Fit For Life: Reward Yourself
Saturday, January 31, 2015
I haven’t had the time to get to the gym. I haven’t had the time to call you back. I want to see that movie, but I don’t have the time. I want to start packing and bringing my lunch, but I don’t have the time. Haven’t had the time to stop over, but I will soon. Does this sound familiar to you? Heck, we can all relate to this. Right? Well, here is another question. If my gym always has people in it, and the phone is ringing throughout the day, I do usually have my food with me, and I do usually see my family members several days a week. It makes me wonder. After all, we are all given the same 24 hours in the day. So why do others have the time, or find the time, to do certain things? Why are other people working out regularly, almost no matter what else happens in their day? Why do some people almost always find the time to eat healthy food? Yes, I’ll agree, it takes more time – time to think, plan, buy, cook, and sometimes pack. Why do some people get through their to-do list almost all the time, make all their phone calls that need to be made, and still get to enjoy a few of life's simple pleasures, like going to the movies, while others are always saying they just can’t find the time?
MAKE the time.
Why? Because people MAKE the time to do the things that are important or necessary to them. They do not get extra time during the day, nor do they have some magic wand that gets things done for them. They manage their time so they can be efficient and accomplish all the necessary things that are part of their day. If you want something bad enough, you will make the time to do it. If it isn’t important enough, you will just make an excuse. I know that there are certain things that we can’t avoid. Kids getting sick and having to stay home from school, granted, you can’t get out of the house. Your boss sets a deadline, and you can’t get out of it, so you need to stay late, or you get into a car accident, and are stranded for a day with no vehicle. These are extraordinary circumstances, and can’t be avoided; legitimate reasons to fall off track…temporarily. But, they are not part of our every day routines, and happen infrequently, therefore we must deal with the temporary situation, fix the problem and move on.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIt’s when you say “I know I should be working out, but..., or I know my diet isn’t that good but..., or I feel bad that I haven’t seen this person in a while but… These are the things you should be working on to try and fix. Saying you do not have the time is a self fabricated excuse, because if others can find the time to do it, so can you. So why don’t we do the things that are important to us? Why do we get discouraged when we don’t get enough done in our day? When you fail to accomplish what you set out to do, day in and day out, it becomes a habit. We are all still doing things that we know are wrong. We say it to ourselves. We say it to friends. Heck, we even say it to strangers. My advice is to find one of those things that you know you are doing wrong, and stop doing it. Then, decide what is really important to you.
Time Management
Time is our most valuable asset, yet we seem to always be wasting it. There's a lot of information out there about how to be better at managing your time, here’s just some tips that work for me – maybe they will work for you:
Make a list of everything you need to accomplish in any given day. I remember back to the days when I was a paperboy, my supervision used to tell us “keep your book, you will always collect more money that way”, and he was right. I always remembered who owed what when it was written down. The same holds true for your eating. Write it down, and you will be surprised at the empty calories going onto that list.
Prioritize your list. Put your important items on top. This way you will accomplish these items first. Here’s what’s on my list today:
* market
* drop off jr. at practice
* write GoLocal article
* gym
* car wash
* pick up jr. from practice
Delegate the things that someone else can do for minimal cost. House keeping, landscaping, small odd jobs like painting, and washing the car. Use the time that you have to do the things only you can do, like making money, and taking care of your health.
Execute that list. Nothing feels better than checking off things you have accomplished. Even better feeling is crumpling up a bunch of sticky notes that are complete.
So next time someone asks you why you didn’t do something, do not say I didn’t have the time, instead reply, I mismanaged my day, and didn’t make the time to do it. It wasn’t important enough for me to get it done.
Now, get out and enjoy doing something you love to do. Because time is really all we have. Reward yourself!
Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one!"
Related Slideshow: Great Ways for RI Moms to Stay Fit this Winter
Related Articles
- Fit for Life: Get a Coach. I did.
- Fit for Life: 1-2-3: REST!
- Fit for Life: Change. Embrace it.
- Fit For Life: How To Be Unstoppable
- Fit for Life: Losing Summer, Not Fitness
- Fit for Life: What Would Matt Do?
- Fit for Life: Got Drive?
- Fit for Life: I Don’t Want to Hear It, So Don’t Say It
- Fit for Life: Feel Invincible
- Fit for Life: Fit At Any Age
- Fit for Life: Back to School – Two Ways to Get It Right
- Fit For Life: You Can…and You Will..
- Fit For Life: Moving It…Indoors
- Fit For Life: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Go!
- Fit for Life: Exercise happens for a reason…
- Fit For Life: Set goals – Not Resolutions
- Fit For Life: Time Passages
- Fit For Life: Missing that High? Why?
- Fit For Life: Living on Easy Street?
- Fit For Life: Winning at Sport – and Life!
- Fit for Life: It’s Just Talk
- Fit For Life: Work(out) Smarter…
- Fit For Life: Don’t be a turkey…
- Fit For Life: Back to Basics – Core Strength
- Fit For Life: The Rule of Expectation
