We all know the New Year is an excellent time to set an exercise goal. Even if you didn’t set a formal goal this year, you can still start one at any time. Don’t worry about social pressures or the feeling of being behind. The important thing is to focus on turning your value of health into action now!
Starting an exercise goal now might even be better than starting one on January 1st. This is because as we enter the second week of January, it is common for some people to begin to give up on their goals or start to miss a few days. This is where you can come in! The gyms will start to get less crowded, the bike paths will open, and there will be fewer people on the roads driving around for their holiday shopping.
Whether you have been hard at work exercising since the New Year and need a few good reasons to keep going, or you want to start one now, we’ve got you covered. We’re going to outline four tips on how to keep (or start) a New Year’s exercise goal using an e-bike. Of course, these tips apply to any exercise routine. Our favorite exercise just happens to be e-biking!
Schedule Time for Your Goal
The first tip to sticking to an exercise routine, with or without an e-bike, is making time for it! This may sound obvious, but so often people will start a goal with good intentions but fail to schedule time in their calendar for it. Because we are creatures of habit, the inertia needed to do something new has not been built up yet and we simply stop doing it.
Avoid this mistake by setting up a time to ride your e-bike ahead of time. Block off your schedule during the workday to take a ride at lunch. When you aren’t working, schedule social events and errands after you’ve scheduled your e-bike time, not the other way around.
Finally, tell friends and family members that you have begun exercising regularly and would like them to help keep you on track. Let them know you will need a certain time set aside each day or a few times per week strictly for riding your e-bike. This will help take the pressure off you and encourage others to celebrate or remind you of your goal.
Remember Progress is Not Linear
One difficult aspect of keeping goals is that we often face a setback and give up on the goal entirely. But remember, progress is not linear. There will be ups and downs on the path to reaching your goal.
We all face setbacks from time to time. Maybe you get sick and miss a few rides. Perhaps work becomes extra busy, and you decide you don’t have time to commute to work on your bike for a while. Whatever the reason for the setback, you mustn’t let it derail you from your overall goal of progress.
By having some compassion for yourself and the realities of life, you can enter into your goal with the full acknowledgment that you will certainly face difficulties on the road ahead, but you can plan to bounce back from them ahead of time. This approach to your exercise goal will keep you pedaling even in the face of adversity.
Don’t Do Too Much
Our third tip to keep your e-bike exercise in motion is to set a reasonable goal. It is not reasonable to set a goal of biking 2 hours every day when you don’t bike very much at all, to begin with. Rather, keep your goals bite-size at first to ensure you will have the time and energy to achieve them. Once you get up to speed on your e-bike goals, you can begin to increase the duration or length of your rides.
For example, instead of saying you will ride a lot every day, aim to ride your bike around the block just once. If you feel like doing another lap, go for it! The important thing is that you set a goal that is meaningful but achievable. It helps to make your goal specific as well. Use easy and simple markers to signify progress. The more complicated your goal, the less likely you will achieve it
As another example, instead of saying you want to lose 100 pounds by summer through riding your e-bike every day, simply aim to lose 5 pounds by the end of the month. If you lose those 5 pounds, set another goal to lose another 5. Bite-sized goals are the key to success if you are looking to lose weight. Don’t take on too much, too fast.
Make Your Goal Social
Our final recommendation for sticking to your exercise goal is to make it social! Inviting a friend or family member or joining an e-bike community or club will increase the chances of your successfully reaching your goal. Not only does exercise with a friend go by quicker, but social interaction also increases endorphins and dopamine, which are happiness chemicals, and will thereby increase the odds of you doing it again.
Remembering an event as pleasurable is one way to prompt you to want to continue it again in the future. If none of your friends own an e-bike, you could also ride your e-bike to their house or apartment for lunch or coffee. A short visit with a friend in the middle of a ride will give you a break, add some fun to the exercise, and might even convince your friend to get an e-bike of their own!
No matter if your goal is related to health or not, Himiway E-bikes offer a wide range of options to begin enjoying your life more on your terms. E-bikes are a fun, sustainable, and versatile way to get outside and see the world. So, remember, schedule time for your rides, be compassionate with yourself during moments of setback, set small and reasonable goals at first, and try to add an element of social interaction to your exercise.
With these e-bike exercise tips in mind, you’re sure to kick off the New Year right!
