Why Can’t I Stick to a Health and Fitness Behaviour?

“You should be walking and exercising, you should be eating well, you should be sleeping well” and so on ...

This kind of advice gets rehashed constantly.

Maybe the expectation is that you’re suddenly going to change your behaviours for the rest of your life because someone told you, or you read on an instagram post, that “you should be eating well and exercising”.

I don’t believe there are many people out there who don’t understand that it’s a good idea to be doing this, and I don’t believe continually being told it is going to help you stick to essential behaviours.

The real problem?

It’s tough to stick with new behaviours for a long time.

Without adherence, nothing good happens and you don’t move in any meaningful direction.

Adherence is the quickest path to getting where you want to be, but how do we do it?

I don’t think ‘just do it and be more disciplined’ is helpful for a lot of people, so let’s dig a little deeper.

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A starting point

It’s important to truly value the outcome you’re working towards.

What’s the real reason you’re doing it, what’s the why? This requires some introspection.

If you don’t know why you’re doing it, and it simply comes down to something like “I know I should be”, this is where education about the benefits of strength training and health/fitness behaviours in general can help.

From preventing chronic diseases, turning around your physical and mental state, being able to bounce back better from life’s stressors and challenges and feeling more energetic to helping you spend more quality time with the people you love, the list goes on ...

The more you personally value the outcome, the better.

So, you truly value the outcome of your health and fitness behaviours, why is it still this hard to stick to them?

Are low levels of self-efficacy holding you back?

Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s perceived ability to accomplish a task.

Do you feel like you have low or high self efficacy?

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The majority of papers mention self-efficacy as being one of the greatest contributors to levels of adherence! (1)(2)(4)(5)

So, if you’ve got high levels of self-efficacy, it’s probably going to be a lot easier for you to stick to health and fitness behaviours. If you suspect you have low levels, here are some things that influence it, and what you can put in place to try to improve it:

1. Being able to successfully complete tasks and feel a sense of mastery (Mastery of experience (1) (Bandura, 1994, 1997))

This is potentially the most effective way to improve your self-efficacy.

It’s important to engage in exercises and behaviours where you experience success.

What would this look like?

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‍In a strength training program, you could perform more of the exercises you’re good at and that you feel you’re mastering the quickest. If you don’t feel like you’re good at any, this is where it comes in handy to perform easier/more manageable variations and then build from there.

Is there a health behaviour that you feel like you’re really good at compared to anything else? Engage in that one more often and find ways to continually progress in it.

2.  Seeing someone else (ideally similar to you) achieve success or complete the same task (Vicarious experience (1) (Bandura, 1994, 1997):

If you see someone similar to you succeeding in a health behaviour, chances are you’re going to feel it's possible for you too.

What would this look like?

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‍ In strength training, it could be having a training partner who is on a similar level and after a similar goal as you. When following healthy eating behaviours it could be having a significant other who is also following the same eating behaviours and seeing them successfully stick to it too.

3. Understanding the bodily feelings you may feel when you’re engaging in the health/fitness behaviour. (Physiological state (1) (Bandura, 1994, 1997):

What would this look like?

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‍When strength training, there will be many uncomfortable bodily sensations that arise. Examples include burning muscles, little aches/twinges, movement awkwardness, clicking sounds of joints and so on. It’s important to know that these are all normal to be feeling (as long as they’re not accompanied by excessive amounts of pain etc).

4. Getting feedback, receiving positive reinforcement, getting coaching, hearing the positive benefits of your behaviours etc. (Verbal persuasion (1) (Bandura, 1994, 1997):

What would this look like?

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‍Having a coach or people around you who can give you positive feedback, discuss barriers, offer encouragement, and remind you of the benefits of what you’re doing that can work wonders in this area.

Work out which one of these areas may be lacking the most and see whether addressing it improves your levels of self-efficacy and consequently your adherence!

This leads us onto another major contributor to adherence ...

Are you getting enough social support?

Social support is another big one when it comes to adherence.

We are inherently social creatures (even if you identify as introverted and ‘disliking humans’).

This social support can come from friends and families or even from supervisors/coaches.

“In the existing literature, multiple studies have indicated that social support (whether through family, friends, peers, or providers) is important for successful behavioral change.”
-Lemstra et al., 2016

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The support can come in many forms, including:

- reminders (or check-ins),

- supervision of your exercise program,

- reinforcement/encouragement/positive feedback,

- support via the web/phone,

- accountability from those around you, and even

- simply personal interaction that encourages feelings of well-being.

If you can’t find friends or family who will support you the way you need them to when it comes to health and fitness behaviours, this is where a coach can shine. Here’s what the science says:

- The studies that had people self-monitor their exercise programs had an adherence rate of 41.5%, while the studies that were supervised had an adherence rate of 68.6%. (3)

- Supervised programs are associated with adherence ((Lacroix et al., 2016; Pavey et al., 2012; Picorelli et al., 2014). (5)

- Interactions between a coach and their client is known to have a net positive effect on the client and can improve social, mental, and emotional health. (5)

- A good relationship between the coach and client can even increase the levels of adherence to further health and fitness advice. (5) So make sure you choose a coach you get along with well!

