How To Deal With the 4 Most Common Obstacles

I work out every day, 365 days a year, always eat the right foods, and never put poisonous substances in my body. I also never gain weight involuntarily. I’m fantastic. YEAH RIGHT!!

It is vitally important for you to realize that your diet/training routine is NOT LINEAR. You are not going to work out every day, you will have days that you have unplanned “cheats”, and even if you have lost weight lately you might temporarily gain some of it back. This is life. And you need to have a healthy outlook on life.

The most important thing to remember when you are off your game is that you can get RIGHT BACK ON no matter how long it has been. Whenever you are ready for the excuses to stop taking over, the gym is waiting for you. So are the egg whites.  They will never go away. So, let’s address some of the most common obstacles and discuss how to overcome them.

1. You get sick.
   1. REST! Too many people take a couple of days off while they really feel like shit, and then run back to the gym as soon as they start feeling a little better. Don’t do this. Your body needs to recover completely when you are sick and by working out before you are completely better you are risking prolonging your sickness. The longer you are sick the longer you can’t work out.
2. You have partied your balls off this summer and you can barely do 1 sprint.
   • Exercise load is relative. It’s about how hard the exercise if FOR YOU NOW, not for you when you were on your A-game. Perhaps 6 months ago you easily sprinted 10 times and lifted 4 days a week. Now that you are starting again, you will see that you actually get results with much lighter intensity . The lighter intensity will affect you faster in your out of shape state. Perhaps you are not ready for sprints yet, so just do intervals of running and walking.
3. You are not seeing results with your exercise program any longer and you want to give up.
   • DON’T give up. The highest form of insanity is doing the same action over and over again, when the action has already proven itself to not have delivered the desired goal. Switch up your workout. You have most likely hit a plateau. Or perhaps you are eating more than you are burning. The key is that somewhere in there is a problem that can be corrected.
4. You have a new job and you don’t have time to go to the gym. You’re sooo busy.
   • Yes you do. Go on your lunch. Wake up an hour earlier. Do something to get better at time management. All it takes is a 45 min workout 3x/week to start seeing results. If you can’t find that kind of time it does not mean you are too busy, it just means you have poor time management skills.

So there you have it. Have I missed any excuses? Let me know if I have and I will let you know how to overcome them.