Fitness Friday

Each Friday, we send out “Fitness Friday” tips for fitness and nutrition in the weekly digest email that goes out to the membership. If you have any Fitness thoughts or suggestions for the Club, please email your input to: fitness@irvingtonclub.com. Let’s get fit!

FITNESS FRIDAY - January 9th, 2026

Habits, A Broader Perspective 

For the next several articles, we will be focusing on habits. This article is a wide-ranging view on habits.  The last article highlighted where to start with habits - either trying to break them or create them. The key tips were: 

  • use specific language when figuring out what to focus on 

  • monitor your actions  

  • focus on a habit or two that gives you energy  

  • understand how your preferences can affect your ability to make or break habits  

These articles are based on writings by Gretchen Rubin, an award-winning writer and podcaster who specializes in happiness, habits, and human nature. She writes: 

 “ Habits are the invisible architecture of daily life. About forty percent of daily life is shaped by habit, so if we follow habits that work for us, we’re much more likely to achieve our aims and build a happier life.”   

Gretchen Rubin’s Habits Manifesto 

  • What we do every day matters more than what we do once in a while. 

  • Make it easy to do right and hard to go wrong. 

  • Focus on actions, not outcomes. 

  • By giving something up, we may gain. 

  • Things often get harder before they get easier. 

  • When we give more to ourselves, we can ask more from ourselves. 

  • We’re not very different from other people, but those differences are very important. 

  • It’s easier to change our surroundings than ourselves. 

  • We can’t make people change, but when we change, others may change. 

  • We should make sure the things we do to feel better don’t make us feel worse. 

  • We manage what we monitor. 

  • Once we’re ready to begin, begin now.

Please let us know if you have comments, questions, or ideas for future articles. Contact Becky at bchasse@irvingtonclub.com or The Fitness Committee at fitness@irvingtonclub.com   

Gretchen Rubin Resources 

The website link:  Getting Started: Habits | Gretchen Rubin 

Podcast:  Happier with Grethen Rubin 

Book about Changing Habits: Better Than Before:  Mastering the Habits of Our Everday Lives