Ain’t nobody got time for excuses!

For real, though. Especially in the exercise department. While I love the after effects of a good sweat session, I am not always super amped to get my booty out the door. It’s so easy to come up with excuses and reasons to NOT workout and seemingly less easy to say why we should. Everyone’s motivating factors for hitting the gym/pavement/studio/etc. are different but one thing that everyone has in common is that we ALL live busy lives and dedicating ‘me’ time isn’t always priority #1. I’ve found three foolproof ways, that work for me personally, to ensure I don’t snooze my alarm in the AM.

Pre-Schedule & Set My Alarm

You wouldn’t cancel a doctor’s appointment or coffee with a girlfriend, so don’t cancel your daily workouts either! I pre-schedule my workouts for the week ahead on Sundays and I write each of them down in my calendar as well as put them as appointments in my iPhone. My phone reminds me 30 minutes prior to that time which is also a trigger to start drinking my Spark. Having these ‘appointments’ with myself allows me to consciously create the block of time for myself and helps me to make sure I fit everything that I need/want to into each of my days. I also love signing up in advance for Orangetheory & Cycling classes because it holds me accountable to showing up or I end up paying a no-show fee!

Set Everything Out The Night Before

This goes hand-in-hand with the above in order to keep me organized and wasting less time. Every night before I go to bed I lay out everything I need for the next morning’s workout: tank, tights or shorts, socks, sports bra, heart rate monitor, etc. Those items I stack and place on top of a shelf just next to my side of the bed so that I can grab them and head right into the bathroom to change, brush my teeth, wash my face and not interrupt Kyle sleeping {because Lord knows he isn’t getting up with me to workout HAHA!}. I also fill up my water bottle the night before so they’re cold when I grab them out of the refrigerator and head out the door! My alarm goes off at 5:26am for Orangetheory & I’m out the door by 5:45am so you can clearly see I have the routine down to a science. 😉

Take A Photo For Proof

This one might sound silly but it’s the best way to show proof I actually finished a workout. Not that I need to tell the social media world everything I do; but it is just another way I reinforce this lifestyle for myself as well as show anyone following me that health & fitness is truly a top priority for me. I always want to be 100% genuine and authentic with everyone so by showing a quick Snapchat or Insta photo/story of me pre- or post-workout allows y’all a deeper glimpse into things that are important for me! Plus that ‘runner’s high’ or ‘post-workout glow’ is a real feeling for me and despite never having any makeup on and typically being a sweaty mess, I feel pretty darn beautiful and badass and I think that’s a powerful thing.

How do YOU stay dedicated to your workouts? What has worked for you to keep you accountable to hitting the gym or pool or whatever your thing is?! I’d love to hear in the comments below! xox