Almost everyone knows the basics as to what to do to get fit and healthy. But when life is already full, you have little extra free time, and your to do list seems endless, it's hard to expect that you have any time left over in your day to get in a good workout and to eat healthy.
With these 7 steps, they will help you make more time for your workouts and nutrition, even with a busy life.
Have you been wanting to get into a better routine that allows time for your workings and eating better but life feels impossible with a constant and never ending busy schedule? We get it.
At Apex Physiques we have coached hundreds of clients. Many of which are busy moms, overworked professionals, stressed out entrepreneurs, single parents, people working multiple jobs, etc. Many of us are in the same boat, which means we’re no strangers to busy clients and busy lifestyles.
But here is the good news. Because we have worked with these types of people and personally understand how challenging it can be to keep your health and fitness a priority with a busy life, we have systems that help people learn how to prioritize their health, organize their schedules, and get things done and actually feel confident that their goals are achievable.
Let's break it down into these 7 effective steps to make time for your health goals, eat better and move more.
1. First, ask yourself WHY:
Understanding why you want to live a healthier lifestyle gives you the motivation to prioritize it over other things. But you aren't just going to ask yourself why once. but 5 times!
We call this 5 Y's Deep.
Example:
Why do I want to get healthier? Because I want to fit into my clothes.
Ok, why is it important for me to fit into my clothes. Because I will look better in my clothes.
But why do I want to look better? Because when I look better in my clothes, I will feel better about myself.
Ok, but why is it important that I feel better about myself? Because I will have higher self confidence.
And, why is it important for me to have higher self confidence? Because I when I feel more confident I will have more self worth, feel in control and will experience more of my life and achieve bigger goals.
Keep going until you find the real reason why this is a priority for you.
2. Identify your priorities in your life.
A good way to identify your priorities is by knowing what you value in life. Your values is what will take up the majority of your time, energy and focus. But often times we aren't making time for our priorities but rather things we think we should or things that's called busy work and fillers. .
Think of your time as a jar which you fill with rocks, seashells, and sand.
Rocks - things of highest priority. The essential things to feeling fulfilled in life: friends, family, health, finances, sleep, etc
Seashells - things that are fun but not a necessity to life: hobbies, work performance, being an athlete, passion project, etc.
Sand - not essential to life but is filler things: watching tv, social media, drinking, etc.
If you fill too much of your time with sand you won't have much room for the rocks and seashells. Sit down and see where you're spending your time. Is it with rocks, seashells or mostly sand?
This leads us to the next step
3. Tracking how you spend your time and scheduling.
It doesn't matter if you're not a business owner, a student, a mom or whatever. This is helpful for everyone because everyone would love to have a little extra time for the things that matter to them. What gets tracked gets managed right?
Track your schedule for a week and see if they are in alignment with your goals and values. Your schedule reflects how you prioritize your life. Once you have tracked for a week, sit down and analyze were you are spending your time. On the things that matter to you? Contrast your current schedule with your ideal schedule (day to day) and your true values. Then start making the appropriate changes.
4. Increase your fitness activity in small, doable, increments.
It doesn't matter if it's 5 or 15 mins. Small changes over time leads to bigger results and increase in self confidence. To get started, swap one higher value activity with one lower value activity. We tell our client's "schedule yourself 1st in your weekly schedule as an appointment." Treating your goal and the things you need to do to get you there as an appointment means it's a priority. Plus, you're working with the time you do have and not worrying about finding more.
5. Put other goal achieving activities into your schedule.
These are things that will help you get closer to your health and fitness goals. Such as meal prepping, grocery shopping, and anything else that supports your goals, right down to when you wash your laundry and the time you pack your gym bag. Soon you will have a schedule and system that works to give you the results you want and finding time will no longer be an issue.
6. Create systems that makes getting healthy and fit easier an faster.
With a little extra time up front you'll make your environment more supportive of your goals.
For example:
- keep fresh foods on your counter
- decrease treat foods in your house
- create a success routine of meal prepping (week day or weekends)
- keep frozen fruit and veggies for easy recipes like smoothies, stews, and soups.
- sign up to a gym that is most convenient that's close to home or work (see if your work provides discounts to gyms as well)
- purchase basic equipment for home workouts (dumbbells, stability ball, bands)
- pack your gym bag the night before
- use a meal prep company or food company like TruLocal.ca were food is delivered to your house on a schedule. (use our discount code JASMINE5293 on your 1st order with trulocal. )
7. Rate and Review
What worked and what didn't work well with your weekly schedule. Did your time reflect your priorities? Did it help get you closer to your goals? Do you feel accomplished?
Yes? - Awesome! Take a look at what worked well and keep doing it. Add in a little more time (5-15mins) to add to your workouts. movement, cleaning up your environment, meal prepping, etc. And don't forget to celebrate this win!
No? - What were you filling your time with this past week? Seashells or sand. Filler stuff. Things of lower priority? Did the lower priority stuff happen more, the same or less? Perhaps start pairing low end priority (Netflix) with high priority items (meal prepping or walking on treadmill), decrease environmental triggers, and or get help with coaching for motivation and accountability and to develop better systems and set realistic goals.
Eating well and working out is just the tip of what happens behind the scenes of making getting fit and healthy a priority in your life, especially when you don't have extra time to waste. It's more supported by strategizing, prioritizing and planning.
So, how are you doing with your time management and scheduling your priorities? Are you filling your jar with Rocks, seashells or sand and how can you make small changes to make getting healthy and fit easier and faster?
Need help with developing better systems and setting realistic but very enjoyable goals?
Want help becoming the healthiest, fittest, strongest version of you?
If you’re interested in coaching and want to find out more, We'd encourage you to click here to taking that 1st step with working with us or simply hit reply with the subject heading "coaching".
Troy & Jasmine :)
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