We have roughly 90 days left in this year you guys.  Better yet, we have roughly 90 days left in this decade!!!  Let that sink in for a minute.  We are in the home stretch of this entire decade!  Can’t think of a better time to check in with ourselves and assess how we are we doing with those resolutions we set ten months ago.  So how are you all doing?  Are you happy with your progress? Are you where you thought you would be at this point in the year?  Have you met or are you on track to meeting your goals for 2019?  If you honestly ask yourself these questions and you are happy and on track then yay great and congrats!  If you ask yourself these questions and you are not so thrilled about your progress or maybe didn’t even really get started but still want to, it isn’t too late!  It’s never too late!

So this post is for all my cyber-friends out there who find themselves where I was almost two years ago. Towards the end of 2017 I knew I had let myself down.  I wasn’t working out.  I wasn’t eating properly.  My physical and mental health & well-being were pretty close to the level of dumpster fires.  I knew I needed to make changes and make them like yesterday but I just wasn’t sure I was capable.  For me it was a combination of feeling like I didn’t have enough time, not wanting to spend the money on a gym membership I may or may not end up using and just feeling like the task ahead of me was too daunting to even know where to begin.   Another big part of my hesitation at the time was the bad experiences I had in the past with both attempting and quickly failing at sustaining a healthier lifestyle, not to mention utterly hating the process along the way to that inevitable failure.

The reasons (aka excuses) I had back then are probably very similar to the excuses a lot of people out there have who also find themselves knowing they should make an effort to live a healthier lifestyle but are not really sure they are willing or able to do so.  I am here today to tell you, JUST DO IT!  Stop thinking about it, stop putting it off and just commit!  It was by far one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself and one I would make again in a heartbeat much, much sooner if I had a magical time machine at my disposal.  So today I wanted to breakdown some of the most frequently heard excuses people have for not getting healthy and how I myself got over them and just started to do the damn thing!  Let’s start with the ever popular….”I just don’t have the time”…

Time

This was a big one for me in the beginning as I am sure it is for a lot of folks. I actually think the “I don’t have the time” excuse is probably the one I most frequently hear from people when discussing what is holding them back from achieving their health and fitness goals.  Look, I know we are all super busy like all the time, day in and day out but you can’t tell me you don’t have 30 minutes somewhere in your day to be a little more active.  Do you find 30 minutes in your day to watch that TV show you are currently obsessed with?  Or do you find yourself spending 30 minutes at some point in the day scrolling through countless social media posts to make sure you don’t miss out on something happening in someone else’s life?    Be honest with me now….and more importantly with yourself!

When I started on my own journey to get healthier I was commuting two hours each way to my day job and then working 3 nights a week at a second job just to pay my bills and put a little away to buy my first house.  So when I decided I was fed up with myself and made the decision to get healthier I sat down and thought long and hard about how to make it work.  My solution was to commit to using my lunch hour to get my 30 minutes in.  Maybe for you, you can spare an extra 30 minutes in the morning to workout before your get you day started or find time in the evenings where you watch one less show before going to bed and instead take a walk around your neighborhood.  I started my own journey at a point in my life when I was exhausted all the time, stressed out, overworked and really didn’t think I had it in me to incorporate one more obligation/activity into my schedule but I also knew that I desperately needed to get more active and I was never going to get less busy.  The point is the time is there guys, just take a serious, honest look at how you are spending your waking hours and make a few minor adjustments.  You and your health are so so worth it!  And you can always DVR that show and binge on it over the weekend!  😊

Money 

This is probably the second most commonly given reason I hear from people when they are explaining what is holding them back.  Like I mentioned above, money back then for me was tight as it is for so many of us.  I researched joining a few different gyms but the thought of adding an extra bill to my monthly expenditures was enough to make me break out in a cold sweat, not to mention the initiation fees that I just couldn’t afford at the time.  So like the time constraint issue, I sat down with myself and came up with a plan.  For me what worked at the time was taking advantage of the many walking paths around my office when the weather was nice in combination with using the free gym we have at our disposal where I work.  These two options were very helpful to me when I was getting started and then about 6 months in I found the workout programs I use now which cost only $99 for the entire year and give me access to over 700+ workouts I can stream from anywhere at anytime.  This option was also appealing to me because I travel a lot for work so I can just pop open my laptop in my hotel room and get a workout in even while I am traveling.

