Ready to stop procrastinating on your health and fitness? Let’s explore some tools and ideas on how to fit weight loss into your busy lifestyle.
In most cases, it doesn’t take long for most people to give up on their weight loss plan before they ever really get started.
Maybe for a few weeks we make it all about salad, and head out in our best exercise gear to snap selfies on our nightly run.
But then inevitably something comes up, and our exercise routine takes a back seat to other, seemingly more pressing matters.
So how do we find time for health and fitness when our days are already full to brimming?
The simple answer is to stop thinking of fitness as something to “make time for” in the first place.
Instead, reach the point where you’ve incorporated health and fitness into your daily routine, and it’s a non-negotiable part of your day.
This is definitely something of a Jedi mind trick to pull off. But once you make the mental shift, you will no longer need to give yourself that nightly pep talk just to fit exercise into your day tomorrow.
Fitting exercise into your schedule is really about turning a goal into a daily habit. It’s a lot like brushing your teeth. It’s just what you do.
But you didn’t always brush your teeth, right? Your mom or dad showed you how, and then every day they reminded you… and every morning and night you had to remember to brush your teeth.
Then, gradually… you just started brushing your teeth.
This the same approach that you can take when making an effort to fit exercise and healthy practices into your daily life. It’s a slow mental shift. But it will happen if you keep at it.
To make health and fitness a priority, schedule it in.
Once you decide that you’d like to make fitness a part of your daily routine, the next difficult thing is to put it into action. Prioritizing requires that you actually schedule your workout and plan what you eat.
Why schedule in your health and fitness?
If you don’t schedule, you’re likely to procrastinate. Then, exercise keeps getting pushed to the last priority in favor of things like watching the kids, paying a bill, answering a call, getting distracted by what’s on TV, and pretty much everything else that has nothing to do with you getting healthy.
And if you don’t plan something nutritious for dinner, hunger is likely to sneak up at a time when you’re busy. That’s the moment you’ll find yourself choosing the unhealthy food that got you wanting to lose weight in the first place.
Reprogram your mind, and good health will follow.
Once you program your mind to accepting health and fitness as par for the course, you will find it surprisingly easy to devote a portion of your day to your weight loss goals.
So how do you reprogram your mind? It’s a gradual process that unfolds much like your lifelong tooth-brushing habit. The best thing to do is to stop overthinking it. Instead, just do it.
Another way to reprogram your mind is to follow along with others who share your commitment to weight loss, exercise, good nutrition and improved health overall.
Join a healthy recipe swap group online. Sign up for healthy eating tips from your favorite nutrition expert. Make an appointment with a fitness coach. You have many options for surrounding yourself with people who set inspiring health goals.
What else can you do? If it helps, get your phone involved just like every other aspect of your life.
Need to Schedule in Healthy Habits? Use Your Smart Phone to Stay Accountable
Your phone reminds you of your daily activities and to-do list. So it will surely be a good buddy to hold you accountable with a weight loss and exercise program.
Plan these out using your calendar, just like your other activities for the week.
Oh, but you don’t have time to add exercise and healthy eating to the calendar? Guess again. Scheduling in one thing can be accomplished by eliminating something else.
Tips to help you get in the scheduling habit:
Set an alarm to wake up an hour early. Or, trim away an hour of something you normally do that isn’t really all that important. Now, with that extra hour you’ve gained, you can clock your exercise in along with everything else.
Set an alarm for starting your workout. Hold yourself accountable. Keep it going for a few days. If this seems to be the right time of day for you to fit in some cardio, weights and or stretching, then keep that exercise alarm on your phone. And stick to it.
On the other hand, if the time of day you selected doesn’t really work with what you have going on, then simply set a timer for a different hour. This is really important even if you don’t think it is. Because, again, as soon as you start making excuses, you’re likely to reneg on the whole “get healthy” plan.
Scheduling your healthy lifestyle activities like food prep and exercise means you can’t back out of your promise that you made to yourself. It’s on the calendar. You committed. Work out at a time of day that matches your energy levels. Set aside time to shop, food-prep and store healthy meals and snacks.
Using your phone to schedule in your weight loss habits is the best way to make this real for yourself. You should have no problem fitting in exercise as part of your daily life.
What else can you use your smartphone for to help you set and achieve healthy weight loss goals?
- Establish a weekly routine. Maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday seem to be the best days for hitting the gym or using your cardio machine.
- Set reminders. Actually set an alarm about a half an hour before you plan to begin your exercise routine. This will give you enough time to change into workout clothes, get yourself a drink, and get to where you need to be.
- Track your progress. Count your steps, monitor heart rate, check how many minutes to do a mile. Write it down or snap a pic and compare as you advance your own fitness levels.
Over just a few days, you will get into the groove of scheduling time for wellness and weight-loss related activities. Once that’s done, you’re set! Healthy living becomes a habit and not something you have to do consciously.
