We all want to become a fitter version of ourselves. Who wouldn’t want to lose a few pounds, gain some lean muscle, recover from an injury and reap the benefits of becoming a more healthful version of ourselves to live a longer, happier life? The answer is should be obvious. There’s one problem here, we must allocate fitness somewhere into our busy day full of tasks devoted to our professions and family. Additionally, that time sitting on the sofa watching some Netflix after a 10-hour workday sounds nice too.
The act of exercising is physically and mentally challenging, making it very easy to procrastinate and put other tasks before getting some physical activity. In addition, finding a time of day to fit an exercise routine is no easy task either. Especially for individuals who have families and work lives. We run into this issue all the time when coaching our personal training clients in Napa on how to efficiently fit exercise into their schedule. A very common issue is that there is simply not enough time. This “not enough time” reason translates to procrastination.
We all have 24 hours in our day. It just matters where we allocate our efforts throughout the day. A coaching tactic to support our clients achieve adequate exercise throughout the week is discussing their weekly schedule. First, we look at weekly tasks that require the most amount of attention and energy. Going to work, tending to family, and relationships usually take up most of the day from the morning until the late hours of the night. While these are all components of our life that create a fulfilling and exuberant experience in our life, fitness gets put on delay. The dedication to these important factors in our lives can leave us losing track of our schedule throughout the day. An underutilized remedy to losing track of your schedule is to write down when you will be doing these tasks. Once the truth of your thoughts have been transcribed onto a tracking device, such as calendar, the chance of openings to fit in blocks of time for fitness usually open up.
A time of day that we see has openings in schedules that clients agree is available is in the morning. This could be time before you hop in the shower for work, the hours before the kids wake up for school or before running morning errands. By devoting time to exercise first thing in the morning, you haven’t given any of the other tasks you have to devote your time and energy to a chance to consume your mental capacity. This is a time that you can put the phone away and turn the computer devices off. CNN and ABC news aren’t going anywhere. Your email will still be waiting for you. You will also be happy to know that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram won’t shut down operations either. By dedicating this time to yourself before the stimuli of the world has a chance to distract you and lead you to procrastinate from exercise, you can devote some valuable minutes to your fitness.
Of course, it might be challenging to roll yourself out of your warm, cozy bed. However, by devoting at least 15 minutes of exercise to your morning will improve the productivity you give to your top priorities through out the day. You will be able to concentrate on a more fine-tuned level because of the efforts you are putting into your body via exercise to make you an elite performing human. You will feel more confident because of the positive reinforcement efforts toward improving the body make a person feel better about themselves. With all of these positive results received from fitness, it seems like waking up first thing in the morning and fitting exercise into your busy schedule now seems more like a gift not only to yourself, but also to you job, families and loved ones.
Give yourself the permission to exercise so you can improve your life and the lives of the people around you. Your job, the news and your phone will always be there. However, the quality of our life time fitness can be stowed away fast by procrastinating from exercise adherence. Give yourself, your job and the people you love the gift of a healthier version of you by developing a schedule and devoting some time to exercise throughout the week.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
