Help Us Get Our Butts Moving!

Start ridiculously small. When I'm struggling to exercise regularly, I tell myself that 12 minutes of running is better than nothing at all. And usually, once I start, I can motivate myself to go on longer. But if all I do is 12 minutes, it's still better than nothing at all. Repeat 5 times a week for one week. By the end of the week, you'll start feeling the benefits of the only 12 minutes (which will likely be 20 by then) and want to run for longer periods. The thing about exercise is this: it makes you feel good, so it's addictive.

First, set a routine for which days you're going to go. Maybe every other day, or every three days. Then write down a list of reasons you are allowed to skip your scheduled exercise, and stick with that. Keep the list short . I can't really think of too much that would go on it, but maybe: * Injury (such as a mild ankle sprain - which would keep you from running, but maybe not lifiting weights) * Sickness (has to be significant - not just because you feel like a cold might be coming on) * Family Emergency (you have to drive your mother to the hospital for some reason - even for these, I'd try and work out later) Examples of things that shouldn't be on the list: * Had a rough day at work * Inclement weather (unless the ground is super icy and you're likely to slip and break your neck) You pretty much don't want to get in the habit of making any excuses. It's SOOOOOOO easy to make an excuse not to exercise, so just don't get in that mindset. Life has a habit of getting in the way, but you need to work around anything that might come up. It's scheduled, so you have to go - simple as that (unless it is on your "excuse list"). If you find yourself thinking up reasons not to run that day, go up and put your running outfit on and go for a run before you can convince yourself you're justified in skipping out.

I'm a little confused about not wanting to take your phone with you. I mean, I looove my iPhone, too, but I just stick in its armband and it's fine. What do you think will happen to it? I find it motivating to: -use a tracking app or an app that gives me real time goals, c25k or zombies run -listen to my favorite fun podcasts. Then time flies faster and it feels more like a treat. Just slogging along, no music or stories-ugh. Drudgery for me. Bring your phone.

We have a shared Google calendar to document the exercise on, which is weirdly effective. I love seeing all the little workouts lined up in a row. Can you do this? Maybe with a real physical calendar tacked up someplace for the first few months at least? Use a different color pen for each person, and you'll want to keep streaks going. We have also been setting dumb but achievable goals each month (run every trail in X park, 5 workouts that do not involve pavement, 60% of workouts outside, weight training 2x a week, try new activity Y, bike a route we haven't tried each week, hike 25 total miles, whatever) and that has been surprisingly motivating for me. Goal achieved= small outing we wouldn't have done otherwise, like a trip for frozen yogurt.

Thanks everyone! I have printed out a month calendar with days highlighted for this week (Tuesday and Thursday). It's on the fridge. We have set up a reward system for the first month. Week one is a movie night, Week two is a $10 reward/treat and Week 4 is an object reward (new workout gear, maybe some shoes, etc.) We will create new goals for the next 4 week period. My gmail calendar is set up with my iphone calendar so it will send me reminders for the days we scheduled. My husband should be setting up his so he gets phone reminders and he is email-invited to our 2 jogging days. Our calendar also includes goals for this month. This time we are wanting to go twice a week, and jog at least 1 mile each time. (This includes stretching before of course.) We have set up valid excuses - Sick, Injured, Unexpected Work, Date Night. My husband is technically on-call for his job and I work from home so we may get unexpected work. All of these excuses will mean that we are to reschedule our jogging day. Not valid excuses include - Internet, Don't Want To, Movie/Show/Games Then every month we can change goals as I have made a one-page vertical calendar in Word that has goals and rewards printed on it. We may also try timing our running times as well for extra motivation as we get more into it. Thanks again everyone! I do really enjoy the feeling after jogging even if I feel like I'm going to die for most of it. Oh and my personal overall goal is to jog probably 2 miles without walking or being too out of breath. Again I just want the recommended healthy exercise.

