You know the routine. You’ve been busy all day either attending school, working or taking care of the kids. The last thing on your mind is going through a workout.  All you want to do is relax and unwind. If you’re overweight the effects of a busy day can wear you down even more than your thinner counterparts. 

So how do you make exercise a daily priority?

I have tried to make it a part of my daily routine as so many experts have recommended. For the most part it does help, but I’ve found that it just became one of my many tasks that I didn’t want to do.  Currently I workout 4 days a week 30-60 minutes per session. I have been able to stick to it because I have made exercise a part of my unwinding and relaxing time. Now I look at it as time just for me to do what I want to do and not what I have to do.

The secret is to make it fun and competitive.

Find a physical activity that you enjoy doing like walking, running, biking or even lifting weights and set a realistic goal for that session. It could be anything from the amount of calories you burn to how fast you can complete a set distance.

For example my exercise of choice is running. I have 2 routes a 5 kilometer one and a 10 kilometer one. On each run I set a goal time to beat. (23 or 50 minutes). It’s an awesome feeling to beat or even reach that goal. It keeps me motivated and I look forward to beating that new time on my next workout session.

Cutting out the excuses

There are so many excuses that can trip you up. “I’m too tired, the gym is too far away, my favorite TV show is on or it’s raining outside” are some of my favorites. All of these can stop your momentum, but can be easily overcome. Here are some simple ways to counter those excuses:

1.) Change into your workout clothes right after dinner.

2.) Set a time to meet with a workout buddy. You’re less likely to skip it if you have someone else waiting on you.

3.) Use your Tivo, PVR or VCR and record your favorite TV shows and watch them on your rest days.

4.) Who says you need a gym to workout. Put on a workout video, run the stairs or do some body weight exercises. 

5.) Work out in the morning as a great start to your day.

My favorite excuse is I’m too tired to workout. There is no better cure for low energy than a good 20-30 minute walk/jog. Motion creates energy and increases the oxygen flow to your brain, essentially waking it up.

Regular exercise can improve your overall health, add years to your life, improve your  self-confidence and make you look and feel better. So good luck and get moving.

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This first song is from a local band that I just found out about recently and man are they good. They’re called “Hail the Vilian” and they really get the blood pumping when I am running or doing my weight training routine.

Check out their first release – Take back the fear

And my favorite which is perfect for running – Runaway

The next song in my running playlist on my ipod is Muse – Hysteria just singing along with the “I want it nowwwww” parts keeps me going.

Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park is great when running, it makes me think about my life and how far I’ve come in my weight loss goals, “Breaking the habit” says it perfectly. Basically any song by Linkin Park is good for running, always high energy.

So those are just a few songs that I listen to while running, now when it comes time to cool down I listen to these 2 songs almost exclusively.

First, Broken Bells – The High Road It gives you a nice little bounce in your step.

The last song I listen to before calling it a night is…..Sleeping Sickness – City and Colour with Gordon Downie Just a great song to end the night.

Alright your turn, leave a comment and let me know your favorite Rock songs for running so I can add them to the Ipod

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This year I finally got a new car! After 10 years driving my old Pontiac Sunfire I picked up a new Ford and I love it. Paid for in CASH!!! I might add, which was a huge change from 10 years ago when I leased the Sunfire and financed the buyout afterwards ( Never again!). Dropping that amount of money in 1 day is both exciting and nauseating at the same time.

I was able to make the purchase thanks in large part to my online income which has really taken off. I’ve learned a lot about the IM business and all that time I’ve spent creating, promoting websites and services has really paid off. I am now proud to say that my online income matches my offline income which is huge!

My weight has been steady over the last year not great but measuring success isn’t always about the numbers. For example I’ve learned how to properly use herbs in our family dinners to provide flavor without adding sugar, salt or fat. That in it’s self is great but I’ve also learned to cook, I mean really cook not just re-heating. This has been a huge savings to the wallet and the waist line.

Some Failures and Scary Moments

Now for the lows First and foremost my job. The company I work for was hit pretty hard by the recession and was looking for ways to cut costs. Meaning job cuts.
Many departments were affected and mine was no exception. At one point I was offered a package or a chance at one of the few remaining positions. I turned down the money and was offered the job, many of my friends were not so lucky.

