In today’s busy world, we sacrifice things every day. We give up buying a new TV in order to pay rent. We give up personal time in order to get a little more work done. Life is full of instances where we have to surrender one thing in order to achieve something greater.

Unfortunately, many people choose to sacrifice their personal fitness to make time for other pursuits. When you have work deadlines, want to spend time with your children, or are just exhausted from the day, it can be hard to justify spending 30 minutes in the gym or on a treadmill. However, your health is the one aspect of your life that you can’t afford to let slide.

In the following, we’ll discuss some ways that you can eliminate some of the clutter in your life and get back to focusing on your personal health

Change the Way You Stay Fit

Many people think that staying fit is more complicated than it is. They assume they have to spend hours working out and use all kinds of fancy equipment. Neither is true. It’s perfectly possible to develop an effective regimen that’s both quick and gear-free.

Workout Throughout the Day

Rather than devoting a single, extensive block of time to working out, you can spread your exercise throughout the day. As an example, each hour that you’re at work, get up from your desk and do one minute of exercise. You’re getting your reps in, allowing yourself ample rest between sessions, and the endorphins you release will help keep you alert and productive when you return to work!

Ditch the Gear – Stick with Calisthenics

It’s easy to make the excuse of, “I don’t have the right gear,” to avoid working out. The reality is that you can build muscle, grow stronger, and develop endurance without ever lifting a dumbbell. Pushups, situps, burpees, and hundreds of other bodyweight focused exercises have been keeping people fit for a long time. If making time for the gym is what’s keeping you from your fitness goals, turn your living room into your workout arena!

Exercise Less – Exercise Harder

In the last few years, High-Intensity Interval Training (HITT) has become very popular in the fitness realm. These short, high-intensity workouts are designed to let you achieve the same results in 20 minutes that would normally take an hour with other programs. Additionally, studies have shown that HIIT workouts can actually be more beneficial than a standard workout.

Let Someone Else Handle Your Busy Work

Whether we’re talking about washing the dishes, getting groceries, or scheduling appointments, life is filled with little distractions that add up to a big drain on our time. The problem is, essential those these tasks may be, they don’t lead to any long-lasting benefits. If everyday chores are preventing you from focusing on your health, then let somebody else do them. In the business world, this is called outsourcing.

Before you say anything: yes, I know it can be expensive to hire a maid or a personal assistant. But consider the cost of letting your health deteriorate instead.

• PBS reported that the average cost of healthcare, per person, was $10,345 in 2016. That cost was even greater for people with chronic health issues.
• The average annual cost of having a maid clean a house once per week was $8,320 in 2018.
• The average annual salary for a personal assistant was $29,964 in 2018

As you can see, health issues, especially chronic illnesses, can cost you far more in the long run than maintaining personal staff. Plus, you don’t have to handle their pay directly – that’s just another task you can let someone else handle.

Commit Yourself to a Workout Partner

Whether good or bad, humans beings are quick to give up on a goal or task when we’re the only ones who benefit. But when we can do something that benefits someone else, we tend to stick with our commitments. When it comes to your personal fitness, you can’t overestimate the benefit of having someone else join you.

You’re probably a working professional, so think about it like this – if you had a meeting scheduled with a client, would you cancel that meeting just because you were swamped with other things you had to get done? Probably not. You can use that same mentality to benefit your workout goals by having someone join you. Think of your training sessions with your partner as a client meeting. Their success depends on you, and yours on them. You’ll be far more willing to sacrifice other aspects of your life to get your fitness session in if you know someone else is counting on you. Plus, having someone else suffering along with you makes the pain that much more bearable!