I was reading an excellent article from Precision Nutrition recently and wanted to share the high points with you. It was about how you should never "pause" your exercise program.
"Once I get through (insert life situation) I will start back exercising."
-I will start working out after all this craziness with the election goes away.
-I will start eating better after the holidays.
-When work slows down I can start taking better care of myself.
If you had told yourself that you would start back after COVID slows down, you have spent most of the year waiting!
Precision Nutrition calls it the Pause Button Mentality. And they have found through coaching over 100,000 people that it is one of the worst things you can do.
Because it does not help you in the long run, it only helps you build the skill of pausing.
Because here is a hard truth we will have to face at one time or another. There is always going to be something in the way!
Work, family, good old life "stuff", etc… Something is going to happen and take away your workout time and/or energy. You can't keep pausing, you have to learn what to do.
Precision Nutrition recommends adjusting your dials instead.
Look at your life and when you were in the best shape of your life. Your workouts and nutrition were probably close to a 10 on a scale of 1-10.
You were working out hard, several days a week, and consistently eating healthy meals. Or you were 18 years old and it was all easy…
For me, it was when I was training for a jiu-jitsu tournament. I was spending several hours a week doing very intense training, while also staying on top of my nutrition so I would make weight.
On the flip side, I have been more on a 3 out of 10 on the scale for several months. Life has been really hectic and my body simply could not handle as much intense exercise on top of everything else.
So I turned the dial down, but I never turned it completely off.
That goes for my nutrition too. Fairly healthy meals, but definitely not where I would like it to be.
So look at your workouts and nutrition. Where are your dials currently set?
The goal is to go up one notch. The article I linked to above has some great infographics for exercise, nutrition, and overall wellness. It will give you some ideas of how to move from one level to the next.
If you are at 0, make it your mission to crank it up to 1 on the dial. Don't keep pausing, just adjust your dial.
If you find yourself continually pausing, you would be a great candidate my online workouts. Several people who had their exercise on "pause" found this works great for them because they can do the workouts any time they like. Check out the link at the bottom of this post for a few examples of those.
Success in life is finding ways to navigate the tough times that come our way. Even if are crawling!
It's ok to crawl, as long as you are crawling forward. Don't hit the pause button anymore.
Tone and Trim On Your Time
I've designed 3 workouts you can do at home with minimal equipment that will:
-Increase your metabolism
-Build lean muscle
-Tone your whole body
-Increase cardiovascular endurance
-Keep your body guessing with lots of variety
-Accommodate every level from the beginner to advanced
These workouts can all be done in 30 minutes or less and you can do them any time you like. You can get those for free at this link: