You’ve been going to the gym for a couple of days, and you feel great. It’s awesome. You’re on a high of sorts, and you feel like you could bench-press mountains. As any of us who have worked to get in shape and then fallen off the wagon can tell you, this doesn’t always last.

The trick is going to be to keep grinding even when that awesome feeling fades, when you’re no longer seeing Amazing Results, and when having a lot of stuff to do makes it super easy to say “no” to going to the gym.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to overcome that for the most part since I joined a gym again. Even if it’s only a little bit, still do it when you don’t feel like it or could easily justify staying home or doing something else. That 20 minutes I spent on the elliptical at the gym one day wasn’t the hour I had planned on earlier that week, but it was still a win over the monkeys on my back screaming about how I have So Much To Do and Don’t Have Time To Go to the Gym.

Resist the voices, and those monkeys will periodically be silenced by a sort-of-unexpected pleasant surprise: exercise is now such a regular part of my routine that I feel strange if I don’t do it for a couple of days.