We know that exercising is brilliant for our bodies and our minds. We know we need to eat our five-a-day, drink more water, and stop scrolling on our phones late at night.

So, why is it so incredibly hard to actually do these things consistently?

The problem isn’t knowledge. Most of us know exactly what we should be doing. But actually applying that knowledge when real life gets in the way is a completely different story. Work gets ridiculously busy, you’re exhausted, the kids need something, and suddenly, that 6:00 p.m. workout you planned feels like climbing Mount Everest.

Whether you’re struggling with sleep, getting your daily steps in, or stopping old food habits from creeping back, we can all relate to this. Here is why you struggle to do what you know you should do, and exactly how to fix it.

 

The Motivation Myth

The biggest thing I hear as a fitness coach is, “I’m just struggling with motivation right now.”

But here is the truth: motivation is just a feeling. It comes and goes, and we have very little control over it. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is waiting until you “feel motivated” to start.

Think about brushing your teeth. You don’t wake up absolutely buzzing to brush your teeth. You don’t need to watch an inspirational YouTube video to get it done. You just do it because it’s a non-negotiable part of your routine.

That is exactly what we want exercise and healthy eating to feel like. You don’t need motivation; you need action. Action creates motivation, not the other way around.

 

4 Practical Ways to Stick to Your Habits

If you finish work, put your comfies on, and sit on the sofa “just for five minutes,” we all know how the story ends. By 7:15 p.m., you’re hungry, annoyed at yourself, and the workout isn’t happening.

Instead of relying on willpower, use these four strategies:

1. Make It “Stupidly Easy”

We often set our minimum standards way too high. We tell ourselves that a workout must be a sweaty 45-minute session, or it “doesn’t count.” If you’re exhausted, that feels impossible.

Make the habit stupidly easy. Tell yourself you only have to do 10 minutes. Just open the app and start. Even if you only do those 10 minutes, that is infinitely better than zero! The same goes for nutrition: don’t overhaul your entire diet on Monday. Just start by adding one piece of fruit to your lunch.

2. Try “Habit Stacking”

Attach the new habit to something you already do every single day.

• When you have your morning coffee, immediately follow it with a glass of water.

• When you brush your teeth, balance on one leg to improve your stability.

• When you shut your laptop for the day, instantly put your trainers on.

Let your existing routine act as an automatic trigger for your new, healthy habit.

3. Design Your Environment

We are so quick to blame ourselves and say, “I just have no willpower.” But if the biscuits are sitting wide open on the kitchen counter, you are forcing yourself to resist them 20 times a day. Eventually, your willpower will crack.

Make bad habits inconvenient and good habits obvious. Put the biscuits in a jar at the very back of a high cupboard. Put a bowl of fresh fruit right on the counter. Keep your water bottle on your desk right in your line of sight. Charge your phone across the room so you can’t scroll in bed.

4. Stop Trying to Change Overnight

Stop trying to become a completely different person by Wednesday! This is exactly why the “New Year, New Me” mindset always fails in January. We try to hit 10,000 steps, work out five days a week, drink two litres of water, and meal prep perfectly all at once. It’s too much.

Pick one thing to change this week. Just one. Master that 15-minute walk after lunch before you try to add anything else.

 

The “Spilled Milk” Rule

Finally, stop letting one bad day ruin your entire week.

If you plan your meals perfectly Monday through Wednesday, but end up having cocktails and chips on Thursday, do not say, “Oh well, the week is ruined, I’ll start again on Monday.”

If you spill a bit of milk, you just wipe it up. You don’t stand there and pour the entire carton onto the floor!

Draw a line under it. Use the Rule of Three: if you miss one day, life happens. If you miss a second day, spend that time preparing so you absolutely don’t miss the third. Get your kit out, set your alarm, and show up for yourself.

Ready to ditch the fads and build real consistency?

If you want to stop starting over and finally build sustainable, healthy habits without the guilt, it’s time to train with us.

We focus on realistic workouts, building a positive mindset, and supporting each other through the messy reality of everyday life. Come and Join the Lorna Marie Squad on our Get Started Page!

🎧 Want more relatable fitness advice? Catch the full Q&A episode and more of our mindset tips by tuning in to the podcast:

• Watch the full episode on our YouTube Channel

• Listen to the Podcast on Spotify

Why We Know Exactly What to Do… But Still Don’t Do It 🤷‍♀️

You finish work and you know you said you were going to do a workout but… you’re tired, you’ve had a ridiculously busy day and you think, “I’ll just sit down for five minutes first…”

Then suddenly, it’s over an hour later, you’re hungry, you haven’t done the workout and now you’re annoyed with yourself because you’ve done it AGAIN.

Do you ever do this?

I think one of the most frustrating things when it comes to our health is that we actually know what we need to do.

We know moving our bodies is good for us, we know we probably need to drink more water, we know staying up scrolling until midnight when we’re already exhausted probably isn’t helping.

But knowing it and actually doing it consistently are two completely different things!

Real life just gets in the way sometimes. Work is ridiculously busy, the kids need you, you haven’t slept properly, you’re stressed, something unexpected happens and suddenly that workout you fully intended to do this morning feels like the last thing you want to do.

This is normally where we start blaming ourselves.

“Why have I got no motivation?”

“Why can’t I just stick to anything?”

