In my fitness consulting business, I get the opportunity to talk
with people from all walks of life about their health, fitness,
and weight loss goals. Whether their goal is to lose weight,
gain muscle, stick to a diet plan or program, improve their
cardiovascular health, or simply to maintain their current
fitness level they all have one common enemy---TIME.
For most of us, the #1 challenge in the quest to stay in shape
and/or lose weight is not exercising itself but being able to
actually fit an exercise program into our busy schedules.
So how do you do it? How do you balance the demands of family,
career, important errands, relationships, organizational
responsibilities, and working out? I have found that there are
five keys that will help you to be able to fit a consistent
workout plan into your already hectic life.
1. Commit to a specific schedule
When you fail to plan you plan to fail. Don't try to haphazardly
fit your workouts into your schedule without any rhyme or
reason. Don't think you're guilty? If you've ever told yourself
"I'll workout as soon as I get some time", you were in direct
violation of this key principle.
In order to set yourself up for success, you will need to take
the time to literally write your workouts into your weekly
schedule. In order to be effective, you will want to be
following your exercise program at least 3 days per week.
Anything less would be kidding yourself.
Therefore, right in the midst of all of your appointments,
"to-do" lists, etc., should be a
written plan for your
weekly workout routine, so that you will never be in the dark as
to when you committed to yourself to go.
2. Utilize the weekend
Take advantage of the fact that it only takes 3-5 days per week
to put together an effective, results-producing workout. One
trick to help you pull it all off is to workout on the weekends.
One of the benefits to this course of action is that your
schedule is more flexible and under your control during this
time.
What is also means is that when the hectic weekdays roll back
around, you will only be responsible for working out 1-3 days
during the work week.
3. Keep your workouts as a high priority
One of the biggest mistakes that even many people who have
scheduled a workout program into their schedule make is allowing
it to be bumped off of their schedule to easily.
Although things will occassionally come up that will cause you
to have to reschedule the workout you had planned, you must be
vigilant in making sure that only the most important emergencies
are allowed to temporarily take you off of your plan.
In the event that one of those important emergencies does happen
and you can't make it to your workout, reschedule with yourself
to make it up on the next possible day that you are available to
do so. If your own health, fitness, and efforts to lose weight
are not a priority to you, they certainly won't be so to anyone
else.
4. Enroll others in your goals
Don't go at this alone. Let the important people in your life
know what you are up to. Your spouse or love interest, parents,
children, co-workers, and close friends will often pitch in and
help you to meet your fitness or weight loss commitment to
yourself if you make them aware and ask for their support.
Leverage these relationships to delegate some of your normal
responsibilities or even allow you to shift appointments that
you have with them as you restructure your schedule for your
workout. If any of them are into exercise or trying to lose
weight themselves, don't hesitate to form a buddy system with
them as you move forward with your program.
5. Don't beat yourself up
No matter who you are, there will be times in your workout
program that you just aren't able to keep it up as you would
like due to outside demands. Don't be too tough on yourself when
that happens.
Remember that it is what you do
consistently over a long
period of time, not what you do in spurts, that truly counts.
Just make sure that you get back on the horse full force as soon
as you can and continue to press forward, doing your best to
avoid slacking off again.
No matter what goals you have for health, fitness, or weight
loss, you CAN fit an effective exercise program into that hectic
schedule of yours and be amazingly successful at getting the
exact results that you want!
To Your Best Body,
Lawrence Cole
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
YourbestbodyNOW.com
About the author:
Lawrence Cole is a Lifestyle and Fitness Consultant based out of
Los Angeles, CA. He has over 10 years of health and fitness
experience and designing simple, effective nutritional
strategies to help individuals achieve their personal best
internal health and physical conditioning.
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