Maybe try programming yourself so that when Mr. Crystalinne offers up an excuse to not go running, the very first thing you say is "That's an excuse, not a reason." Then look at him like you're shocked that came out of your mouth. Don't even wait to parse and consider what he's saying before you respond that way (normally I wouldn't advise not listening to your partner, but in this case I think it's OK. If he resists, then go ahead and listen to what he's saying). Don't do this if your relationship is such that it would cause drama. Ask him to do the same to you. The reason I'm focusing on this is that you mentioned the reasonable-excuse issue a couple of times. As a person who would like to sit on the couch more than go exercise, I have to be aware of my own excuse-making. I know what it's like. Also, while many of the suggestions up-thread are great, a lot of them won't work if you can always find a reason (excuse) not to go exercise. I think you need to get a handle on that before a lot of those things would be helpful. If you program your response to excuses like this you might be able to break the pattern and create a new, better pattern. An excuse becomes much harder to maintain when it's revealed to be an excuse. It is important though to understand that there are real reasons not to go exercise and to heed those. Perhaps it would be helpful to define and list them for reference so you don't drift across a blurry line into excuses again. For example, an injured ankle is a really good reason not to go running; it's not an excuse, and to feel pressured into running on an injured ankle is bad. I would make sure to rebuff excuses lovingly or with a touch of humor (I would absolutely not turn it into a joke though). If you can do that and invite him to do the same, it might help. Just an idea.

I recently got a http://www.fitbit.com/ and I've found it is strangely compelling - it actually gamifies exercise. I've found myself checking it several times a day and thinking things like, "ooh, if I walk to the laundromat rather than taking the bus, I could get in that much more exercise!" or "ooh, I'm so close to my goal for the day, lemme go take a quick walk before I make dinner tonight and see if I can get to my goal," or even "well, I'm going to the gym anyway, but if I walk there I could also hit my step goal for the day." I recently described it to a friend as "like a Tamagotchi for fitness". (Even more so because occasionally the one I have makes faces at you - and a couple times it's shown me graphics that look like Space Invader 8-bit monsters and I have no idea what that's about.)

3rding http://ask.metafilter.com/239159/Help-Us-Get-Our-Butts-Moving#3468272 advice to start small. Anything (even one minute, let alone 12!) is better than zero minutes! I've jump started my own motivation recently by buying a kettlebell and promising myself I'd do 50 kettlebell swings every day. This takes 50 seconds, approximately. Or it might take 5 minutes if I do 25, then rest a couple minutes, and do 25 more. And then what has happened is 25 really easily turns into 30, which turns into 45, and 50 is suddenly 90. And then there I am having done 90 kettlebell swings and I'm like wow, maybe I'll do a couple bicep curls. Or figure out one of those figure eight swings you can do. And oh, gee, maybe there's a youtube video workout that I can follow... And without any excessive mental energy, 50 seconds has turned into 10 minutes! Which is more than 10 times longer than my original goal! Which was always better than zero! Yay!!! Exclamation points!!!

I attend a regularly scheduled cardio class several times a week with a friend. This works for both of us because -neither of us likes to feel like we are letting the other person down by skipping out -we also know that the other people in our class will sort of wonder where we are if we don't go, which is additional motivation -it's fun to go together, and it's a class we both like -now that we've been going for so long, we can both see real results (in terms of being more in shape, with better endurance, being better coordinated etc.) -it's on regular days at the same time so I have a good "excuse" to tell people I can't do X at that time, I have exercise class -our class uses a punchcard type system that expires after X number of weeks, so if we skip too many classes we are essentially paying not to exercise, which annoys our thrifty souls It sounds like you and your husband need more people in your pact to keep you both accountable! Try joining a running group (e.g. the Couch to 5K program mentioned above). Your running group won't just sit on your couch with you and say, "Yup, you're right...let's just sit here and watch TV!" (I am sympathetic, by the way...that would be me if not for my exercise class friends.)