I also had to be really honest with myself about where I was spending the money I did have. I realized I was basically throwing money away with my twice daily trips to Starbucks and countless doctors bills I had racked up from not taking care of myself for so long.   I sat down and calculated how much money I was spending on things that weren’t really necessary and realized if I just made some minor adjustments, I would have plenty to spare on the really important things in life like my health!  I started making my own coffee at home, packing my own lunches instead of eating out every day (which also helped my waist line) and before I knew it I was actually able to put money into savings every month.  And as the months went by and my health vastly improved the trips to the doctor and expensive prescription all but ceased. You guys, if you think getting healthy is expensive, trust me when I tell you it is far more expensive to be sick!

Don’t know how or where to start?

The main reason I started this blog is I wanted to try to help other people out there skip right on over some of the mistakes I made in the beginning of my own journey and see results faster and in a more efficient manner than I had. While I had all the motivation and the best of intentions once I committed to my own journey,  I didn’t do a whole lot of research into the best ways to go about it.  I dove right back into thinking endless cardio workouts would be the answer to all my health and weight issues and proceeded to very quickly get bored and disillusioned when I wasn’t seeing results like I expected to.  About six months into my journey I knew I needed to make a change so I started doing some research on-line. I read blogs like this one. I researched different methods of working out.  I followed personal trainers on their social media pages for ideas and inspiration. And what I quickly found out that was that I needed to incorporate strength training into my routine.  I started hitting the weights and while I very rapidly fell in love with lifting I also very quickly injured myself because I didn’t know anything about form or the proper way to go about it.  Again, this is where the workout programs I currently use came in which showed me proper form, the best ways to structure a weight-training routine and taught me the most effective moves to achieve my goals.

There are plenty of resources out there to help with this process.  Just do a little research and find what works for you, not only for your body but what will keep you engaged and motivated, aka not bored!  Whether it be consulting a nutritionist, scheduling a few sessions with a personal trainer, trying different types of workouts, or finding a workout program like I did that pretty much takes all the guess work out of getting in shape, there are a lot of options out there to help you get educated and chose the right plan for you.  Just make sure you do some research before just jumping in.  Also a really good idea (like I have mentioned in previous posts) is to get a physical from your doctor before you start any exercise program!!

Don’t think you can do it?  Stay committed? Have the motivation?

If you are thinking about failing before you even start, you might have already sealed your fate. I am a firm believer that whatever you believe will happen.  If you believe you will fail, most likely you will fail.  If you believe you will succeed, you already have!  You have to find what motivates you. And that is different for everyone.  But at the end of the day, motivation comes from within you.  No matter how much a trainer, or a friend or family member or even me tells you how important it is to get fit and live a healthy lifestyle, you have to want it for yourself.  Start by setting small, very attainable goals and build on them slowly but surely.  Maybe find an accountability partner or a workout buddy that can hold you to your workouts. If you need one I am always here!

Very early on in my journey I signed myself up (and dragged along a few very reluctant friends) for a couple of 5k races and mud runs. That gave me clear goals to work for and also a deadline to meet so I had to keep up on my training in order to be prepared.  I also right from the start took pictures of myself every single time I completed a workout.  For me, being able to see the results start to happen with before and after pictures was hugely motivating for me.  I still do this to this day and the pictures I have now compared to when I first started working out and eating better are staggering!  I love seeing how my hard work has paid off and I am only motivated more me to keep reaching for even bigger and better body goals when I see the progress I have made.  Maybe for you what works is telling yourself if you workout consistently for a month straight you will buy yourself a new pair of fancy workouts shoes or those jeans you have been eyeing that will probably fit better than ever now!  Whatever it is, whatever motivates you put some thought into it, formulate a plan and get working towards it.  The sooner and more consistently you put one foot in front of the other the more quickly you will start seeing results and reaching your goals!

Whatever is holding you back, whether it be one of the reasons above, a few of the reasons above or something else entirely,  it is time to really sit down with yourself and find a way to, well, to get out of your own way!  There is no more important project to work on then yourself  and while I am not going to tell you is that it will always be easy or super enjoyable I will tell you that it will be more than worth it!  YOU are more than worth it!  You deserve to live the happiest, healthiest and most enjoyable life you can but you have to want it badly enough for yourself that you continue to show up even when you don’t want to.  There will be days it won’t be easy.  There will be days that you just don’t feel like it.  There will be days when it will be a struggle to find the time but do not wait to place value on your health only after you have gotten sick or neglected it so much you have no choice but to pay attention to it.  Take your health and well being into your own hands now and make yourself the priority.  And hey, just like me, you may even fall in love with the process along the way!

Happy Friday y’all…have a great weekend!

Xoxoxo,

Beth

P.S. – PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take a second to take my poll down below.  I want to make this blog what you guys want it to be!  Thank you again for all the support…it means the world to me! 😊