“I was doing so well and now I’ve fallen off track AGAIN.”

But quite often, the problem isn’t that you need MORE motivation, the problem is that you’re relying on motivation in the first place.

 

Motivation comes and goes

There are going to be days when you feel really motivated. You’ve slept well, you’ve got loads of energy and getting your workout done feels easy.

Then there are going to be days when you absolutely cannot be bothered 😂

This is normal.

The mistake we make is thinking we need to feel motivated before we do something.

Actually, it very often works the other way around.

You start the walk and then you’re glad you went. You put your workout on and five minutes later you’re getting into it. You fill your water bottle and suddenly you’ve drunk more water without really thinking about it!

Action creates motivation!!

So rather than waiting until you magically feel like doing all of the things, make the thing you want to do easier to actually start.

 

Make it ridiculously easy

This is probably one of my favourite things to remind people of because we make things so much harder for ourselves than they need to be.

If you’re struggling to exercise consistently, please don’t suddenly decide that from Monday you’re going to do five 45-minute workouts every week!

Start with what you could realistically do, even on a busy week.

Could you do 10 minutes?

Could you go for a quick walk at lunchtime?

Could you put on a short online workout at home and just do 15 minutes if that’s all you have time for?

We have this horrible habit of thinking that if we can’t do the full thing, there’s no point doing it at all.

But something is ALWAYS better than nothing.

Ten minutes counts, a short walk counts and even half a workout counts. Quite often, getting started is the hardest part anyway.

And this is one of the reasons I love short online fitness classes. Taking away the travel time, the need to get to a gym and the idea that exercise has to take an hour can make it SO much easier to actually get it done.

 

Use the things you already do

Think about where you could add a new habit into something you already do.

If you always have a coffee in the morning, could that be your reminder to fill your water bottle?

If you always have lunch at roughly the same time, could you go for a quick walk afterwards?

If you want to stretch more, could you do five minutes while you’re watching TV in the evening?

You’re basically giving your brain a little trigger of, “When I do this, I also do this.”

The less thinking required, the better!

 

Make the healthy option the easy option

Your environment makes such a difference too.

Think about your water bottle… If it’s downstairs in a cupboard and you’re upstairs working, you’re probably not going to drink much water.

If it’s sitting right next to you on your desk, you’re going to see it and drink from it without having to think about it nearly as much.

The same goes for exercise! If you want to do an online workout first thing tomorrow morning, get your clothes out tonight and decide which class you’re doing. Remove as many of those little decisions as possible.

We often think we need more willpower when actually we could just make things easier for ourselves.

 

PLEASE don’t write the whole week off!

This is probably the biggest one.

You miss Thursday’s workout, you go out for dinner and eat more than you normally would, you have a really busy weekend and barely move.

Then suddenly your brain goes, “Well, I’ll start again on Monday.”

We need to rewire this.

One meal doesn’t undo everything you’ve been doing. One missed workout doesn’t mean you’re back at square one. A few lower-step days don’t mean the whole week has been a disaster.

I always think of it like spilling a bit of milk.

If you knocked your glass over and spilled a little bit, you wouldn’t think, “Well, I’ve ruined it now” and pour the rest of the bottle all over the kitchen floor 😂

You’d wipe it up and carry on.

That’s exactly what we need to get better at doing with our health.

You don’t need to “start again”.

You just need to carry on.

That is what consistency actually looks like.

Not getting everything right every single day, but getting back to your normal habits when life inevitably gets in the way.

 

Finding exercise that actually fits around your life

This is also why I’m such a big believer in making exercise fit around your life, rather than expecting your life to fit around exercise.

If getting to a gym or an hour-long class feels impossible when you’re busy, it doesn’t mean you can’t exercise consistently.

Sometimes you just need to remove some of the barriers.

That’s exactly why my online fitness classes for women are short, varied and designed to be done from home.

Inside the Lorna Marie Fitness Squad, we have live online workouts every weekday morning, with 20-minute classes including Strength, Pilates, Cardio, Combat, Booty Band workouts and loads more.

And if you can’t make the live class? Everything is available On Demand too, so you can do your workout whenever works for you.

Because realistically, some weeks you might be there live every morning and other weeks you might squeeze a 20-minute workout in at lunchtime, after work or whenever you get a spare bit of time.

Both count.

The important bit is having something that makes it easier to keep going.

So, over to you…

What is ONE thing you know makes you feel better but you’re struggling to do consistently at the moment?

Maybe it’s getting your workouts in, drinking enough water, going to bed at a sensible time or getting out for a walk.

Then ask yourself this:

How could I make that one thing easier?

Not perfect or an enormous lifestyle overhaul.

Just a little bit easier.

And if exercise is the thing you’re struggling to fit in, and you’ve been looking for live online fitness classes, online workouts for women or simply a way to exercise from home that actually fits around a busy life, come and have a look at the Lorna Marie Fitness Squad 💜

Short 20-minute workouts, live and On Demand options, loads of variety, support, accountability and a lovely community of women doing it alongside you.

All designed to actually fit around real life rather than expecting your life to fit around fitness.

Come and join the Lorna Marie Fitness Squad today!

Prefer to listen rather than read? 🎧 You can also listen to this topic on the Lorna Marie Fitness Podcast or watch over on my YouTube channel, where I share loads more practical tips around fitness, health and making it all actually work around real life!