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HOW TO RECONCILE WORK AND WORK-OUT

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By Sarah Hougen cpt
http://trainwithsarah.com

I’m sure many of you wonder how they are going to manage to juggle their private life, working for the boss, and taking time for themselves at the gym. During my first years of work and training, I was lucky enough that I was working at my own gym. This of course made training during working hours pretty darned simple!

For the past two years, I’ve been working from home, training clients on-line and pretty much being master of my own time. Again, training schedule has not been a problem. However, in both cases, I did make a schedule that I stuck to; to make sure I didn’t just let the day pass without having done my workout. You can’t always trust willpower, even as a trainer (yes, we procrastinate too at times).

Now though, I’ll be going back to the working world within the next month or so, and that poses a whole new set of challenges. I have been telling my clients for years to fit their workout in early, before work; or during lunch hour if their break is long enough; or after work, on the way home.

My lunch-break is only going to be 30 minutes, that’s the time it would take me to get to the gym and back, no time to train once I got there, so that’s not an option. We have half an hour commute in the morning, but a good hour in the afternoon due to traffic - and no, there is no public transport that works for us, we checked when the gas prices went crazy. I just know that I wouldn’t do any workout after work, and cook, and have time to unwind …

Which leaves the morning. We leave the house at 6, so I had to find a way to get the workout to fit into the preceding hour without letting the animals go without breakfast or leaving the house without a shower and make-up. Well, I found it. In fact, doing a “test-run” the other day when I went in to see about this job and spend the day to see if it would be something for me, I was ready in 55 minutes, including time to pick up some cat-puke (sorry).

The secret weapon is … drum roll … 7 Minute Muscle. I know, I’ve told you before how great that program is, from the muscle building and fat loss perspective, but this time I’m going to show you how it fits into a morning routine of an hour total, getting your day off to a great start:

5 am      up, into training gear, fed the dogs

5:05        in the gym already set up the night before. 7 minutes back, 9 minutes cardio

5:23        shower, make-up, street clothes

5:45        grabbed food containers from the fridge, made a shake to go, cleaned up from the cat

5:50        winter coat on, garbage bag thrown out, food bag in the car

5:50        we’re off

That was Tuesday, back-day. I’d be setting up the gym in the evenings, with the stations and weights all ready to just “jump” on in the morning, thus saving myself a couple of minutes there (as I’d done Monday for Tuesday). This of course, works with an in-house set-up, but you really don’t need a lot of equipment at all. Frankly, all I use is our selectable dumbbells, and the lat tower for the back because we have it, but I could easily use the dumbbells for the lats as well.

What I need to organize now of course, are the meals; or we’ll be doing a lot of unhealthy and expensive eating out. Looks like weekends will be partly bulk cooking and/or pre-preparing for quick cooking. I’m imagining some stews, casseroles, soups; pre-cut vegetables ready for the steamer, pre-seasoned, butter flied, raw chicken breast to put on the Foreman grill for 4-5 minutes; pre-cut and basted fish filets that will marinade as they thaw; pre-formed hamburger patties from lean ground beef or chicken; washed and pre-cut lettuce bagged or in a tight container for quick use; only one or two little things will have to be prepared last minute, which won’t be a problem.

And of course, we use Every Other Day Diet as our master-plan.

So yes, I tell you that training and healthy eating can be fit into a busy day, and it can. This is my way of doing it. Lewis will go to the gym at lunchtime, as he has a full hour break that works for him. He prefers eggs for breakfast, so I make them while I prepare supper the night before and he “nukes” them at work in the morning.

There is always a way to fit your fitness plan into your schedule of “normal people”s day. Those who say they don’t have time, are in fact just looking for an excuse to stay out of shape, overweight and tired. Cooking from scratch doesn’t take longer then battling the packaging of some pre-cooked, overly processed thing and putting it in the microwave oven for 5-6 minutes, that’s the time I grill or steam our fresh foods, without getting frustrated over packages that won’t open.

In case you’re wondering, we do enjoy dinners with the family once a week, and sometimes add another meal out just the two of us or with friends. It’s all in the planning.

3 weeks till Christmas and New Year … yes, so? That’s no reason to put this off till January. Your body doesn’t care about weekdays, months, only being in the best shape it can be, and healthy. Help it, help yourself.

To your success,
Sarah, CPT
Lewis, Publisher
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