i have had the SAME problem except i never thought of it as A, B, C etc…

last year, i started going to the gym more often precisely because i gave myself permission to be on the machines even for only 10 minutes… meaning, as soon as the inner child in me started to want to whine, i asked myself, hey, you wanna stop? you can stop! no problemo…

after some time of that, i progressed to 20 minutes… and then 30 and more… and not only 30 and more, but it went to 4 to 5 times a week from zero to one time a week.

but then… i started to EXPECT it from myself… which was fine as long as getting to the gym was easy… but then,,, getting to the gym became hard (due to change in work commute) and that mixed with the whammy of high expectations made me ever so resistant to going to the gym, even when it was patently Convenient to go!

now i’m back at square zero.