Since I didn’t feel comfortable talking about much yesterday, I didn’t get a chance to fill you guys in on my first day at my new job. I am about to head back to work for a few hours this afternoon, but the training I went through yesterday seemed pertinent to the blog and I wanted to share a little bit about what I learned.
First, let’s cover today.
Workout + Breakfast
I woke up early for a quick workout at the gym that began with 20 minutes of incline walking, followed by a cardio circuit workout.
After my morning workout, it was time for breakfast. I was, yet again, in the mood for peanut butter and made myself a simple breakfast featuring the creamy nut butter.
I topped a toasted whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and a sliced banana.
I spent the morning updating some Excel spreadsheets to try to keep blog and freelance stuff organized before breaking for lunch.
Lunch
Lunch today featured curried chicken salad that I made by combining shredded chicken, light mayo, mustard, chopped carrot and zucchini and curry powder.
On the side I enjoyed golden tomatoes and half of an English muffin topped with peanut butter.
Now onto exercise talk!
Exercise Obstacles
Part of my job as a personal trainer at the gym will include taking those who are new to exercise through some of the gym’s free wellness programs that were set in place to help people form a fitness habit. A key component of one of the programs is identifying exercise obstacles, or the things that pop up in everyday life that can derail a fitness plan and get in the way of regular workouts.
Some of the most common exercise obstacles:
- Time
- Family/Children Demands
- Boredom with Exercise
- Low Energy
- Lack of Support
We then we took some time to brainstorm ways to combat these obstacles:
- Time: Consider morning workouts.
As someone who always went to the gym after work, when I began my second job out of college, I found myself working many, many late nights. My late hours cut into my workouts and it didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the gym regularly if I kept planning to exercise after work. I knew that nothing ever popped up on my schedule at 5 a.m., so I switched to morning workouts and had a much easier time making it to the gym regularly. If you are interested in making the transition into morning workouts, you might enjoy this post: How To Work Out In the Morning.
- Family/Children Demands: Brainstorm at-home workout options or ways to be active with your family.
If your kids are sick, perhaps there’s a workout DVD you can do at home? If the kids are at home and you want to spend quality time with them, maybe you can take the dog for a walk together or play outside and enjoy being active as a family.
- Boredom with Exercise: Explore new workout options.
Try a new group exercise class! Bored with group exercise? Consider training for your first 5K. Seek out a personal trainer to help you learn new strength training exercises to incorporate into your exercise regimen. Look into adult intramural sports like volleyball or flag football.
- Low Energy: Remind yourself how much better you feel after a workout.
Focus on healthy eating and choose snacks that leave you feeling energized rather than sleepy. Consider keeping a journal to track what foods or activities make you feel the best. Surround yourself with energizing people. Update your workout playlist with upbeat music.
- Lack of Support: Surround yourself with people who have similar fitness goals.
Try reaching out to someone in a group exercise class or chat with people at the gym to meet those with similar fitness interests. Consider talking to family or friends about how much their support means to you and how much you need their support to help you achieve your goals and live a healthier life.
Question of the Afternoon
- What is your biggest exercise obstacle? How do you or how could you overcome it?
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I’m sure you get this question a lot, but what is your opinion on cleanses?
My biggest obstacle is following through with my plans! I always say I’m going to work out later in the day and then other tasks take priority. Unfortunately, I already wake up at 5:30 so unless I want to become nocturnal early morning workouts aren’t an option. What does help is planning a workout with a friend, that was I’m committed to working out!
My biggest obstacle for working out is time. I try to workout in the mornings to get it out of the way because if I wait something always comes up. Love this post!
I agree with you and Christina in the comments about working out in the mornings. I never used to be a morning person, but after college when I had less time to myself in the afternoons to workout, I had to force myself to start getting up early to workout. Now, it’s totally normal for my husband and I to be up at 4:45am 5 days a week to get our workouts in before work! It’s amazing how your habits change after you force yourself into a pattern for a while….
With my friends, the thing that I hear them say the most often for the reason they don’t work out is that they don’t have the energy for it. This seems to be a chronic issue among hard-working people: we don’t always make time for ourselves! Unless I can get them to the gym in the first place to realize that it will give them the energy they desire, it’s nearly impossible to convince them that it will work for them. This is always discouraging for me because I want to help people feel as great as they should, but they have to get out the door first!
My biggest obstacle is boredom! I can only go on the elliptical for so long, ya know? That’s why running is so fun for me. The scenery changes as I move!
My biggest exercise obstacle is time. Therefore I try to include exercise in my daily routine. i.e when playing with my daughter I jump on the trampoline with her, or I take the stairs instead of the escalator.
My obstacle is definitely time. I actually prefer to workout in the mornings, but right now I am already getting up at 5:00 to student teach, so getting up early to workout isn’t an option since I don’t want to get up at 3:45 or 4:00 to workout. I am so busy with school and wedding planning that I really have to make time for my workouts.
My biggest obstacle is worrying too much about other people watching me work out. I’m trying to realize that most of the other people around are so focused on their own workouts that I really don’t matter!! It’s a tough one to get over…Also consistency is a problem for me – although I’ve found a workout buddy in my friend/coworker which makes me much more inclined to go to the gym.
I always get some rocking music on my iPod because when I focus on that, my workout goes by much quicker. I also try to remember that 30 minutes of exercise a day is a good goal, so even if I can’t make it to the gym, I can still walk the dog around the blog. Every little bit counts!!