This all happened 2 days after I bought my car. Life has a way of bringing you back to reality like that.

Around the end of May I re-injured my knee playing basketball. Not the end of the world but it took a lot of the momentum out of the progress I was making with improving my cardio fitness.

As always though I try to find something positive from a negative situation and I used the off time to develop and very simple and effective workout routine. I will be using it as part of my new 8-week fat loss program, so you can look forward to some progress reports and if it works as planned I may turn it into a downloadable eBook.

That is pretty much it. It’s been an interesting year and I’m looking forward year 33 being even better.

How is your year going?

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Fortunately for those of us with big bellies and skinny wallets can find a ton of really great workout videos online for FREE

Below are some good videos that I’ve found. You really need to wade though a lot of crappy videos to find a few diamonds in the rough on youtube, these are all good, watch the videos, subscribe to their channels and get fit

Enjoy and hopeful you can mix and match the videos to create your own total body exercise plan.

10-Minute Cardio Kickboxing Workout by Coach Nicole from Sparkpeople.com
View her youtube Channel here: sparkpeople

Bex Life: 300 Rep Superhero Workout Cardio
View her youtube Channel here::genghisgirl

Destorm: The Best Home Workout – Exercise Routine
View his youtube Channel here: DeStorm

Leehayward: Complete Chest Workout
View his youtube Channel here: Leehayward

Homeworkoutroutines: Intense Home Ab Workout
View his Youtube Channel here: Homeworkoutroutines

EmpowerYourBody: Sexy Arm Routine
View her youtube channel here: EmpowerYourBody

Brides Made Fit: The Really, Really Good Leg Workout
View Her youtube channel here: Brides Made Fit

This video is by Craig Ballantyne creator of the Turbulence Training Program. He has done a ton of work for Men’s Health Magazine and really knows his stuff.

cbathletics: Great Upper Back Workout
View his youtube channel here: cbathletics

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You know when it comes to losing weight, eating healthy or doing exercise sometimes it feels like I am 2 different people. There is morning Steve, always tired but very motivated and hopeful for having a good healthy day, no junk foods, lots of walking breaks at work, drinking lots of water and looking forward to working out at night/evening etc.. I like this Steve.

Then there is night Steve or more specifically after the kids are in bed Steve. He craves the junk food and does whatever he can to get it. Night Steve is also tired but only when it comes to exercise or meal planning or making lunches/snacks for the next day. For all other activities like working on the computer until 1am, watching movies or driving to the store to get junk food he has boundless energy.

Obviously these 2 personalities clash and for some reason at night after the kids are in bed and it’s Mommy and Daddy time I forget about all the good intentions I had started the day with.

So Simple it Seems Stupid

What I do is this, in the morning before I leave for work is I write myself a note, nothing too elaborate usually just a sentence or a word.

For example yesterday’s note said this “Before turning on the computer run for 30 minutes on the treadmill, you’ll feel great” . I left this on my computer monitor, sure enough last night I came down stairs ready to hop on the computer as usual. I saw the note and immediately it brought me back to when I wrote it that morning.

45 minutes later I had run for 35 minutes and burnt 365 calories. Best of all I did feel great afterwards and I was able to work on the computer guilt free.

The key for me was not to think too much about what else I had to do that night or what else I could have done. Basically not talking myself out of it. I was listening to my motivated self and did what I knew I really wanted to do.

I Don’t Have Short Term Memory Loss

Maybe “forgetting” is the wrong word for my not following through with my good intentions, as I do not have short term memory loss. It’s more like wilful ignorance and I know I’m not alone on this.

My wife thinks it’s funny that I do this and has posted notes around the house with things like “unload the dishwasher” and “change the laundry” mocking me it seems. (Doesn’t work like that honey )

Before you just blow this off as silly or stupid, give it a try first. When you’re motivated in the morning (or anytime you’re feeling motivated) write to yourself and leave the notes somewhere you’ll be most likely to read it or need to read it. (on your fridge,TV, bathroom mirror, in your car etc…). Hopefully this will help you stay motivated or at least remind you of what you really want to do, when your motivated that is.

