Why making plans to exercise feels good but doesn’t work

Thinking you’ll get up early tomorrow and go to the gym feels good. I used to imagine in detail what exercise I was going to do the next day. This kind of detailed planning is a type of fantasy and gives you a dopamine hit.

But, it doesn’t make you more likely to actually go to the gym the next morning.

I used my fantasy planning for future workouts to avoid dealing with the feelings I had that made me want to procrastinate my workouts. And that made me feel even more terrible if I didn’t go.

Typically when people struggle to fit in exercise, they struggle to get out of the house or to the gym. It’s not typical to go to the gym and then struggle to decide what exercise to do. If your thoughts are focused on the part that’s not the problem, that’s a sign that it’s a fantasy rather than a plan.

What do you need to do to be the person who makes that happen?

For me, one of the things I needed to do was buy a few extra sports bras, so I always had one available.

But this is giving up things. You can’t do all the things, so what are you willing to give up for your fitness routine?

If the answer is nothing, then is your plan just a fantasy?

It might be sad to give up the thought that you could just cut out and hour of sleep and have the perfect fitness routine.