Fitness Tip of the Day #13

FITNESS TIP OF THE DAY:

Be accountable to yourself and your workouts.

For most of us, fitness and exercise are not high on our list of priorities.  Work, school and kids tend to take the top spots when it comes to allocating time to get things done.  When the days seem shorter, and the “to do list” seems to get longer, finding time to fit in a workout can sometimes feel impossible.

Although you have set out a fitness goal and outlined a program to get you there, your workouts continue to get pushed aside as more “urgent” things take precedent and you go to bed at night feeling guilty for letting another workout fall by the wayside.  As this happens day after day (and week after week), the end result is little to no improvement in your health and fitness, failing to reach your fitness goal and feeling disappointed in yourself.

Most of what distracts us from taking care of ourselves is our need to help others (i.e. do our job, pay the bills, take care of our children, provide for our families).  What we tend to forget is that we are no good to others if we don’t take care of ourselves.

How can we be more effective at work, more focused at school, or more productive at home when our body is not at its best?  We may feel guilty for taking the time out of our day for fitness and exercise but it only proves to make us better for all of the other things we need to do each day … many of which are for the benefit of others.

To ensure your fitness and health don’t get ignored, in the midst of your busy schedule, consider doing the following:

• Schedule your workouts into your daily calendar (i.e. Daytimer, Outlook, online calendar).
• Reward yourself for consistently sticking to your schedule (i.e. new clothes, glass of wine at dinner, vacation in an exotic place).
• When you don’t stick to your workout schedule, have negative consequences (i.e. put $5 in the workout jar, mow the lawn and clean out the basement, visit your mother).
• Establish your own “fitness rules” and hold yourself to them (i.e. workout a minimum of 3 days per week, include one fitness class, take daily vitamins and flax seed, eat healthy 6 out of 7 days a week).

Being accountable to yourself can be tough because you only suffer the consequences if you make yourself accountable.  If you aren’t good at making yourself accountable, there are other ways to make sure you stay on track:

• Schedule workouts with a workout partner (this way you become accountable to someone else).
• Hire a personal trainer.
• Use a mobile fitness app that reminds, tracks and rewards you for your workouts (i.e. Fleetly, MapMyRun, Fitocracy)

Written by TodaysFitnessTrainer (trainer@todaysfitnesstrainer.com).