You wake up to a surge of emotions as you realize your alarm did not go off. In a frantic rush you somehow got the kids and yourself out of bed, eat breakfast, get dressed, get the kids to school, and arrive to work on time. A feat that even Superman/Superwoman would find impressive.
You open your calendar to see that your boss has loaded your schedule with meetings today. In an instant you know you will have a late night in order to meet the other demands you have. You think to yourself “Well there goes my workout at lunch, looks like I might have to do it really late tonight.” Deep down inside you know you will be tired and probably won’t do it.
You finally arrive home and try to wrap up a few more items and it’s 11PM. You think to yourself “I would have worked out, but it’s really late and I just had to get my work done.” You convince yourself that tomorrow will be different.
One of the most dangerous things we can do is allow outside forces to dictate our lives. The fact that you are busy or tired are real factors, but in this circumstance, it’s mostly mental weakness. Meaning if we really wanted to, we could still workout. It may not be the best workout, but at least it is something.
When it comes to our health, it is always better to do something (anything) so that we can form habits that help us win. Here are a few tips to help you do something and create a positive mindset that leads to good habits in order to stay consistent.
Let Go Of Being Perfect
A lot of us believe that we must do a full workout or we don’t get the benefits. We aim for the perfect workout everyday. If we don’t we feel like we let ourselves down or we have fallen short. We need to get rid of the mindset of having to be perfect (not just in health & fitness).
If you are not able to do the workout you planned, then modify it. Maybe you only do 15 minutes. Maybe you can only do 5 minutes, thats okay. If you can only do 1 minute, Great! Yes, it’s not ideal and perfect, but at least your doing something. If we are busy or tired we must modify our workouts to fit the current situation.
Split It Up
Sometimes I am so busy I know for a fact I am not going to be able to workout. Yet my first tip (you don’t have to be perfect) just does not do it for me. I want to exercise for 30 minutes or more. This mindset usually occurs when I am training to hit a goal and I am determined to workout.
Those times that I am up till 2am working, there is no way I am going to work out. Instead I am going to go to sleep, that is more important than getting a workout in. So I need to workout, I need my sleep, and I have no time, now what?
I simply split it up. I will take 30 minutes, for example, and split it up into 6 session of 5 minutes each. Maybe I will do 1 minute here and 5 minutes there. After I write an email I may go for walk, or quick jog, or just do some pushups. 1 – 5 minutes randomly done throughout the day does not set you back on your work. I can almost bet yo spend more time in between tasks on your phone.
You maybe thinking well thats not really working out, there is no benefit to splitting up a workout. My response to this is usually providing a scenario. Let’s say you and I both decided to challenge each other in a 5K and we both had the same talent. For training purposes we both were busy yet, I stuck with the all or nothing approach. You on the other hand did the split up method, who would most likely win?
Just Do Something
In my original scenario the individual was in meetings all day. They were not able to split up their day to even do one minute of exercise. They clearly have a pass to skip exercising right?
A lot of us like to see health & fitness as physical exertion and eating properly. What people fail to realize is that health & fitness is a 24 hour cycle. As long as you are alive some aspect of you is working on your health and fitness all day everyday. You are always in 1 of 3 parts of the cycle warmup, exercise, recovery (where we spend most of our time). In each of these cycles you are always addressing the 6 healthy habits your oxygen (breathing), hydration, nutrition, movement, sleep, and mental health.
This means we have 18 different aspects of health & fitness to consider each day (3 cycles x 6 healthy habits). If you don’t get to work on the exercise you still can work on recovery or warm-up. I am assuming you know what I mean by extending your recovery. Yet warm-up, what do I mean by that?
When I have runners come to me unmotivated (usually a sign of overtraining or not enough sleep) I walk them through a few steps to see if we can change their state:
- First off I have them get changed.
- Then I ask them to stretch and warm-up.
- Then I ask them to run easy for 1 minute.
- Then I have them keep trying to go more and more.
They are allowed to give up at any step they want, but they have to try. By the end they usually do the full workout. However, the point is not if they do the full workout. I want them to do something, anything. Anything is better than nothing. It’s more about doing as many times as possible, every part of the 3 cycles.
So if you are not able to workout, then put your workout clothes on, hydrate, eat the right foods, go to bed earlier. Just do as much as you can for the things you can control. Don’t throw the rest of your day away, there is so much you can do to stay healthy & fit.
The only reason you fail to be consistent is because you usually have mentally checked out. The power of just doing something is to let your brain know you are always in the habit of working on your health and fitness. When things go your way you will do more and when they don’t, you will still do something.
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Angelo Santitto 
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