Now that we’re a few weeks into the New Year, and those that started NY resolutions for health and fitness, I wonder, are your goals gone?
Are we already telling ourselves that we don’t have the time to get to the gym or, I’ve fallen so far off the wagon that I’ll wait until next month and start fresh, again…
I’m here to call it out… Bullshit
Not the goal setting, but the ‘waiting until tomorrow’ mentality.
We shouldn’t put things off tomorrow when we had the intention of completing them today. There’s something about holding ourselves accountability in our followthrough on our goals.
I’m writing this because of a few reasons.
1- I understand being busy and life ‘getting in the way’ of a regular gym routine.
2 – I’m tired of it being used as the scapegoat.
TRUST me. I totally understand how time can slip away from us and leave us exhausted at the end of the day, feeling bad because we skipped our workout because there just ‘wasn’t enough time in the day.’
TRUST ME. I know what it is like to feel ZERO motivation to workout. I also know what it feels like when an illness or work schedule throws a kink in the wheels of momentum.
This use to happen to me, too. Before I instilled the habit of routine movement, I was constantly starting and stopping my workouts when outside influences interfered with my gym time. .
I thought I had movement engrained in me.. that is, until I started my business. I was shocked when it happened during the launch of my fitness business.
Let me explain. When I first started private training, I was busting my ass in the gym every day with clients from 6am-6pm then coming home and writing programs, meal plans, and content for my blog.
There was ZERO motivation to spend ANY additional time working out at the gym I’d just spent 12 hours in OR even moving weights around at home.
This is what I had feared in starting my own business: my passion of fitness took a back seat once I made it my career. This is why I’d told myself for years DON’T DO THIS AS A BUSINESS, Sara.
//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js
I felt like such a hypocrite. Here I am, coaching clients to prioritize their workouts when I’m not even doing mine.
So I took it easy on myself. I was getting PLENTY of activity and movement, and from an outsiders perspective, I was still working out as a by-product of training, moving, and demonstrating exercises to clients all day. But in the back of my mind I KNEW no one was going to make me work out. No one. It was, and always has been up to me to get moving…
Fast forward to today… I’ve adopted an active lifestyle that fits and works for me. Currently, I’ve got 3-4, 20-35 minute workouts at the gym a week.
That was one thing I neglected – I wasn’t PRIORITIZING my own workouts. The SWITCH occurred when I started scheduling (yes, literally scheduling in the calendar on my phone) my workouts. I also started looking to other fitness gurus and coaches to coach me and joined a gym that provided new physical outlets, like rock climbing.
The time became NON NEGOTIABLE. It was my time. For me to move and connect with my body.
As soon as I started scheduling my workouts like any other client session or meeting, the routine came back into my life. On top of that, I ALWAYS have a back up plan in case something comes up and I can’t get to the gym. The back up plans are a handful of go-to at home body weight (or minimal equipment) workouts that can be done in under 20 minutes. I’ve said it before, but investing in a light, medium and heavy kettle bell for your home gym is easy, affordable, and effective. I have some of the workouts on YouTube here and here.
There’s more to this blog than my story; it’s an outline on establishing goals and how to achieve them.
When exercise slipped from my days, I asked myself, what do you ultimately want, Sara? What does it look like and how does it feel?
What are you willing to do to feel the way you want to feel.
I WANT TO WORKOUT, MOVE WELL, FEEL AND LOOK HEALTHY, STRONG & SEXY.
Then, I eliminated obstacles. By scheduling my workouts and approaching them as a meeting with myself, I eliminated the obstacle of not having the time to workout. It’s scheduled. No excuses.
More importantly, I’ve adjusted my goals to reflect my new norm – realistically speaking. It’s obtainable. sustainable. I switched up my workouts to be more effective and require less time at the gym. Work smarter, not harder, they say.
