I Don't Have Time to Work Out & [Insert other excuse here] Revisited

Those of you who are new to the blog might have missed my original post way back in September 2013 which talked about the various reasons why people can't or won't try and stay in shape and provided some viable solutions to those problems.

That post, if you missed it, can be found HERE.

As we're nearing the end of January, I keep hearing and reading the same story be it "I want to loose weight" or "I want to tone up" or "I'm really unhappy with my body." On several of these occasions I have offered solutions and seem to come up against something of a brick wall of excuses such as:

1. I don't have the time
2. I don't have the money
3. I'm not near a gym
4. It's too much effort

Being my usual helpful self, I want to revisit my original post and share some new options and maybe provide a reality check at the same time. There is nothing worse than being asked for advice and being completely ignored, make the effort.

So, first things first, I don't have the time.

The solution here is simple, make the time. We recently moved offices which now means I get home later than I used to. As such, my evening work-outs have gone out the window somewhat.

My solution? I set my alarm 20 minutes earlier and now crack on with a work-out first thing in the morning (6:08am 3 times a week Monday-Friday) and get a train which leaves 15-minutes later. As I was getting into the office an hour earlier than I needed to, I had a little time to spare and now arrive 40 minutes earlier than I need to. I could get an even later train, but as we know, Southern are unreliable at the best of times.

What, you don't have the time to cook proper meals? Cooking from scratch doesn't need to take hours, I frequently whip up a good home cooked meal in less than 30 minutes, and yes, that's totally from scratch. Struggling for inspiration for quick cook meals? Check out the Lean in 15 cookbook by Joe Wicks, the meals are uber tasty and seriously filling.

By the time you've gone out for dinner at the local pub, ordered your food and then waited for it to arrive at the table, you could have cooked yourself something wholesome and nutritious which will give your body the energy it needs to function properly.  

Next, I don't have the money.

Well this can be checked off fairly easily as eating well doesn't necessarily have to cost the earth. Ad and I have done the High Fat Diet on several occasions and found this only increased our weekly food bill by around £10 a week, but, given we weren't buying mid-week snacks we were making quite the saving.

You don't need to buy any fancy books or nap yourself a personal trainer to get results either. How about utilising free diet based resources such as the Eat More Loose More plan run by Good Morning Britain? This website comes complete with a full eating plan, shopping lists, work out videos and even recipes. I mean, the shopping list is literally done for you, the recipes are done for you, the meals are planned out for you, can it get any easier? 

And, tying in I don't live near the gym as well as, I don't have the time in with I don't have the money, I'm sure you have an internet connection no? If so, Youtube is your friend!

I regularly use Youtube as a means of tracking down great workouts which can be bashed out quickly. Youtube is of course FREE and you don't require access to a gym. At most, you might need a yoga mat which can be picked up from a TK Maxx or a Sports Direct for £5, or a light set of free weights which, again, can be picked up for around the price of your morning Starbucks. To get you started check out these great channels:

The Body Coach TV

Full of  High Intensity Interval Training based work outs, many of which can be done in small spaces and in under 20 minutes. Everyone has 20-minutes to workout, the below Fat Burning HIIT and Ab workout is one of my favourites mixing cardio with ab focused moves.

Popsugar Fitness

There are tons and tons of workouts available on this channel, ranging from 5-minute intense body weight workouts, 15-minute boxing workouts, 20-minute HIIT workouts, kettlebells, yoga and everything in between. Please don't try and kid yourself by saying you haven't even got 5-minutes to do something for yourself. The 20-minute Bikini HIIT Workout below is fast becoming my go-to morning workout.

Tone It Up

Now these ladies seriously know how to pack a punch into their workouts. They're not easy by any means but again, if you've got 20-minutes, then that's enough time to tuck a good workout under your belt. Their HIITy Bitty Bikini workout is hard work and you will require some light weights but it literally works everything including your shoulders and your core.

Finally, it's too much effort.

Well, it took all of 10-minutes of utilising the worlds favourite search engine Google to find all of these resources and I'm sure, if I wanted to, I could waffle on for pages and pages.

5, 10 or 20-minutes of your day to get a workout in, is not effort, suck it up and get it done!

If you honestly find yourself saying, after this entire post that it's too much effort or that you can't be bothered then clearly you don't really want to change. That's totally fine, you have to do what makes you happy, but please stop making excuses about why you can't and actually get out there and DO.

It's your body after all!

Do you have any free resources that you'd like to share? Have you tried any of the above workouts?