04/05/2024
It’s a real battle for me when someone sits on the other side of my desk, wanting to lose weight, while also telling me that they “just don’t have time” to exercise because….. (insert the varieties of excuses)
After I have taken the time to understand their schedule/obligations throughout the days, and their propensity to not follow through with exercising in the evening, coupled with my years of experience in doing this for a living, my recommendation is that they prioritize getting up to do it first thing in the morning.
To clarify: I am not saying that everyone has to exercise or that they should have the desire to change their body. I do not sit around judging others’ body composition or criticizing their lifestyle. But when people come to me and pay me because it’s their desire to do so, it’s my job to help them strategize on ways to accomplish that and build the roadmap for them on how to get there.
That being said, the number of people who sit across from me, look me in the face, and tell me they don’t have time, it makes my eye twitch.
By the time their 3:30pm appointment with me starts, I’ve been up for 12 hours. Here I am typing this, before I head out for my own exercise.
And before anyone responds with “yeah, but I’m just not a morning person”… Don’t do it!!! Because neither am I, therefore it makes me feel 🔪 some kind of way when people say that.
Or when people say “I go to bed too late for that and sleep is really important”
Yes, it is. So go to bed to earlier. I promise, after a few days of early rising, you WILL fall asleep earlier. 1) Put your phone down at night, 2) get in bed at a decent hour, and then get your a$$ out of bed when that alarm goes off in the morning, even when you made poor choices to disregard points 1 & 2, because that’s the only way to make your body clock adjust. If there are negative consequences for your decisions (you’re tired) you start making different decisions.
Bottom line is that we make time to do what is important to us. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that is only if we like it. You do not have to like exercise for your health to be important to you.
We do it anyway. Most of us don’t like going to work everyday. But we do it anyway because an income is important to us. Does everyone like taking showers & brushing teeth every day? But we do it anyway because being clean is important to us.
Exercise is important because health is important. And you know what, it’s totally fine if you value aesthetics over your actual health and that’s what motivates you to want to change your body composition. Because regardless of the motivation, positive changes to body composition WILL ABSOLUTELY improve your health, so I’m here for it.
But I realize that before people can believe something is possible, they have to be able to conceptualize it. There was indeed a time that I would have never fathomed getting up this early to exercise. Until little by little, I started seeing and knowing people who really did it. And right this moment, at 4am, I can text a minimum of 5 people I know and they will answer me, because they are up right now for the very same reason. (So 👋🏼 Hi Friends!)
Even after I truly realized some “crazy people” really do get to before God and everyone to move their bodies, I still held the belief “I could never”. But that was also a time when I was able to workout at a different time of the day. As my life circumstances changed and I began to realize that “life” was as dictating more of my evenings and it was interfering with my ability to prioritize my health, I knew I had to think about doing things differently. And there’s one fact that stands out: there’s absolutely less chance of life interfering with your commitment to yourself to prioritize your health when you exercise first thing in the morning - before your day starts and has a way of derailing your plans for later.
So if you find yourself constantly making excuses as to why you’re not able to commit 30-60 minutes of time to prioritize your health, you have to start making different choices.
And I’m here if you want to talk about that.
