Oh hey, I’m finally done with my lecture series of how to eliminate excuses and get your ass moving. Let’s learn to back dat ass up with a good backup plan for your workouts.
Have a Backup Plan
By now I’ve hammered my point: You should plan your workouts in advance.
But you should ALWAYS have a plan B. This is a rule of LIFE for me. Sometimes things don’t go as planned. It rains. Classes get cancelled or are full. Your alarm doesn’t go off. An emergency last-minute project crops up at work.
If I had planned to attend a class and missed it because of work, because it was cancelled or full, I’d probably go home and pout and likely eat a pint of ice cream instead of doing something else if I didn’t have a backup plan. Sometimes I go to my backup plan because I just don’t FEEL like doing what I’d originally planned for the day.
If you plan to go to the gym and do the elliptical for 30 minutes and you get there and all the machines are taken, what do you do? Please don’t say turn around and go home. If that’s your answer, we can’t be friends. Find something else to do for a half hour — it’s YOUR workout. Make the most of it! Even if you can’t spend it doing something you love. You could pound out how much you hate the step machine with each step.
My go-to backup plans are my workout DVDs. But one of my favorite backup plans is something really random: Turn on my iTunes to my pre-determined playlist and move the ENTIRETY of the playlist and try to keep whatever I’m doing to the beat of the song. This is great because it’s WIDE open and I could do anything for this time. It’s not something I’d do every day because I’d inevitably do the same moves each day, but it’s great to have in my back pocket. You could even dance your ass off naked in your living room for a half hour (that’s what I’m doing right now).
After reading all my long-winded posts, I’m hoping you’re wearing your workout gear, and you’ve got of clean undies, deodorant, time on your schedule, pre-determined workouts, AND a backup plan. So what’s stopping you from exercising?
The answer: YOU. You have to want to make a change. Change doesn’t happen by accident. And change is hard work, regardless of what you want to change. Humans are creatures of habit. It takes 90 days or something like that to institute a new habit (don’t quote me on that, but I’m pretty sure it takes time). So why not start today?
All these changes seem really daunting, but in reality, they’re really small — especially if you try doing one of them at a time. In the end it all adds up to a healthier, happier you!
\\\\\\\\\
What change can you make today to help you become a healthier, happier you?
