What’s your excuse?
One thing I’ve come to realize about women is that we’re very good (myself included occasionally!) of coming up with excuses as to why we can’t do something when it comes to being focused with food and fitness or pursuing a goal or dream. Equally one of the biggest roadblocks I see when women want to achieve something, is that they thing they have to do things ‘perfectly’ otherwise there’s no point doing them at all.
I love this quote…
“The only thing stopping you from reaching your goal is the ball**** story you tell yourself as to why you can’t get there”
Kids, work, a busy social month, a big work project, the school holidays, the in laws are staying, you get the picture. But when we have all these crazy things going on, this in my view is where we should be putting MORE effort into ourselves and our food and fitness focus, rather than shying away from it completely. We become stronger, we create better mental clarity for ourselves and our general well being is enhanced massively. If you’re working towards a goal, of course you can take a break if you want to have some fun (that’s a choice rather than an excuse!), but if you have all the afore-mentioned things going on, will they ever really go away? Why can’t you still pursue your dreams whilst you have other things going on in your life?
Ok sure I’m not one to promote burn out from doing too much, but what about creating 30-60 minutes of time for you every day? Whether it be fitness or self development, this is just 4% of your day.
Let’s look at some examples of women who despite being very busy make time for their goals and health…..
Michelle Obama starts her day with a 5am training session. She’s busy with her work and wants to hang out with her kids after school. She also often has social functions, so her ROUTINE (this is the real secret!) is to get up early and train before the chaos ensues. She does it 5 days a week and it’s something she does religiously. Her arms and physique say it all! It’s something she does, NO EXCUSES.
Someone like me often starts in my office at 5am so I can go and train once I’ve dropped my twins off to school. As I write this I’m on holiday (taking an hour out of my two week break to put a blog together isn’t a bad thing before I get accused of not being able to switch off, ha!) and I’ve made time for exercise whilst I’ve been here too. When I get back I’ve got to manage three sets of emails as my PA is away, I’ve got such a lot of my own work to do and I’m moving home within 2 weeks of getting back. But exercising for an hour everyday is the core of me being able to cope with all this! But yes this may mean going to bed earlier or getting up earlier, but if I don’t create the time to train, it simply won’t be created.
A couple of years ago, a woman was thinking of signing up to the Best Body bootcamp and she contacted the office because she had a big work project on and had just moved house and was living in chaos. ‘Maybe I should wait for a few months until everything dies down?’ she said. But do things ever really die down?! Something new always comes up and before we know it a year has passed and we haven’t started anything! We had a long chat and in the end she decided that having some food and fitness focus around her work and home chaos would be really beneficial to her mental and physical well being. She took my advice and did her training at 6am every day so it was done and as a result she sailed through her work stuff and just let her home chaos stay for a few weeks (see my recent blog about priorities for more advice on this!). By getting up early, she went to bed early. I made her switch her computer off by 9.30pm and guess what, she was waaaaay more efficient at work, slept better and looked forward to her exercise! No web surfing and unnecessary personal emails that month. She trained, ate well and in her words ‘was more efficient than she had ever been in her whole life’, despite being the busiest she had ever been! Plus it inspired her to stick to this routine as she felt so good. My guess is as she hadn’t done that bootcamp, she’d still be one of those clients always ‘thinking about doing’ a program!
The purpose of me sharing this is that this time of year in August, I know women often want to wait until September to restart a fitness program, or wait until the kids are back at school before doing something for them. Now if this is a genuine choice, then I wholeheartedly support that. But if it’s an excuse, then my advice is to start doing something for you now, not waiting until you have better conditions!
This is another one of my favourite quotes….
“If you wait for perfect conditions, they’ll never arrive”
I get back from my holiday a week today and it would be very easy for me to say I’ll wait until September to get refocused after my break away. But I’m not because
a) that would be an excuse,
b) I don’t know what’s coming up in September, maybe September will be even more manic than August (!)
c) I feel so great when I exercise most days, despite having kids on school holidays and moving chaos around me!
So I’ll be joining a great group of women on Monday 10th August who are doing either the Tummy ATTACK, Sugar HIIT & Best Body Bootcamps and by the time they end on Sunday 6th September, we won’t have the post holiday uphill struggle many women have by doing very little over July and August!
You don’t have to do a bootcamp ‘perfectly’ in order to get some great results. You don’t have to have the kids back at school in order to create some time for you (The Tummy ATTACK bootcamp you only need 35 minutes a day!) and you can still eat healthily around in laws staying and being social with friends.
YOU NEED TO BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE.
INSPIRE OTHERS TO BE HEALTHIER OR FITTER
BE THE CATALYST IN POSITIVE SUMMER HEALTH & FITNESS CHANGES
And if you hear yourself making excuses, stop yourself!
Where there’s a will, there’s a way and always see barriers as hurdles
Our online bootcamps run all year round and up and coming dates include,, Monday 6th June, Monday 4th July and Monday 12th September. For more info and to book your place visit HERE.
Hope to see some of you on one of the online programs at some point throughout the year we all share the same forum so it doesn’t matter what bootcamp you choose, we all work together!
Have a great week everyone,
