Your Guide to Better Time Management for Fat Loss
This guide for men with busy work and family life looking to lose body fat is provided free of charge by GCPT Graham Crawford Personal Training.
I am going to share a few easy steps to implement today that will improve your quality of sleep. I know that being a family man with a busy job it can be hard to get a lot of hours, so what we’re going to do is improve the quality of those hours.
Introduction
Who am I?
I am Graham Crawford, I am an Online Coach and Personal Trainer, my passion for fitness started at the age of 19 when I took up the sport of judo, at the time I was a heavy smoker working high-stress factory jobs.
As I attended more and more judo sessions I wanted more out of it, I wanted to start competing and going up the grades and realized I would have to choose between the sport I love and smoking. Needless to say to choose the sport I love as a replacement for my stress outlet, over 10 years down the line I had achieved my 1st dan black belt and still competing and taking up cycling for a second sport.
Over the years of seeing my body changing for the better and learning how to control the stresses of work in a more constructive way, by using that negative energy to fuel fitness for my sports.
I have developed my knowledge of helping busy clients with using the stresses of work/family as fuel for achieving their weight loss goals and getting a better quality of sleep to tackle the next day.
Who is this article for?
This article is for busy men working high-stress jobs with families between the ages of 30 – 55 who want to lose fat and feel sexier for their partners and feel they can take on the world. If this is you please keep reading on for some tips on getting better sleep to reduce stress for fat loss.
Welcome to time management
With a busy working and family life, it can be very hard to get time to your self, you feel there are never enough hours in the day to keep up with the workload your boss throws at you, get time in for your family/partner, get time in for your friends or get time in for your self.
You want to get more time for the gym, but by the time you have finished work, got home from the rush hour commute, helped the kids with their homework/or got more of your work done and spent quality time with your family. You are tired and ready for bed and don’t feel like hitting the weights or doing any sort of exercise, then you start to feel stressed and annoyed and think what’s the point in even trying to get to the gym and cancel your membership.
Below are three tips you can implement today to help you manage your time and make the most out of your gym membership and hit your fitness goals.
Your Ideal Week
Time is your most valuable asset!
We all have calendars on our smartphones and computers these days, and we can make them sync up with each other so we can access it on any of our devices, update and make changes to our calendars.
So why not use it to create your ideal week?
Start by making a note on paper of your commitments, for example:
- Work (meetings, answering emails, phone calls, travel time, etc.)
- Family (kids sporting events, holidays, date night, etc.)
- Social events (birthdays, family gatherings, weddings, etc.)
Last but not least YOUR TIME!
Once you have mapped out the rest with whatever time is left is yours:
- Workout days (ex Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
- Sports training
- Personal Development
There are also apps you can use such as rescue time, with this app you can get a good measure on where you spend most of your time and eliminate any time procrastinating, surfing the net, saving you more time for yourself.
Short Metabolic Workouts
Short metabolic workouts are not only great for firing up the metabolism for a serious calorie burn, but they are also great for tight schedules.
Putting aside 20 – 30 3 – 6 days a week may be easier than you think, once you have planned the rest of your week, you should be able to find 20 – 30 minutes in your dream week.
If it’s been a long day and you don’t feel much like working out, make a commitment of a minimum of 10 minutes, within 8-10 minutes of exercise your endorphins (the good feeling hormone) will release making you feel more awake/alert and just enough to help see the session through.
Once the workout is complete you get a sense of accomplishment that you have completed the workout which, in turn, makes you feel better and happier that you made the decision to go to the gym and get it done. After a week or two of forcing yourself to get to the gym even when you really don’t feel like it, you will find your body will adjust to the new routine, you will feel more energized, and like a drug, you will become addicted to it, especially when you start seeing changes within yourself.
Here is an example 20 – 30 minute circuit workout you can use – complete 2 – 3 rounds:
Warm-Up:
5 Minutes Cross trainer
Main:
- High knees 30 seconds
- Jumping jacks 30 seconds
- Step up 30 seconds
- Crunches 30 seconds
- Push up 30 seconds
- Plank 30 seconds (dumbbells)
- Overhead press 30 seconds
- Forward lunges 30 seconds (each side)
- High knees 30 seconds
- Jumping jacks 30 seconds
Cool Down:
Light walk on treadmill 3 – 5 Minutes
Find A Gym Closer To Work
Joining a gym closer to your work has many benefits to helping adhere to a new fitness routine, for example here are a few listed below:
- Before work, if you can find a 24-hour gym near your workplace why not get up that little bit earlier, smash your workout first thing in the morning and set yourself up for a productive day. Studies show that smashing a workout first thing in the morning gives you a boost to smashing your tasks at work and leaves you feeling more accomplished. As you see everyone dragging themselves into work with the 2nd or 3rd cup of coffee looking tired, you will be awake, alert, and ready to tackle the day.
- Lunchtime workouts, if you find that you have spare time throughout your lunch or working day, you can grab your gym bag and head to the gym, and get a good calorie burn earlier in the day. Which saves you time to spend quality time with your family.
- After work, how many times have you heard on the radio or got a travel update on your phone saying there are major delays on the roads or on public transport. Probably more than you can count !! am I right? So while everyone else is fighting through the traffic and the crowded train stations save yourself the frustration and hit the gym, by the time you have finished the crowds would have died down.
At first, when implementing they may seem difficult and it may take time for your body to settle in, but I urge you to stick with it, after a week or two your body will adjust and it will become second nature.
