AtoZ Fitness Article Blog.

Procrastination
By Sarah C. Hougen CPT 

You know. That little voice telling you "hey, skip the gym today, have a cup cake instead and watch some TV. After all, you’ve been good for three days straight now, you deserve a break". Ever heard that one? Or an equivalent? I’ll bet you have. I know I have. All the trainers I know have heard it. From time to time, we still do. The thing is, if we hear it now, after years of clean eating and training, it’s not to bad. If you hear it after just three days into a new lifestyle plan, you could be in trouble.

So what to do? That voice keeps popping into your head! You had every intention last night, of getting up and doing that fasted cardio. Then the alarm goes off and you hear the wind howl, the rain pounding on the window as if trying to break it, and al thoughts of getting out from under the covers is gone. Vanished. Evaporated. Like you wanted your bodyfat to vanish and evaporate. Only it won’t, not if you stay under those covers!

Well, you blew that one. Now breakfast. Since you’re already feeling miserable for having missed the cardio, might as well just grab a coffee and muffin, right? After all, you’ve blown it for today!

By 10 am you go for yet another coffee, with … oh why not, that candy bar looks good and you’re in a hurry.

Lunchtime, but there’s a meeting in half an hour, no time to worry about the lean meal, just grab a piece of pizza or a quick burger or something, anything. This isn’t your day anyway, so scr** it!

You get home and feel miserable about your day. No cardio, no lean meals, no energy to go to the gym and train weights now, and what’s the point anyway? May as well have some ready made something from the freezer, zap it in the microwave and eat it in front of the TV. There’s always tomorrow …

STOP!  REWIND!!

Yes, you missed the cardio! Is that the end of the world? H***  no!  It’s the very reason to have a healthy breakfast, knowing that you won’t be adding more fat to the existing at least, and that cardio can be done later anyway. Not as efficient for burning fat as the fasted cardio, but still good.

So get the eggs out, make scrambled eggs from 3 whites and 1 whole egg, add a tomato and a slice of whole wheat toast, and presto, you’re still on track!

10 am, you’re not as ravenous as your colleagues who most likely skipped breakfast altogether. You have a fruit and some almonds in a container that you prepared the day before, and your water bottle.

At lunch, you get some light cardio in by walking briskly around the block. You then sit down to a healthy meal that you brought from home (salad, or something to heat up if your workplace provides that), a lean protein, a vegetable and some complex carbs (aka starches, whole grain of course!)

On your way home, you snack on an apple and a stick of low fat cheese, quickly change into your training clothes and hit the gym. If you have finished the weight routine in 40 minutes, take 5, then do 15 minutes HIIT cardio.

Then home again, and dinner. You make twice the amount you need so that you have the rest to bring for lunch tomorrow. Now, there is still a good couple of hours left before bed, so relax J watch some TV.

In short, if you miss ONE element of your day, don’t blow the entire day! I have off days, days when I wake up to dog diarrhea all over the kitchen floor and no way to do cardio before that is clared away! I’ll tell you, the inspiration to do cardio is gone after that. So? That is not a reason to blow the rest of my day. I still eat clean, I still do my resistance training, and I may not even do any cardio at all.  I’m not a fan, and I really only do it if I have to in order to move some stubborn pocket of fat -  I’d rather shorten the rest intervals of my weight training and work up a sweat and higher heart rate that way, it’s a lot more fun!

You can also start your day great, cardio, meals and all, and simply have to go to some birthday thing at work, with a cake, because it’s the boss’ birthday or someone’s promotion, and you can’t get out of having a piece. Someone hands you a plate with a big piece of your favourite type of cake. But hey … you do not have to devour every last crumb of it!!! Take a bite or two to be polite, and then discretely forget it in a corner! It will not ruin your day. It will not ruin your efforts for the week.

If you want to see how I manage house, family (man and animals), work, training and meals, get your copy of  Fitness For You at  www.healthylivesforyou.com for a mere $ 9,99  or if you want me to hover over your e-mail at a minimum of once a week, you can sign up for some on-line personal training at www.trainwithsarah.com

I promise you, we have a lot of fun, my clients sometimes even become friends.

While you think about that, do not let one slip-up ruin your whole day. Ever. Remember that "Nothing Tastes As Good As Being Lean Feels" (Janck LaLanne)

Sarah, CPT
AtoZ Fitness