What are your barriers to exercise? We all have reasons we didn't go for a run this morning, go for a lunch break walk, or hit the gym after work, even if we felt motivated to exercise and were otherwise mentally prepared. Granted, people these days are exceptionally busy, and sometimes even the most dedicated fitness freaks have to miss a workout. However, what at first may seem like a schedule-related, busy life-related, or otherwise beyond-your-control barrier to exercise may in fact be mostly psychological. That's right - I'm saying it's all in your head.
It sounds simple: you just have to want it badly enough. When you prioritize health and fitness in your life, you'll find a way to make them routine. Unfortunately we don't prioritize things just because someone tells us we should. This is not something others can instil in us, and it's a major point of frustration for many fitness professionals trying to get their clients to be more active. You must work toward finding your own answers to "Why do you want to be fit?" and "Why does health matter to you?" Think about what health and fitness mean to your daily life and to your future, and start working on getting rid of any obstacles you might have to eating right and working out.
Like everyone else, I face obstacles to being consistently active on a daily basis. Time management is a big one: I was a full time graduate student while working 3 jobs, and still managed to eat a healthy diet and train 6 days a week.
Think you have barriers to working out? Here are mine.
I have a potentially life-threatening condition called food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis. This prohibits me from training after having eaten anything within 8 hours, in case a food triggers a serious allergic reaction when coupled with exercise. We're talking about the epinephrine shot to the leg, hospitalization type of allergic reaction here. I deal with severe seasonal allergies and asthma for 5 months of the year that limit my activity and leave me barely able to get up most mornings, as well as weekly allergy shots for the past 3 years, after which I can't train - again due to anaphylaxis risk.
I also have serious food allergies unrelated to exercise, including raw fruit and tree nuts. Eating a 100% plant-based diet, this means I need to think carefully about sources of healthy fats, and I need to cook all my fruit before eating it.
Add these factors to the usual problems of balancing work, time with family and friends, and personal time, and I've got a host of excuses to not exercise!
Because health and fitness are my main priorities, though, I've created a system that works for me. I schedule my workouts at the beginning of each week, not only to balance swimming, running, yoga, and weight training, but to ensure I can exercise in the mornings (before having eaten anything other than oatmeal, which I know is a "safe" food), which often involve getting up at 5am.
I'm a big fan of list making. Before entering my first triathlon 2 years ago, I wrote a list of all the barriers I felt I had to overcome in order to train consistently and compete in the race. Why not do the same for your fitness goal? I came up with 14 items on my barrier list, with potential solutions for each, and a few months later had a blast at my first race.
We each have unique barriers to exercise, and we all share common ones. Figure out what yours are, and shoot 'em down!
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