How to Create an Exercise Routine and Make It a Habit (from Atomic Habits)

Start with the Easiest Exercise Possible

Our motivation for becoming healthy (most of the time) often comes from the undesired changes we see in ourselves—especially the physical ones. When we start noticing that our waistline is growing, a double chin is showing, and our jeans aren't fitting, we start telling ourselves, "I need to lose some weight."

From that point on, you start doing a bunch of things: crash diets, "don’t eat this," "don’t eat that." You begin counting calories, installing apps that compute your calorie intake, and Googling “best exercise to lose belly fat” or “exercise to lose double chin”—and whatnot.

You go all in, doing your best to stay consistent—until either the next month rolls in or you hit your target weight. After all those sacrifices and motivation, you slowly start regressing. Months go by and you become bigger than before you even started.

What's the problem?

You might think you lost the motivation or that you're not disciplined enough. But the truth is, you’re just too tired to keep up with the standard you created for yourself when you wanted to lose weight. You wanted it fast, quick, and you wanted to see instant results—maybe because of an upcoming event, a summer outing, or whatever else. And when that goal is met, the willpower disappears.

Hence the subject of this section:

Start with the easiest exercise possible.

Our goal isn’t to lose weight quickly, but to keep it off for as long as we can. Just think about it this way:

You are in a race with yourself.
The “fat” version of you vs. the “fit” version.
Your job? Keep that fat version at bay.

Just like running a marathon or playing chess, we need to be strategic about it. As the saying goes, “It’s okay to lose a battle as long as we win the war.”

So, pick the easiest exercise possible.
Instead of running 5km three times a week, just:

• Run 1km a day
• Jump rope for 10 minutes
• Do jumping jacks
• Walk for 10 minutes around your house wearing a weighted vest
• Do 10 push-ups per day

You might say, “That’s boring,” or “I won’t lose weight with just that.”

But here’s the magic:

It’s not about how much weight you lose right away.
It’s about how easy it is to fit into your daily schedule.
And when something is easy to fit, it eliminates the self-sabotage thought we all know too well:

“I don’t have time.”

Not everyone has an hour to run 5km.
But everyone has 10 minutes to spare.

That’s just one YouTube video.
Heck, even a video from Teacher Rachel is longer than your workout.

So it eliminates excuses. And the more excuses you eliminate, the more control you gain over your thoughts. And the more control you have over your thoughts, the more you can push your limits—one step at a time.