- Rates of weight loss were improved when there was a ‘social support contract’ between coach and client (as it creates stronger commitment). (3)

Don’t feel like low self-efficacy or a lack of social support is holding you back?

Some other factors

There are other potential factors, such as:

- Feelings of helplessness, depression, anxiety (poor psychological health) and more pain onset with exercise (1) (5)

- Higher weight, poor health, not being happy with your program (3) (5)

- Low self-motivation, lack of readiness, poor fitness level, lack of enjoyment and so on (5)

Without diving into each of these and trying to find a solution, there’s something I want to highlight:

The majority of these can be improved or addressed by engaging in consistent strength training.

For example, in my last blog post (“Will Strength Training help my mental health?”), there were multiple studies which showed that strength training can improve depression/anxiety, self-efficacy, physical self-worth and so on.

So it becomes a positive loop you need to find a way to enter.

Stay consistent for a while, and you’ll improve on these factors that will then lead to being more consistent, and the cycle continues.

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How am I supposed to do this forever?

The thought of having to engage in certain health and fitness behaviours for the rest of your life can be overwhelming if you genuinely find it difficult.

This is where transitioning them into habits solves the problem. Once you build the habit, the mental battle of sticking to your health and fitness behaviours disappears.

Without beginning a whole new blog post on habits, here are some strategies to transition the behaviours into long-lasting habits:

- Give the behaviour some context. Give it a time and place. Eg. “I’m going to do … in the kitchen right before my shower each morning.”

- The behaviour should be a small change, not a complete overhaul of everything (for example, ‘I’m going to go for a 20 minute walk upon waking.’ instead of, ‘I’m going to do a HIIT workout in the morning, eat no carbs for breakfast, and then finish the day off with 5,000 steps and meditation.’)

- Focus on the small changes that are happening because of your new behaviour (finding a way to enjoy the process and small wins along the way).

- Have a way to monitor the new behaviour. This way, when you see that you’ve been doing it consistently, it reinforces the fact that you’re able to achieve this goal and should bring you some satisfaction (what works for me is keeping a tally and working up a streak that I don’t want to break – there are plenty of streak counting apps.)

- A few I like from James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’: Make the behaviour easy and accessible along the path of your daily routine (this includes eliminating the points of friction eg. If you’re trying to eat better, make sure there is always healthy food in the house when you need it so you don’t have to drive to the shops). Adopt the behaviour/habit as an ‘identity’ (eg. ‘I am a gym-goer.’ rather than, ‘I’m just not a gym person.’)(6) (7) (8)

Over time (it gets easier and easier to implement), your health/fitness behaviour will transform into a habit and the journey to your desired outcome will be significantly more effortless!

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The takeaway:

If you struggle to consistently stick with a health and fitness plan:

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• Start with a ‘why’ or an outcome that you truly value.

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• If it’s low levels of self-efficacy holding you back, implement a few of the things mentioned that can positively influence it (eg. a sense of mastery by engaging in the behaviours/exercises you feel you’re good at).

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• If you think it may be a lack of social support, reach out to family and/or friends that may want to start on a similar journey to you. No one is interested? Find a good coach/trainer.

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• If it’s some of the other factors, understand that they will slowly improve as you engage in physical activity and you will enter a positive loop where your behaviours feed more positive behaviours.

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• To maintain the behaviours for life, implement a few of the habit-building strategies so that there is a natural transition into habits and the behaviours become effortless.

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• Appreciate the small wins and positive changes along the way to your desired outcome!
  

REFERENCES

(1)Picha KJ, Howell DM. A model to increase rehabilitation adherence to home exercise programmes in patients with varying levels of self‐efficacy. Musculoskeletal Care. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1002/msc.1194

(2) Alberga, A S et al. “Understanding low adherence to an exercise program for adolescents with obesity: the HEARTY trial.” Obesity science & practice vol. 5,5437-448. 20 Aug. 2019, doi:10.1002/osp4.3570

(3) Lemstra, Mark et al. “Weight loss intervention adherence and factors promoting adherence: a meta-analysis.” Patient preference and adherence vol. 10 1547-59. 12 Aug. 2016, doi:10.2147/PPA.S103649

(4) Flegal, K E et al. “Adherence to yoga and exercise interventions in a 6-month clinical trial.” BMC complementary and alternative medicine vol. 7 37. 9 Nov. 2007, doi:10.1186/1472-6882-7-37

(5) Rivera-Torres, Solymar et al. “Adherence to Exercise Programs in Older Adults: Informative Report.” Gerontology & geriatric medicine vol. 5 2333721418823604. 22 Jan. 2019, doi:10.1177/2333721418823604

(6) Cleo, G., Glasziou, P., Beller, E. et al. Habit-based interventions for weight loss maintenance in adults with overweight and obesity: a randomized controlled trial. Int J Obes 43, 374–383 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0067-4

(7) Gardner, Benjamin et al. “Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice.” The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners vol. 62,605 (2012): 664-6. doi:10.3399/bjgp12X659466

(8) Clear, James. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. CELA, 2021.

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