.”

If you had been at the gym, you would have had to fill up your bottle of water at the fountain, but since you are home, you can just as easily get a glass of water from your kitchen, so you head back upstairs. When you get there, you think: “We keep a pitcher of cold water in the fridge, so I will use that one.” You open the refrigerator, and you see some leftovers from the night before, and you think: « I am kind of hungry, maybe I should have a little bite to eat before my workout.”

You take a few minutes to wolf back some food and feel a little full, so you think that now that you ate, you will have to wait a little bit before you start your workout because you want to give your stomach a few minutes to digest. Then the devil shows up on your shoulder and whispers in your ear: “You should skip the workout altogether, you will go to the gym tomorrow…” and before you know it, you are sitting on the couch and have cancelled your exercise plans.

The last behaviour you want to adopt when it comes to making good choices for your health is to do it. When you have a goal, and you know what you should be doing, just start. It is effortless to come up with excuses when we take the time to think about it. Start. Do it. No excuses. If it rains outside, grab a raincoat and an umbrella.

Mel Robbins wrote: “If you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds, or your brain will kill the idea. Move. Because when you physically move, your brain starts to build new habits. When you do something you’re not used to doing, you are in the act of creating new habits and forgetting existing ones.” Countdown in your head: “Five, four, three, two, one” then start doing what you know you should do.

This was an excerpt from my new book: THINK Yourself® HEALTHY.