Josie Maurer, creator of YumYucky.com, spreads the message of finding balance between fitness and your greedy side. She lost over 40 pounds after the birth of her fourth child through sensible eating and exercise, yet she still maintains her love for large slices of cake.
Please don’t get happy for all the wrong reasons. These non-exercise techniques do not involve floor-napping, lazy-dazing or sun bathing. They will, in fact, require some effort on your part, but it’s literally no sweat. Even if you’re gung ho about exercise, there are still some nuisance stumbling blocks that might prevent your workout from ever getting off the ground.
Guard your workouts with these three non-exercise techniques. They will help set you up for a great fitness session with limited hindrances, distractions and disturbances.
Technique #1: ORGANIZE
Got messy clutter everywhere? Can you find your running shoes? Are you pressured to skip your workout because the laundry needs attention? Lack of organization is a beastly little culprit that sneaks up slowly and nibbles at your chance for an effective workout. Disorganization can be overwhelming and is many times at the root of the “I don’t have time to exercise” excuse. Organization helps to remove the noise in your life that distracts from your fitness goals. When you slay the disorganized chaos like you’re wielding a ninja sword, you’ll be freed up and better prepared to workout without the need to tend to other matters first. Problems like a messy workout space, “lost” fitness gear, or a pile of dirty exercise clothes will no longer be part of the issues that hinder you from a great workout.
Technique #2: DELEGATE
But what if you’re already organized? Maybe you’ve just got too many demands and responsibilities due to a busy family life. Even if you have superhero tendencies, you don’t have to tackle it alone. Be the manager of your domain. Assign responsibilities to other families members whenever possible. Delegated tasks can be as simple as feeding the cat, or more complex, like dinner preparation. Delegation not only gives you more elbow room to achieve a better workout, it also lightens the daily burden on your back.
Technique #3: PLAN
Some people sleep in their workout clothes and hit the morning ground running. That’s not my cup of tea, but it certainly does help to have your exercise gear ready to go. Plan out your fitness routine and put it in your schedule. Decide ahead of time what workout you will do, when you will do it and how much time you have to get it done. You can also keep a fitness journal to set your weekly goals and use an online tool, like DailyMile.com, to track your progress. Planning does not promise a 100% success rate, but established goals and objectives are major steps towards follow through and results. Techniques or no techniques, not every workout will be perfect, but it’s smart to set yourself up for success with a firm, pre-workout foundation.
A workout isn’t a workout until you actually start exercising. Not all of these non-exercise tips will be accomplished overnight, but when you incorporate what you can and slowly add on over time, you’ll find that those weedy exercise hindrances have been plucked out of your life.