My biggest obstacle is finding the motivation to workout, I just get so bored. Though I am only a freshman in college, the last four years my friends and I were very into working out. I ran XC all four years, I played soccer, I have gone to group classes at the Y multiply times a week for years, have done 3 half marathons with a friend and I love biking and kayaking in the summer. I have dabbled in so many things that now I am in college and without my workout buddies nothing really interest me and I have no one to keep me going.
I seem to lose motivation… I also tend to run out of time. ESPECIALLY this time of year thanks to finals… I want all the time to study and workouts seem to go by the wayside :/
I agree that it is hard for many, even me to figure out the perfect time to get my workout in. During the week its always after work, but on the weekends it could be early in the morning or in the early evening. Then if you add in the weather situation it can change. One obstacle I’ve been having is finding new music. I tend to get bored with the certain songs I run too.
I seriously don’t think group fitness could ever get boring- if the instructor is fun and regularly mixes the programs there should never be issues. 🙂
I have a follow-through problem…I have huge ambitions, but when it’s time for my workout, it’s like I can’t make myself do it.
My biggest obstacle would probably be staying motivated to give 100%. I’ve got the consistent working out thing down, but too often they’re not the most effective.
My biggest exercise obstacle is nothing really because I love feeling active. I workout everyday I can just so those off days become off days which is required for muscle growth anyways so it all works out :-). The worst case scenario I take my dogs on a walk up a hill and do a quick full body workout since I have a variety of weights at home, which I set up for that reason. Hope you are enjoying your new job. Love + Shine Courtstar
I think my biggest obstacle has been finding the time to workout. I found that was really difficult when I was in university. I feel like I have more time now that I’m working, and transitioning to morning workouts has helped a lot. I’ve now developed a habit of waking up early to exercise before work and it would feel weird if I didn’t do it. It helps to have the evenings free to relax.
I’m thinking I need to switch up my routine a bit, as for the past few weeks I’ve been doing mostly Body Pump and Spin. I love Body Pump but it’s the same instructor in the mornings and he’s been doing the same release for the past few weeks. Hopefully he switches it up soon, or else I might try to do an evening class once in a while.
Another idea for people who don’t have the time to workout is walking or cycling to work if that’s a possibility.
My biggest obstacle was finding the time to workout with 4 small children at home. I knew my energy level was too low to really commit to it after they went to bed at night. So, even though I never considered myself to be a morning person, I committed to getting up before the kids each day. At first it was very difficult, but it quickly became my outlet. It has become that blessed hour every day that I take for myself, and I love that it gets my day started out on the right foot! I also workout at home to save myself more time.
lol, you have the same ancient Ipod Nano I have!! Love the Iphone but sometimes its great to have the little guy!
Not having enough time for a workout is definitely something I struggle with from time to time. Most “normal” work days are fine, but when I’m traveling or stuck with a 12-14 hour day, working out falls to the bottom of my priority list!
As someone who has a desk job, I think low energy is really a killer. I eat all the right food (well, the majority of the time), get enough sleep, etc. but at the end of the day I just don’t feel like working out! I think its pretty darn common with people who work desk jobs. I always tell myself that not every workout needs to be “turbo-charged.” If I’m tired its okay to go in there and pedal away at the elliptical while listening to fun music/watching a TV show/reading a magazine. It is of course not good to do that every day, but its definitely better than skipping those workouts.
My biggest obstacle is loss of motivation from not seeing the results fast enough. I’ll be really excited for 2 weeks and then really frustrated when I don’t feel like my body is changing quickly enough.
I’m in the same position you are! I have been eating great and working out hard and regularly, and the scale hasn’t changed! It’s so frustrating! You are not alone!
This is helpful. It’s so hard to wake up in the morning to workout sometimes, but then you have a ton more energy for the day.
Thanks for sharing the ways to identify exercise obstacles. I think it’s important for all of us to evaluate how well our fitness routines are working for us from time to time and make adjustments as necessary.
Mine is energy. I am a SEVERE anemic with a blood disorder that causes my body to not produce enough blood PLUS I sit at a desk for 10 hours Monday – Thursday for work. You would think after sitting looking at spreadsheets and reports all day I would want to get up and move around, but NOPE. I am exhausted and just want to vege out and watch TV or read a good book.
Those are such great suggestions! I find some of those obstacles in my way often. I just had my first 5:30 am run before work yesterday and I LOVED it! Because I was up and energized I wasn’t rushing out the door last minute and loved the feeling of having accomplished a huge part of my day before even going to work!
My biggest obstacle is also finding time for the gym. Being a full-time student in college with a full-time job isn’t easy to say the least. I, however, started going in the morning and learned that I feel so much more motivated in the mornings! Why didn’t I think of it before? I hope your plans are working out for you! Xoxo
Great tips on addressing exercise barriers, Julie! As a busy mom who helps motivate other busy moms to get healthy, I could not agree more. (Though it’s still incredibly hard to motivate when you’re sleep deprived, time-crunched, and fog-brained!)
I’m a morning exercise person but sometimes it’s just the simple getting ready to go for a run that’s my obstacle. I try to lay out my clothes in advance to get me going!
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My biggest obstacle is my health! I love to run and have recently added a “sadie” energy level rescue to my household. However, I have fibromyalgia. I teach kids all day and am on my feet for work about 9 hours and then come home to a high energy dog. I can barely move for walks with her! Very much missing my old mizunos and pain free exercise.
Your breakfast choices sure are yummy. Unfortunately, I must have protein in the form of eggs or I crash at about 9 AM.
Looks so good! Love your blog, and can’t wait to try out some recipes. I just started my blog http://www.lyndsaynicole.blogspot.com. Would love a follow back 🙂
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