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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach,
Lawrence Cole
yourbestbodynow.com
Lawrence Cole is a Lifestyle and Fitness Consultant based out of Pasadena, 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.
detailed home cleaning Lake Forest ..Here are seven tips for getting the calories out of... Read More
IntroductionThe history of The Atkins Diet goes back to the... Read More
New Years Resolutions do not work because you are really... Read More
Your Can Turn Fat into Muscle......Fact or Fiction???Completely False!!!!First of... Read More
Let's face when it comes to overweight and obesity there... Read More
Many people want to lose a few of those annoying... Read More
Because the Internet allows so many millions of people to... Read More
A very interesting story was reported recently by WebMD.com. A... Read More
Understanding the theory of adaptation (see previous article, Adaptation I)... Read More
Weight loss programs often have big claims. Understand the "science"... Read More
Any dietary plan on the market has some portion of... Read More
Ever notice how your best friend can lose weight on... Read More
When on a diet, snack attacks can hit hard and... Read More
Every regime has its supply of useless folk lore and... Read More
Your brain has this really interesting system that is kind... Read More
There is no doubt about it; Americans are eating in... Read More
We have all heard of those new diets, Atkins, low... Read More
Atkins diet was unknown 35 years ago. Though it seems... Read More
To achieve your goals you need a diet that takes... Read More
Many gastric bypass patients report melon to be one of... Read More
An eating disorder is a life threatening condition that often... Read More
When it comes to weight loss, most of us would... Read More
Sometimes, just the thought of starting on a diet and... Read More
We have plans for everything these days. That is how... Read More
Have you ever experienced this scenario before?"I have successfully lost... Read More
trusted cleaning company Des Plaines ..How's the practicing going? Are you spending time each day... Read More
Getting enough of the good fats will help you lose... Read More
Twenty years of health club consulting, 50,000 hours of paid... Read More
Whenever I hear someone say they just can't lose weight,... Read More
If winter hibernation tends to pack on the pounds, take... Read More
Sometime, during the phase of rapid weight loss after gastric... Read More
Food intolerance is a pharmacological reaction to the consumption of... Read More
Just because you're working hard, doesn't mean that you're working... Read More
There is never any absolute certainty about what the nutritional... Read More
A 'diet' is always seen as a temporary measure. An... Read More
ObesityToday, 64.5 percent of adult Americans (about 127 million) are... Read More
The pursuit of a healthier me (or you) shouldn't involve... Read More
What's a Low Carb Diet Really Mean?When I hear low... Read More
Is a weight loss workout routine right for you? Answer... Read More
Remember there's more to you than meets the eye. You've... Read More
Diet pills have met with many different fates, and come... Read More
A client wrote, "Help me! I thought I was finally... Read More
Yes, there is more to the Mediterranean than sun, beach... Read More
Just one more day I can do this, I told... Read More
"I tried that diet and lost 8 pounds in the... Read More
Who'd have thought healthy eating could be so controversial? Lunching... Read More
So you're overweight, "fat"--to be honest--and you want to start... Read More
Fat Loss Tip #2) Drink More WaterI know, I know,... Read More
Most people who want to burn off some excess pounds... Read More
Millions of people spend billions of dollars, hoping to achieve... Read More
Weight Loss |