How to Stay Consistent With Fitness: Think About Tomorrow You

I’ve always cringed a little bit at the term self-love.

Maybe it’s because social media has made it sound like self-love means looking in the mirror and telling

yourself how amazing you are, having a bubble bath or buying yourself flowers cause #selflove

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things.

But it’s taken me a while to realise that self-love can mean something completely different.

And strangely, I think understanding that has also changed the way I think about how to stay consistent with fitness.

Sometimes, self-love is simply doing something today that makes life better for a future version of you.

And when I started looking at it that way, it made a lot more sense to me.

Think About Tomorrow You

Imagine you’re driving home from work and notice you’re nearly out of fuel.

You’re tired. You’re hungry. You cannot be arsed stopping at the petrol station.

Technically, you’ve got enough to get home, so you think, I’ll just do it tomorrow.

But tomorrow morning, you’re already running late.

Now you have to stop for fuel, you’re rushing, you’re stressed and you wish you'd just done it the night before.

Or...

You spend five minutes filling the car on your way home.

Tomorrow morning, you get in your car and drive straight to work.

A tiny part of you thinks:

Thank fuck I did that yesterday.

That, to me, is a form of self-love.

Yesterday-you made a slightly inconvenient decision because she cared about tomorrow-you.

Fitness Works in Exactly the Same Way

The problem with looking after your health is that the version of you who receives the biggest reward often isn't the version doing the work.

You train today.

You probably won't look dramatically different tomorrow.

You eat well today.

You won't suddenly wake up with better health markers.

You go for a walk when you'd rather sit on the sofa. You get enough sleep. You build muscle. You improve your

cardiovascular fitness. You learn how to eat in a way that supports your body.

Most of the time, there's no immediate reward.

Which is exactly why consistency can be difficult.

We're very good at prioritising what feels good right now.

But your future self is quietly relying on the decisions you're making today.

Stop Exercising Just to Look Better

Wanting to look good is a perfectly valid reason to train.

I literally coach people to improve their physiques.

But your body is going to be with you for a lot longer than your next holiday, photoshoot or fat-loss phase.

Imagine yourself at 70.

Hopefully you've got places you want to go, people you want to see and things you still want to do.

Maybe you've got grandchildren.

I want 70-year-old me to be able to get down on the floor with them — and get herself back up again.

I want her to carry her own shopping.

I want her to travel.

I want her to have independence.

I want her body to allow her to continue living her life rather than becoming the reason she can't.

Obviously, none of us can guarantee what our health will look like decades from now.

But we can give ourselves the best possible chance.

Suddenly, training isn't just about whether you can see your abs.

Building muscle is an investment.

Looking after your cardiovascular fitness is an investment.

Eating a nutritious diet is an investment.

Taking recovery seriously is an investment.

You're putting something away for a version of yourself that you haven't met yet.

Self-Love Doesn't Always Feel Like Self-Love

This is probably the part I misunderstood for the longest time.

We associate loving ourselves with making ourselves feel good.

But sometimes looking after yourself means doing something you really can't be arsed doing.

Going to bed because you know you need the sleep instead of watching another episode.

Doing your food shop so tomorrow-you has something decent to eat.

Going to the gym when staying at home would be easier.

Taking a rest day when your ego wants you to train.

Doing your rehab exercises.

Going for the walk.

Preparing your lunch.

Putting money into your savings.

Booking the appointment you've been putting off.

Sometimes the decision that feels nicest right now isn't actually the kindest decision you can make for yourself.

And this doesn't mean you need to become some productivity robot who never rests, never eats for enjoyment and optimises every second of her life.

Sometimes future-you will be grateful that you took the day off too.

It's simply about asking:

What choice would make life a little better for me later?

You Don't Need to Feel Motivated to Care About Yourself

We talk about motivation constantly in fitness.

How do I get motivated to train?

How do I motivate myself to eat better?

How do I stay motivated long enough to reach my goal?

But maybe motivation isn't always what you need.

You don't fill your car up because you're passionate about petrol.

You do it because you know you're going to need the car tomorrow.

Your health can be treated in the same way.

You won't always be excited to train.

You won't always want to cook.

You won't always feel motivated to go for the walk.

That's okay.

You're doing something that another version of you gets to benefit from.

Tomorrow-you.

Next-year-you.

40-year-old you.

70-year-old you.

Do Something Your Future Self Will Thank You For

A lot of the things that change our lives aren't huge decisions.

They're boring little choices repeated over and over again.

One workout doesn't make you strong.

One nutritious meal doesn't make you healthy.

One early night doesn't fix your sleep.

But enough of those decisions, made consistently over years, can create a completely different future.

That's what self-love has started to mean to me.

Not thinking I'm amazing every second of every day.

Not always choosing whatever makes me happiest in the moment.

But caring enough about the person I'm becoming to occasionally make life easier for her.

And hopefully, one day, 70-year-old me gets to look back at the younger version of herself and think:

“I love that girl. She looked after me.”