Oh, how I wanted to use some fun exhortation like “Get in the Groove!” as the title here, but I resisted. Not only did I not really want to bring to mind a certain popular series of insurance commercials (though should you need some tunes to get your groove on, I highly recommend Already Pretty’s weekly song suggestions), but I wanted to refer to a different groove. That is, the indent, the path that forms ever so slowly when one action is repeated over and over and over—setting a habit.

With fitness or finding ways to incorporate wellness into your every day life, setting a habit sounds awfully Zen… and awfully intimidating. We’re used to New Year’s resolutions that have been forgotten by Valentine’s Day, but bring a pang of self-recrimination about tax time. We come to associate guilt and failure with things that were once shiny new hopeful routines—how out of whack is that?

So, here you go. Three tiny, tiny steps toward making fitness a habit. Scientists may quibble about a lot, but they often say it takes about three weeks—21 repetitions—for a new behavior to become a habit. See if these ideas can’t help.

1) Make some X’s. The tiniest, but my own first step, this is nothing more than putting an X on the calendar on the days when you do something “extra” that might be considered working out. I’ve since seen this referred to as the “Don’t Break the Chain” method and credited to Jerry Seinfeld (??), but I just did this because I like to start what I finish. When you go ice skating after work, you put a big X on the calendar. When you take the stairs instead of the elevator, you get an X. When you hand-scrub the floor or take an after-dinner walk around the block, you get an X. Pretty soon, you frown at the boxes without X’s. You go out of your way to get an X. Pretty soon, you have a month’s worth of X’s, and now you have a habit. It’s up to you, by the way, to decide when your little steps have become habit and it’s time to up the ante for earning your X! Maybe now you have to go to Pilates or run a mile…

2) Get a pedometer. Whether it’s a $5 version or the latest FitBit, a pedometer gives you one dimension of your daily movement. For the first week, do nothing but write down how many steps you get each day. This isn’t about judgment, it’s about getting a baseline. In the second week, challenge yourself with a reasonable goal. If you’ve normally been getting 2,000 steps in a day, try for 2,500. If you’re at 5,000, try for 7,500. You want it to be a stretch without setting yourself up for failure. Soon, you’ll be making small decisions—like parking at the far end of the lot—without thinking twice.

3) Set your intention. For me, this means signing up for a class, setting out my workout clothes (better yet, putting them on), and even thinking about what I’ll have to eat before or after my workout. Once I’ve done all of that thinking (and committed to being in a class!), I’m on autopilot. Other ways to set your intention include:

• Announce your workout plan. Use social media or text messages to keep you accountable—Tweet “I’m off to barre class!” and you’re a lot less likely to just hang out at the coffee shop instead.
• Make a weekly “moving date” with a friend. You’ll get together, say, every Thursday, and whatever you do, it’ll involve some kind of moving. You’ll walk around a lake or a mall, you’ll go for a bike ride, you’ll go to the park with your kids. Walking to Lucia’s for a glass of wine totally counts.
• Splurge on that pricey set of workout clothes—you can’t let them languish in the closet, now can you? Alternately, you can go the reward direction, working out in your plain old sweats until you’ve gone to 10 classes, then it’s time for an upgrade.

However you do it, start moving more. Because as tough as it can be to get a habit started, cigarette smokers can attest: it’s even harder to break one. Just make your habits healthy.