Going to the gym and training for an hour isn’t the biggest hurdle to overcome for most of our personal training clients. Training allows you to blow off steam, provides a feeling of accomplishment, and the best of all is that it is over and done with usually in an hour. The challenge lays in the remaining 23 hours of the day.
Keeping on top of nutrition and getting a good night’s sleep becomes much harder with the added stressors of work, kids, house duties, not to mention trying to maintain some sort of social life and level of self-improvement. The combined responsibilities that arise in life can often at times cause your nutrition to slip or cut your good night’s sleep short, which can jeopardise your fat loss or hypertrophy results in the long run.
Below we have listed 3 things that can help you juggle the pressures of life and still focus on your fat loss or muscle building goals.
SCHEDULE YOUR WEEK FROM START TO FINISH
Scheduling your week from start to finish will allow you keep track of what things you have to complete and keep you accountable to complete them.
Having a schedule of all the things you have to complete each day and at what time can actually make you realise that there are a spare couple of hours in your week to keep on top of things, provided you manage your time well. Being constantly stressed and thinking that you have all these things to do can actually at times make you less productive and waste more time than if you wrote it all down and achieved each item within the set time frame.
Scheduling is very important also when life throws you something unexpected that requires you to stop what you’re doing and attend to something else. Having your schedule laid out for you allows you to shift your time around to make sure you are still able to get everything done.
For a lot of people, their schedules can be hectic and may not allow much time for unexpected occurrences, but the key is to prioritise what is truly important and needs to be done, and then maybe sacrificing other activities. Especially if you are working with a personal trainer and paying them a premium price, you must be prepared to prioritise your training and nutrition, otherwise you won’t see the results you are looking for.
BE ACCOUNTABLE
Keep yourself accountable to your goal and the work that needs to be done to achieve it. It can be easier to say that you have other important things to do and neglect your nutrition, sleep, or training, but this comes back to the first point about scheduling your days and prioritising your time.
Some people are better at holding themselves accountable opposed to others. In this case, hiring a personal trainer may be the best decisions to make to help you get you to your goal and keep you accountable for the work that needs to be done.
SCHEDULE IN SOME DOWN TIME
This might seem to contradict the above 2 points, but it is vital for long term success with training and nutrition. You cannot live life at 100% all of the time, and efforts to do so can result in slowed progress with strength, fat loss and hypertrophy, and negative effects to your health.
What is considered down time will vary from person to person, so there really is no right or wrong way to approach this. To some, going to the gym and smashing a session can be considered their down time, while others may prefer to read a book, get a massage, or simply just go for a walk.
Your down time should bring you joy, relieve psychological stress, and provide a feeling of rejuvenation preparing you to head back into the work week and the stressors of life with a positive outlook.
Staying on track with training and nutrition comes down to having a plan and being prepared. Life can place some hurdles in your way and it may seem hard at times to keep up, but scheduling your days and holding yourself accountable is a must if you want to see results, but don’t underestimate the benefits of taking a break and having some time to yourself. Remember that your goal of fat loss, building muscle, improving your health, or whatever it may be may be accomplished within 12-24 weeks, but the ability to maintain those results and continue to build on them requires some long term strategies to ensure you stay lean, healthy, and happy for years to come.