You might be reading this begrudgingly thinking to yourself – there’s no way this will help me find time in my schedule to workout because I am just too busy! Life is overwhelming and time seems to pass by faster and faster each day. You might be a busy mom who can’t find time to even do their hair everyday. You might work 60 hours a week for a business. You might have to take care of your parents or other people everyday. Everybody has something in their life to fill up their schedule or cause life to be chaotic. This doesn’t mean you can’t create a workout routine within your busy schedule. I want to help you build up the healthy habit of working out to enhance your mind, body, and life!
Create Fitness Goals
Before you jump right into working out, sit down and grab a piece of paper. Write down your short term and long term goals of working out. For example, my short term goal right now is to go to the gym 3 times a week. My long term goal right now is to eat healthy 80% of the time. These are just one short and long term goal of mine right now, but yours can be anything. Maybe you haven’t gone to the gym in years and you want to, but you’re nervous. A short term goal can be just going to the gym. You don’t even have to workout if you don’t want to. Just going into the gym is a huge step in your fitness journey. Whatever you have been aspiring to do, write it down on that piece of paper and keep it on the fridge, your mirror, your desk, or anywhere that you can see it everyday. I always suggest writing your goals down instead of just thinking about them because it’s been shown that you’re 42% more likely to achieve goals or dreams if they are written down. It makes these goals tangible in a way because they are written on a tangible piece of paper that you can hold. It gives you a sense of accountability, especially if you see these goals everyday. Whenever you reach a goal, then create a new one and keep track of all the progress you make along the way!
Trim Down Your Goals
I know what you’re thinking – didn’t you just say to write down my goals that I want to achieve? Well yes, write down your goals, but also be realistic with yourself. When people try to start up a new fitness journey, they usually hit the ground running. This means that people choose challenging workouts which tires them out in the first week. This usually results in burnout where you’re trying to keep up with the same pace you started with but you can’t. It’s easy to keep up that intense pace the first week because it’s new and exciting. You usually have motivation because you’re excited to see how exercising will change your life. The problem occurs when you wake up in a week or two and don’t want to workout because you’re tired or sore. It’s ok to skip days because it’s healthy to give your body a break when it needs it. It isn’t great if skipping one day becomes never working out again because you realize it’s easier. When I say to trim down your goals, I mean to make your short term goals palpable. You can shoot for the stars with your long term goals because you are working slowly towards those. Your short term goals should be on a smaller scale because they should be things that you can do quicker. If you are easing your way back into working out don’t say that you’ll go to the gym 5 times a week. It’s most likely not going to happen if you haven’t worked out on a routine like that. Realize what you can fit into your schedule and set goals around your lifestyle.
Start With Mini Workouts
As I mentioned, many people start out with hour long workouts like influencers are suggesting and end up hating it. This can create a cycle of starting a workout routine, trying a difficult workout, and stopping this routine because it’s just too much on your mind and body. This cycle of starting and stopping can cease if you decide to start out with mini workouts. Mini workouts can be short bursts of exercise that you can do anywhere at any time. Give yourself a goal everyday for a week to do 20 squats and 25 jumping jacks. This is just an example, but if you give yourself small goals everyday it allows your mind and body to get used to this kind of movement. This is a great way to ease into an exercise routine especially if you haven’t exercised in a long while. It’s easy to believe that every workout has to be super sweaty and an hour long for it to count. This is not true because every time you move your body in a positive way it’s a workout. If you only have time to do 10 squats today instead of a longer workout, then that is still movement your body will thank you for. Work up to your big goals slowly by increasing these small goals weekly. Eventually you will have a foolproof workout plan ready every week. If you have an excuse for not doing some type of movement in your day, think about all the times you were scrolling on Facebook or when you were waiting to take the food out of the oven. Use this time to your advantage and get in a few reps of an exercise! You can adapt your workout plan to your own life and make it attainable. Find small ways to bring movement into your day and overtime this adds up! Be proud of any exercise that you do because every step along the way is progress.
Keep Your Promises
The biggest problem I see with people falling out of their workout routine is when they break promises to themselves. You might be thinking – I can’t break a promise to myself, I can only break promises with other people. If you want to achieve a goal, such as forming a workout routine, you must take it seriously. This means that if you tell yourself that you will go on a walk at lunch 3 days a week, you should be going on those walks. Even if you feel super overwhelmed with work or you’re tired, at least give yourself 10 minutes. It doesn’t matter if the walk isn’t as long as usual, what matters is that you didn’t break that promise to yourself. The key to forming a routine is consistency. Your mind can be easily molded to understand a routine, but if you break promises to yourself it allows your mind to understand that it’s ok not to follow this routine. Once your body and mind get used to a regular routine, it’s much easier to add onto it or make it more challenging. For example, you set a goal to do a 30 second plank everyday. If you do this for 1-2 weeks without missing any days, it’s much easier to aim for a 45 sec plank the next week. No matter how small of a promise it feels like, it should be executed. If you’re trying to create a workout routine, you need to keep the promises you make to yourself and take this fitness journey seriously.
Creating a workout routine can feel overwhelming with all the other tasks in your life, but I promise that it’s attainable. Your routine shouldn’t look like anybody else’s because nobody else has your exact life. Nobody else understands you the way that you do. This is an advantage because you can look inward and find goals that fit your own lifestyle. Start small and build upon those goals. Remember to keep the promises you make to yourself. Realize that you are building balance not perfection within your life.