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A word I hear almost everyday that I feel is a huge road block for most people is “Someday”. People say it jokingly or out of frustration. The most common ways I hear it phrased are:

“I’ll get back to my high school weight someday”
“We’ll be rich someday”
“I’ll learn to cook someday”
“I’ll land my dream job someday”
“I’ll get into shape someday”

The list goes on and on. But you know what, that day will almost certainly never come. Not unless you change the way you think about what you want to do in life and how you are going to get it done.

The Universe Doesn’t Care About Your Dreams

I see a lot of websites going on about the “Law of Attraction” and having the universe fulfill your needs. That is all well and good but I honestly do not believe that any of that stuff will help you lose weight or become wealthy or improve your health.

Your life is in your own hands and the small decisions you make everyday will get you to where you want to be in life. But, Someday is not a place you can go or a date to have something achieved by.

How To Get To The Weight You Want

As is relates to weight loss there really is no secret. I mean you see programs everywhere telling you that they have a breakthrough method or a special formula that will make you lose weight. But I’d say 99% of them are crap, just total garbage.

The answer to the question “how do I lose weight” or my comment to people that say “Someday I’ll lose the weight” is this. Set a realistic date and hold yourself accountable to it. The rest you already know, burn more than you consume.

It All Starts With A Goal

Goal setting is such an important thing in not just losing weight but in every aspect of your life. I find it very sad that not enough people are doing it or if they are they’re setting goals that are honestly too unrealistic.

You can find out more about setting realistic goals at Setting a Weight Loss Goal. Remember that the key to being successful is to set a target date or a deadline.

I know I’m over simplifying things here but I without having a target to hit or a deadline to meet you will end up floating through life. Nothing will get accomplished and you’ll end up looking back and wonder what you’ve done with your life? I’m only 31 and I’ve done this more times than I care to admit already.

What are your thoughts? Do you have realistic attainable goals?

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I have always been a big supporter of the “Once a Week” rule for weighing yourself. But over the last couple of months I have somewhat changed my opinion on that.

I used to think that weighing yourself anymore than that was borderline obsessive. Now I weight myself everyday. Weekdays, weekends or holidays it doesn’t matter, I weigh myself.

The reason I made the change was that I was getting discouraged at not seeing any progress on the scale, even though I was eating properly (most of the time) and exercising regularly.

Consistency is key

It’s important to make sure that you weigh yourself at roughly the same time and place everyday. I do it right after I wake up, in my bathroom. You can do this whenever and where ever you like at home, work or the gym. I’ve found that early in the morning is when I am at my lightest though.

If my weight is a little higher than the previous day, I know I’ve got some work to do. Either tighten up the diet or increase the intensity or length of the workout that day. By weighing myself daily I can make the adjustments sooner in order to keep me on the right track.

Write It Down

I keep track of not only my weight but my body fat% and BMI as well. This is all calculated on my digital scale. Although there is some debate on the accuracy of this type of scale. I think that it’s more important that they are consistent than they are accurate. (i.e if I’m off by 2 percent I’m always off by 2 percent).

I track all of this on a spreadsheet and create my own charts. It’s really interesting to see the charts go down on the weekdays and rise on the weekends. It gives me something to look back at and see the progress I’ve made (or lack there of at times) as I work towards hitting my ideal weight.

How often do you weigh yourself if at all?

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I wish I had the nerve to go and talk to her. What was going through her head?

I mentioned something to the others at my table about it, but they were busy venting about work. It got me thinking though about how much we take our abilities for granted. Specifically the ability to just get up and walk whenever we like. I’m amazed at how many people go out of their way not to walk or walk as little as possible. Over the past week or so I’ve noticed tons of examples of this:

• People circle the parking lot looking for a spot closer to my building.
• People sitting and waiting for someone to load groceries into their car just so they could take the closer spot. 
• Countless people I work with will wait up to 5 minutes for the elevator before even thinking about using the stairs.
• My neighbour driving to the corner store, which is a 10 minute walk away to pick up some bread. 

My point is that so many people out there can’t do what you won’t do. So the next time that you feel depressed about your weight, feel like being “lazy” or are otherwise getting down on yourself, just get up off your butt and go for a walk. You will feel so much better afterwards.

But honestly though the only reason that really matters, is because you can. 

What other abilities do you take for granted?

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