Life is busy and sometimes there are really just not enough hours in the day to get everything done and get it done well and on time. Sometimes you can feel like you have so much to do and so many responsibilities to yourself and to other people that finding any time for your own health and fitness tends to be at the bottom of the list. What would happen if you took half an hour away from your busy life to focus on your own body? Would you be selfish to do so when there are so many others relying on you?
Struggling to get fit? Here’s how to make it easier!
The answer to that is absolutely not.It’s easy to have that mindset when you have your work responsibilities and potential children or family responsibilities and responsibilities to your friends, but you also have a responsibility to yourself and your health. You’ll feel better taking care of yourself, and you’ll know that from those days that you do manage to drink enough water or get in at the gym. Taking care of yourself helps you to take care of other people. Instead of struggling to get fit, you need to figure out the ways that you can make it easier to fit fitness into your life. This is a contributed post.
Thankfully, we are living at the right time for exactly that. We are living in a time of smartwatches and fitness trackers and apps that can help you to track calories or any exercise you’re doing to make sure that you’re on track. You can even use justfit.app to help you to reach your fitness goals and stay on a daily track of what you’re doing. You can’t always rely on motivation to carry you through. Sometimes you just have to do the work, even if you don’t want to. Instead of leaning on why it’s so hard to fit fitness into your life and allowing any excuses to come your way, let’s think of the ways that you can make it easier to fit fitness around your busy life right now.
- Wake up earlier. Nobody ever wants to wake up earlier than necessary. Why would you want to pull yourself out of bed and push your body when you can snuggle down for thirty more minutes? There might be children to get ready for school, and you might have to get ready for work yourself, but if you set your alarm just half an hour earlier, you’ll be able to fit in some fitness, whether that’s an online yoga workout or a run around the block. If you do something first thing in the morning for yourself, you set yourself up for the day and before you know it, you’re ready to have a cup of coffee and some breakfast before you head out on your own commute. That little pop of endorphins from a workout is going to be something you thank yourself for.
- Make those small changes. You might not think that getting off the train two stops earlier to walk the rest of the way is really going to make much difference, but it will. The opportunities to fit fitness into your life really are staring you in the face. Instead of driving to work, you can put on your running shoes and jog. This is a brilliant plan, especially if your workplace has showers at the office building. If you don’t want a jog, you could cycle on your lunch break. You could take your lunch to the nearby park and walk around the park after you’ve had something to eat. It’s these little changes that can make a big difference because it all adds up.
- Try not to do it all at once. An hour’s workout in the gym is going to feel far more overwhelming than a 10 minute jog up and down a flight of stairs. Even if you can’t get in a solid 30 minute to 60 minute workout every day, it’s so much easier to fit in a walk that lasts that long. When you can do it all at once, absolutely go for it. But if you can only fit in a 20 minute session in the swimming pool, or you can only do an ab workout while you’re watching your favorite TV show, then why not? You can use your fitness app to help.
- Multitasking is going to help. If you’re dropping the kids off at practice and they’re about to play a game, but you don’t need to stay and watch, why not go and do a jog around the field yourself? If you’re waiting in line at the checkouts because you’re about to pay for your food, why not do some glute squeezes? If you’re watching your favorite TV show, stick on a walking counter on your phone and step in place while you watch the TV. All of these little things you could be doing at the same time as doing other activities. You could even ask your employer if you could have a standing desk so that through the day you’ll be able to stand up and maybe even do some squats.
- Put it on the family schedule. It’s so much easier to focus on yourself when you’ve got it in the family planner. If you’ve got kids running around at home, you can get them involved, get them outside on their bikes while you jog alongside them. If you’re scheduling your children to go to extracurricular activities, take yourself to the gym while they’re doing their activity in the same building. Children who are at karate classes, you could join in and do karate classes with them. There are always ways to schedule fitness into your life, and it’s easier to build if you have a family because you could be doing it together.
- Do a time audit. One of the best ways to fit fitness in is to really look at how you are spending your time. If you say you don’t have time for a workout, but you have time to doom scroll on Facebook, then you really do have time. There is always time for rest and doom scrolling does have a place, but if it’s what’s taking up all of the hours of your day, then a re-evaluation is needed.
Making fitness easier to fit into your life is going to immensely improve every aspect of your well-being and your health. Don’t discount it because it’s right there waiting for you in your pocket.