Moving Beyond Obstacles in Your Fitness Training

Moving Beyond Obstacles

You want to exercise regularly, but you keep encountering roadblocks—those creative, persuasive excuses you come up with for not sticking to your plan. It’s a lifestyle! Identify what is in your way and charge ahead! I wanted to share with you a few tips that may help you keep your fitness goals on track. Some days or weeks feel like a huge mountain before you. Schedules, lack of sleep and other demands of life can creep in.

Don’t get discouraged and if you have one day that’s off, simply regroup and begin again.

Here are a few tips that I think might help:

A perceived lack of time is a common excuse for not exercising. When life gets hectic, exercise is usually the first thing to go. It’s easy to convince yourself that the morning jog can wait until lunchtime or after dinner, and then tomorrow!

Not enough time!

Excuse #1: I Don’t Have Enough Time.

Solution. Commitments, responsibilities and the demands of work, family and social life are always going to be there. You can choose to prioritize exercise now—or you can wait until you are forced to make it a priority. You will be more productive! Even just 10 to 30 minutes a day of exercise, if done consistently, can provide heath benefits. How about scheduling 30-minute appointments with yourself in your day planner?

Excuse #2: I Have No Energy. When you have had a long day at work, it’s tempting to want to go home, sit down on the coach and “zone out” in front of the television.

Solution. Schedule your workout for a different time. Get up 45 minutes earlier and go for a walk. Or keep your fitness gear in the car and go straight to the gym on the way home. It may be a good idea to schedule workouts with a friend—you won’t want to disappoint your buddy by not showing up. Know, too, that exercise gives you more energy!

Excuse #3: I Hate Exercise. Exercise can seem like a chore if the activity you’ve chosen doesn’t appeal to you.

Solution. Find something you really enjoy! If you can discover a type of exercise you enjoy and stick to it, eventually you will find you need exercise—physically and mentally. What activities have you tried? Do you like hiking or walking with friends?

Excuse #4: I Can’t See Any Results. You’ve been exercising religiously for five weeks and you haven’t lost any weight. You give up because you’re frustrated.

Solution. Stay off the scale! Weight is not an accurate way of measuring your progress. Think about the progress you have made. Maybe you can walk 20 minutes longer or lift heavier weights than you could in the beginning. You are making progress, even though you may not see it on the scale.

Excuse #5: I’ll Never Be Perfect. You have an all-or-nothing attitude. You think it’s not worth exercising because your body will never be perfect. Or you plan to work out for an hour and when something comes up that keeps you from getting to the gym for that amount of time, you skip the workout.

Solution. When it comes to exercise, any activity is better than none. Sometimes, striving for perfection is what leads to failure. Focus on how your body feels, not how it looks. The trick in trying to stick to a long-term plan is learning to compromise. If you don’t have a full hour, just go for 30 minutes, or even 15.

Excuse #6: I Feel Deprived. The chocolate cake staring you in the face is too great a temptation to resist in exchange for potential weight loss down the road. You eat three pieces and feel too bloated to exercise. You feel deprived if you have to resist high-fat foods or give up other activities to fit exercise into your schedule.

Solution. Imagine that each time you work out you refrain from overeating, you are not

depriving yourself, but actually giving yourself something—spiritually, emotionally and physically.

I can help you remove your obstacles that are blocking you from your success. Not every has self-discipline and needs the know how to uncover and discover, what is preventing you from losing weight, getting in better shape and feeling overall, healthy!