|
Lose Weight:
How to Exercise and Burn Fat on a Busy Schedule
by:
Lawrence Cole
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.
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.
A benefits of this course of action is that your schedule is more
flexible and under your control during this time. It also means
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 occasionally 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. 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 if
you ask for their support. Leverage these relationships to delegate
some of your normal responsibilities and 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 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. You can be amazingly successful at getting
the exact results that you want!
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. View their website
at: http://www.yourbestbodynow.com
|
