Beyond Willpower: Discover What Really Impacts Your Exercise Habits

Welcome to the intersection of science and self-improvement. Here at Revitalizing Strength, we cater to a discerning demographic of 40+ year-olds seeking not just physical enhancement but a profound, science-backed transformation. This isn't about quick fixes or chasing trends; it's about understanding the bedrock of behavior change and using that knowledge to create lasting improvements. Creating a true lifestyle change that over time becomes easier to maintain.  Let's dive into the world of neuroplasticity and explore how strategically chosen themes can significantly enhance your health journey and your mindset-influencing actions. 

Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Power to Evolve

Neuroplasticity isn't just a buzzword; it's the cornerstone of your ability to change long-term behaviors, physical and mental. It's the brain's capacity to rewire itself in response to your actions and experiences that will allow you to create long-lasting habits. When you learn a new exercise technique or choose a healthier meal, you're not just making a one-off decision but sculpting your brain's neuro connections. These small intentional actions can be the start of any new behavior. At first, these new actions can take a large amount of willpower, over time they will become more habitual and take less and less willpower to complete. 

Illustrating the dynamic nature of the brain's learning and adaptation process

(Ramasubramanian)

Image 1: Diagram of Neuroplasticity

Each time you repeat a behavior, you're reinforcing that pathway in your brain, making it the path of least resistance. This is how habits form, and understanding this is key to breaking old habits and forging new, healthier ones. The more often we repeat behaviors we reinforce them, it doesn't matter if they are positive or negative. These behaviors can accumulate to achieve your health and fitness goals.

Decoding Habit Formation

Every habit is built on a simple loop: cue, routine, and reward. By hacking this loop, you can dismantle unhealthy habits and establish better ones. Being aware of your habits and actions is the first step to establishing new ones or ceasing to continue the old patterns that don’t serve us anymore. There have been times that I’ve been stuck in this negative feedback loop. I would be unhappy emotionally and this would cue my body to want to consume food to get the dopamine response it wanted. I had to become aware of how these emotional responses were affecting my goals.

Goals

Breaking down the components of habit formation to master behavior change

 (Meiyappan) 

Image 2: The Habit Loop

The Pitfall of Radical Resolutions

Radical resolutions are a setup for failure. Starting the new year with the goal to lose 100 pounds seems lofty, where would you even start? It ignores the brain's need for gradual adaptation and often leads to disappointment and a sense of defeat. This isn't just conjecture; it's backed by decades of research and countless anecdotal failures. Failure is hard to face and potentially could cause the individual to avoid attempting to lose weight for some time to come.  Instead, focus on small behavior changes that will compound and increase the progress to your health and fitness goal. Small, achievable goals will create the momentum to crush those long-term goals. Getting more sleep and achieving a daily protein goal can improve overall health, and increase muscle, and strength. 

Themed Resolutions: A Refined Approach

Themed resolutions are about setting a direction for a specific amount of time, not dictating every step. They're about guiding principles that provide a flexible framework for your decisions and behaviors.  This isn't a soft approach; it's a smart one. It's about making your brain your ally in your health journey. 

2023 was the year of Vulnerability, it allowed me to focus on a specific thing that I wanted to improve in my life. Vulnerability is something that impacts multiple points in my life. Specifically, I wanted to focus on vulnerability with friends and clients as well as romantically.  I found that the more I was able to share my successes and failures in fitness and nutritionally with my clients the more they opened up. Often people will forget that their trainer or nutritionist is human as well. This vulnerability was then returned to me and we were able to create an honest dialog that allowed them to look at their actions and habits from a new perspective. 

• Vulnerability: This might mean opening yourself up to new types of workouts or dietary changes, and learning from each experience.

• Discipline: This is about creating structures that foster consistency and resilience, the bedrock of any successful fitness regimen.

• Exploration: This involves injecting variety and novelty into your routines, keeping 

2024 is the year of discipline, there will be an increased focus on following through on actions and intentions that I have. Often I find myself having positive intentions to drink enough water, walk consistently or even just lifting, when life gets hectic. It also affects other parts of my life that don't relate to fitness like financially. I’m looking forward to seeing what the year brings but there will be much more discipline and following through on the small promises that I make to myself. 

Applying Neuroplasticity to Your Life

Making your brain work for you means starting small and staying consistent. It's about creating an environment that nudges you towards the behaviors you want to adopt and away from those you wish to avoid. This is where the art and science of behavior change converge.

• Initiate Small Changes: Start with changes that are so easy you can't say no. This reduces resistance and initiates the process of neuroplastic change.

• Getting to sleep at a consistent time or drinking more water.

• Maintain Consistency: Consistency is king. It's what cements new pathways in your brain, turning fledgling changes into robust habits.

• Create a plan - a schedule before bedtime or a water bottle that gets refilled regularly throughout the day.

• Incorporate Variety Within Themes: This keeps the process engaging, ensuring your brain and body don't hit a plateau.

• As you create and adapt new behaviors progress them and set new goals to achieve that build on the previous. 

Practical Tips for Enacting Themed Resolutions

• Choose Wisely: Reflect on what themes resonate with you and your current life phase. This isn't about what you think you should do; it's about what will genuinely guide you to where you want to be. Have you thought about what you want your life to look like lately?

• Detail Your Path: Break your theme down into actionable steps. If discipline is your theme, what does that look like daily, weekly, or monthly? 

• Monitor and Adapt: Use tools to track your progress and reflect regularly. Be prepared to pivot and adjust. This journey is about progress, not perfection.

Mindfulness: The Unsung Hero of Change

Mindfulness isn't just about relaxation; it's about cultivating a heightened state of awareness. It allows you to recognize the cues that trigger old habits and provides the clarity to choose alternatives that align with your new theme. This is where deep, lasting change takes root.

Guided meditation, yoga and bike riding all fall under this category for me. Each of them pillars of my mindfulness practice. Both the mental and muscular training provide clarity, focus, and a moment of mental relaxation in a rushing world. 

Creating a Conducive Environment

Your environment can either be a catalyst for change or an obstacle to it. Arrange your physical space to minimize temptations and maximize facilitators of your new habits. This isn't about control; it's about construction. You're building an environment where the healthier choice is the easier choice.

Having trouble with controlling your eating? Always reaching for the Ben and Jerry’s? Been there, it's much easier not to buy it at the grocery store than to not eat it when it's in your fridge. Instead of drinking Coke or Pepsi, reach for water or at least a diet version. The goal would be to reduce soda drinking to something more reasonable. Make it easy on yourself to achieve your goals. 

Resilience: Navigating the Inevitable Setbacks

Setbacks aren't failures; they're feedback. They're an integral part of the learning process, providing invaluable insights into what works and what doesn't. The key is to learn, adapt, and move forward with a refined strategy. Your failures are not your identity, or who you are. 

Beyond the Year: A Lifelong Philosophy

This isn't about what you do for a year; it's about how you approach life. Your chosen theme becomes a lens through which you view decisions, challenges, and opportunities. It's a perpetual engine for growth and improvement. 

Conclusion:

At Revitalizing Strength, we're not just about building stronger bodies; we're about building better lives. By understanding the science of neuroplasticity and leveraging the power of themed resolutions, you're not just embarking on a journey of physical transformation; you're embarking on a lifelong journey of personal evolution. This is where science meets the spirit of human potential, and it's a journey we're honored to guide you on.

Call to Action:

Are you ready to redefine what's possible for your health and life? Contact Revitalizing Strength today, and let's craft a path that reflects your aspirations, respects your individuality, and harnesses the full power of your potential.