Forget Willpower: How to Use Systems to Become a Self-Motivated Exerciser for Life!

Starting a new diet or workout plan is easy. The novelty of doing something new is usually enough to motivate you – for the first few days or weeks, at least. However, once that novelty wears off, you’ll have to start relying more on your willpower to keep hitting the gym or following your eating plan.

And that’s where the trouble starts…  

As a 30-year veteran personal trainer and lifelong exerciser, I know that willpower is a limited commodity, and the more you use it, the faster it runs out.

Related: What Happened When I Walked Every Day for a Year

Relying on willpower, you’ll probably manage to drag yourself to the gym when you don’t want to go or force yourself to eat a salad when what you really want is pizza.

But, eventually, your willpower will dry up, and you’ll quit.

Giving up means you’ll never reach your health and fitness goals. Worse still, you’ll never exercise or eat healthily for long enough for it to become a habit. Experts suggest that it takes at least six weeks for a new activity to become habitual (1).

That’s why gyms are full of new members every January but far less crowded just a few weeks later.

The good news is that there is an alternative to willpower – systems. I’ve been using systems for more than three decades to maintain my diet and exercise habits. I also use systems with my personal training clients to help them become self-motivated, lifelong exercisers and healthy eaters.

In this article, I reveal how you can use systems to become much less reliant on willpower and make your next diet or exercise program easier to stick to.

What are Systems, Anyway?

A system is a series of events that lead toward an end goal, e.g., turning food into energy (the digestive system), or gasoline into mechanical power (a car engine). Once a system is activated, the end result is all but automatic, and stopping it often takes a lot of effort.  

In contrast, willpower is like trying to push a boulder up a steep hill. It requires a lot of effort to maintain, and, in all probability, you’ll soon get fed up with having to work so hard.  

Replacing willpower with systems means you won’t have to try as hard to reach your health and fitness goals. Systems remove many of the barriers that make you have to use your willpower in the first place.

Continuing the boulder analogy, systems put the rock at the top of the hill so that a gentle push is all you need to get it rolling.

Being less reliant on willpower means you should find it easier to maintain your diet or workout plan. Fewer (or even no) breaks mean you’ll create habits that can last a lifetime.

People often ask me what the secret is to staying fit, strong, and lean. Invariably, my answer is, “Keep turning up!”

While this response is not what they want to hear – they were probably hoping that I’d reveal some secret diet or special exercise plan – consistency is the one true key to health and fitness success. Building sustainable habits with systems is hands down the best way I know to achieve any health or fitness goal.

No more Willpower: Real-Life Systems for Diet and Fitness Success

While I’d LOVE to provide you with a system for every willpower-sapping barrier you face on your health and fitness journey, that simply isn’t practical. After all, what constitutes a barrier for one person is a non-issue for someone else.

Instead, I will provide you with some real-world examples of common exercise and diet obstacles and show you how to use systems to overcome them.

Scenario One – Early Morning Workouts

The Problem

Early morning workouts offer numerous advantages over exercising later in the day. For starters, some evidence suggests that hitting the gym before breakfast, i.e., in a fasted state, is better for fat loss and blood glucose management (2).

From a personal perspective, I find that early morning workouts leave me feeling energized, and much better equipped to face the challenges of the day. After all, compared to squats, deadlifts, and burpees, everything else is easy, right?!

I’ve also found that there are less distractions early in the morning – fewer unwanted phone calls, emails, etc. In short, early morning workouts allow you to prioritize your fitness.

Unfortunately, there are lots of barriers that can derail your early morning exercise intentions, including the allure of your bed, the rush to get ready, and simply “not being a morning person.”

The good news is that you can use systems to overcome all these issues and make early morning training much easier.

System-Based Solution

Follow these steps to make early morning workouts part of your daily routine!

Step 1: Pack your gym bag the night before and put it by the front door. Make sure you include your toiletries, work clothes, and anything else you need for the following day.

Step 2: Make your breakfast (e.g., overnight oats) and program your coffee machine so you wake up to a freshly brewed cup o’ joe.

Step 3: Put your alarm clock well out of reach so you cannot hit the snooze button. That way, you’ll have to get out of bed to turn it off.

Step 4: Lay out your workout clothes and sneakers so you don’t have to search for them in the morning.

Step 5: Go to bed early to ensure you’ll be well-rested for your workout.

Step 6: Sleep!

Step 7: Get up when your alarm sounds, pull on your workout clothes, pour your coffee into a travel cup, grab your breakfast, pick up your pre-packed gym bag, and head to the gym for your workout.

Scenario Two – Hitting the Gym After Work

The Problem 

Not a morning person? That’s okay – not everyone is. That’s why gyms tend to be busiest later on, as many people prefer to work out at the end of the working day.

However, this is not always easy, and there are numerous barriers that can stop you from getting your post-work workout. For example, you may feel too tired to train, or you may have to travel a long way to your gym. You might just not be in the mood.

