Most of us know that exercise is good for us, but MAKING THE TIME is often a challenge with busy schedules. Often we put it off due to “no time.”  I struggled too for the longest time with finding the right exercise for me.  It was not until I came across something that enjoyed and had fun doing, was making time for it easy!

Many people see exercise as a chore. Sometimes it’s about time, convenience and/or simply finding something they enjoy. There’s a difference between asking yourself “CAN I fit it in?” vs. “WHERE can I fit it in?” YOU ARE WORTH IT right?

If you hesitated and are saying no in your head, please watch this video, then come back to this. =)

If you SAY YES TO YOU, you can fit 20 minutes in your day for YOU! Think about how you feel after you’ve been sitting around for hours, versus how you feel when you’re up moving around. You feel better when you’re active, right? 

I can understand the frustration you may have about getting into a fitness routine.  I’ve felt many times, the intention of working out in the morning, only to get distracted and before I knew it, I didn’t have time for it anymore.  That is why I’ve put together the following set of strategies to help you overcome your fitness roadblocks.

6 STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME FITNESS ROADBLOCKS

STRATEGY #1 - REFER BACK TO YOUR WHY

Refer back to your WHY.  What is the ultimate outcome you want for the year? At the end of the year, 10, 20, 30 years from now? Take a look at the big picture, if you were to exercise 3x/week, at the end of the year, you would have accomplished 156 workouts! Wow! Do you think you would look and feel any differently at that point?  Of course!

STRATEGY #2 - MAKE IT A PRIORITY

If you struggle with finding the time for exercise, you may be surprised at the simple ways to fit exercise into your day. Having an active lifestyle means making choices to move more.

  • Set aside one block of time each day to be active.
  • Decide on the best time to reserve 20 to 30 minutes to do an activity you enjoy. If one block of time won’t work, think about trying smaller blocks of time, for example, 10 minute 3x/day or 15 minutes 2x/day.
  • Here’s a worksheet to help you WEEKLY EXERCISE PLAN.

STRATEGY #3 - START WITH SOMETHING ENJOYABLE & SIMPLE

If you’ve taken a break from exercise, start with something simple like a 20-minute walk.  Look at ways you can add more activity into your day – a short walk during your lunch break, another walk after work perhaps.  If finding 20-30 minutes at a time is challenging, see how you can break it up into smaller chunks of time.  10 minutes, here and 10 minutes there – it adds up!

The big thing for now is to not over analyze things and just get moving doing something.

  • Just start with walking for now. After 3 or 4 weeks, you can add some strength training, interval training, yoga or other form of exercise.  For most people, walking is the easiest to start with.

STRATEGY #4 - REPLACE LESS ACTIVE BLOCKS OF TIME WITH ACTIVE ONES

  • Walk for half an hour instead of watching an extra half hour of TV, surfing the net or hanging out on social media.  
  • Instead of sitting down to read a book, read while on an exercise bike or treadmill.
  • Stand more while you’re at work.  If you have the option to get a standing desk to work at, they are an awesome way to eliminate the usual long hours in a chair. Many of us sit for more than 10 hours each day, which is bad for our posture and activity level.   
  • Use a Swiss Ball (Yoga ball) as a chair at your desk. This forces you to engage your core throughout the day and challenges your balance.

STRATEGY #5 - WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE

  • Use an activity tracker like a Fitbit, Vivofit or pedometer is a great way to see how active you are.  Activity trackers can give you an idea of how many calories you burn during the day, and it can be motivating to see your progress.
  • You can also use an app like RunMeter or WalkMeter to track your walking pace and distance.
  • Set a goal of amount of steps per day and see how close you get to that each day. Remember to start small and be realistic!  I first started off with 3000 steps and then worked my way up to an average of 10,000 steps/day.

STRATEGY #6 - FIND A WORKOUT BUDDY

Studies show that when there is a support system in place, people do much better sticking to their goals.

  • Find a friend or coworker that has similar goals and figure out something you can do together to help keep each other accountable. For many people, this can be a huge help and a great motivator

Do you have an activity you enjoy…or at least something you don’t dread?

FIND WHAT MOVES YOU!

RESOURCES

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