All these barriers crumble to dust when you use systems in place of willpower.

System-Based Solution

Follow these steps to make missed evening workouts a thing of the past.

Step 1: Join a gym that’s somewhere on or very near the route you take to and from work. The easier it is to get to the gym, the less likely you are to find excuses not to go.

Step 2: Pack your gym bag the night before and put it in your car or by the door. That way, you won’t forget to take it with you when you leave in the morning. That nixes another common excuse for skipping the gym on the way home.

Step 3: Drink a coffee, energy drink, or pre-workout supplement 60-90 minutes before you plan on hitting the gym (i.e., late afternoon) so you are pumped up and ready to train when you arrive.

Step 4: Leave work while listening to your favorite workout playlist. Start visualizing what you are going to do when you get to the gym.

Step 5: Go straight to the gym. Avoid doing errands or taking unnecessary diversions. Do not let anything get in the way of your workout.

Step 6: Have a great workout and then head home for a well-deserved post-training meal!

Scenario Three – Sticking to a Healthy Eating Plan  

The Problem

Even if you work out consistently, your results will be suboptimal if your diet isn’t up to scratch. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to follow a specific dietary approach, e.g., keto, the zone, paleo, etc. Rather, it entails eating healthily the majority of the time.

Needless to say, this is often easier said than done.

For example, you get home from work planning to eat grilled chicken, vegetables, and brown rice. However, you’re tired and hungry from the gym, so you grab some junk food instead. Uh oh!

The secret to consistent healthy eating is making it easy. Thankfully, you can use systems to remove many of the obstacles that can derail your diet.

System-Based Solution

Follow these steps to eliminate the temptation to eat unhealthily and make sticking to your diet much easier.

Step 1: Choose a sensible eating plan that you can follow for the foreseeable future or create your own.

Step 2: Produce a menu for the coming week. Include breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks as appropriate.

Step 3: Write a grocery list of all the ingredients you need to make your meals.

Step 4: Go to the store and buy only what is on your list. Do not add treats or foods that could otherwise derail your diet.

Step 5: Prepare as many meals in advance as you can. Portion them out and store the meals in separate containers. Freeze as necessary.

Step 6: Every night, get all of your food for the following day ready, i.e., put your frozen dinner in the fridge to thaw, make your lunchtime salad, and portion out your snacks.

Step 7: Only eat the food you have prepared – no cheating!

Step 8: If your diet includes planned cheat meals, buy the ingredients on the day you are going to eat them. Only buy enough for a single serving to avoid eating too much. E.g., don’t buy four candy bars when you are only meant to eat one.

Scenario Four – Drinking Enough Water

The Problem 

Proper hydration is critical for your health, appearance, and exercise performance. And yet, despite this, a lot of people are chronically dehydrated. Many simply forget to drink during the day or are not in the habit of consuming enough hydrating fluids.

Related: 7 Ways to Tell If You’re Hydrated Enough or at Risk of Dehydration

Here is a simple system to ensure that you drink enough water each and every day.

System-Based Solution

Follow these steps to make drinking enough water and staying hydrated as easy as can be!

Step 1: Determine your water requirements with this calculator.

Step 2: Buy a reusable water bottle with a capacity between 25-50% of your daily hydration goal. For example, if you need to drink 140 ounces of water a day, you need a 35 to 70-ounce capacity bottle.

Step 3: First thing in the morning, fill your bottle with water and start sipping. Carry it with you to remind you to drink little and often.

Step 4: Refill your bottle as often as necessary to reach your water intake goal.  

Step 5: Aim to drink all your water by 7-8 pm to avoid too many nighttime bathroom trips.

Closing Thoughts

A lot of people are searching for the perfect diet or exercise program. However, the truth is that almost every workout and dietary approach works if you do it consistently. Sure, some programs and plans are better than others, but for any of them to be effective, you must keep “punching the clock” and doing the work.

Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done, as life has a way of throwing up barriers to consistent healthy eating and exercise.

While you may be able to overcome these obstacles with sheer willpower, you’ll probably find that your willpower eventually runs out. When that happens, you are only a few missed workouts or unplanned cheat meals away from becoming another diet or exercise drop-out.

Creating and using systems is the best way to become less reliant on willpower. You’ll still need to use it from time to time, but systems mean you’ll always have some willpower in reserve as you won’t have squandered it before you really need it.

Try creating some systems to overcome your own workout obstacles and feel free to drop me a line below if you need more information or guidance.

References:

1. Kaushal N, Rhodes RE. Exercise habit formation in new gym members: a longitudinal study. J Behav Med. 2015 Aug;38(4):652-63. doi: 10.1007/s10865-015-9640-7. Epub 2015 Apr 8. PMID: 25851609.
2. Wallis GA, Gonzalez JT. Is exercise best served on an empty stomach? Proc Nutr Soc. 2019 Feb;78(1):110-117. doi: 10.1017/S0029665118002574. Epub 2018 Oct 18. PMID: 30334499.

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