How to keep yourself accountable and on task.

Keeping your momentum up and keeping yourself accountable.

So, now that you have integrity, you are being truthful to your efforts and your mistakes now you have to keep yourself accountable for maintaining a fitness regimen. Here are some tips to keeping you on track:

1st Recognize your goals, meaning, if you don’t have a goal yet, get one. It must be measurable and have an end result that can keep you happy so you can eventually find a new goal to move toward. Goals are ever changing but try to stick with one and build on it. For instance, I would like to be fit, is not a goal. How fit would you like to be? What do you consider to be fit? Your level of fitness you want to maintain is ever changing, so it is too broad of a statement and leaves too much room to fail. Another example of a poor goal is, I want to lose 15 lbs. While this goal is more specific and measurable it is also very useless when you consider the ways you could lose weight that may be not so healthy choices. Think of your goals as tasks, there needs to be a tangible result to keep you motivated and not a lot of limitations to keep you restrained from attaining more. Finding your goals is like finding your “sweet spot” start with small things and find ways to build on them after you attain them. Here is an example of a task or goal: today I will accomplish 1 push up, tomorrow I will do two and the next day I will try 3, and so on and so forth. Keep them simple, attainable and ever changing to fit your desires and needs, while keeping realistic integrity to your capabilities.

2nd Create a workable schedule. When creating a workable schedule or timeline to complete your tasks, be realistic. If you know you don’t have time to work on something then chances are you won’t make time for it. You keep Drs. Appointments and meetings in your schedule. You know when you have to do laundry and make time to clean your house but if you don’t schedule it and stick to your schedule it is likely the task can be over looked. However, keep in mind shit doesn’t always work out on a schedule either, so don’t get down on yourself, if you happen to skip a day you scheduled time for a particular task, just reschedule it. Be flexible but stay vigilant. Some helpful tips to make time for all your important tasks to becoming/staying fit are: never go more than 3 days without a designated work out time. Rotate your specific muscle groups, arms, legs, core, and your full body workouts. Keep balance between your highly intense workouts, like HIIT, and your slower more controlled body work outs, like yoga, this will give your body recovery while it builds strength. So say you scheduled a 3 day a week work out, make sure they do not have too many days in a row or too many days apart. A good example is a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday regimen but as I said it is just an example. Make whatever schedule works best for you. Try to find a consistent time to complete your tasks so that it builds a natural habit rather than something that’s obscure and hard to keep track of. Most importantly don’t make it a giant deal, you only need 30-45 minutes of time to yourself on the days you choose to work out, it takes you longer to get through a season of a T.V. show nowadays so don’t ever use “there’s not enough time” as an excuse. Because, there is enough time you just aren’t managing it to fit your needs. That is where integrity comes in a saves the day.

3rd Be cognizant of everything. It’s time to make Integrity and accountability “besties”. In order to trust yourself to make adult decisions and stick to them, you must be real and mindful of all that you do. Meaning, be mindful of what you are eating and how often. Be mindful of how much effort you are putting in to your workouts and how often. Be mindful of how your specific body moves and how you can change habits. Our minds and our bodies like to go on “autopilot” whenever things get a little rough or hell just for the fun of it. However if you are giving them the attention they need to perform a specific task, they can work very well together giving your whole self some much needed absolute control. Be in your moment and test your limits, never fluff through an exercise for the sake of speed. Rather, work slow and controlled first and diligently work your speed up as your workouts progress. If something doesn’t feel right then stop yourself, reset, and strive for better form and more controlled, purposeful, powerful movements. You have the rest of your life to make better decisions for yourself, so take the time and do it however it is right for you.

4th Always ask questions. If you don’t understand a particular movement, ask someone who you have seen do that movement. You’re not dumb for asking questions, and who ever said “that is a stupid question” will never teach anything to anyone or learn from anyone. Fear of ignorance will keep even the most intelligent, thought provoking people scared off of anything. Own your ignorance so you can learn and move on to knowing more. Nobody can know everything but everyone is capable of finding out anything. Talking to others, getting tips and testing out new methods will keep you enjoying your workouts and adding levels to your performance. Some ideas are dumb…starvation to lose weight? Yeah that’s dumb! But, if you had never heard of that before or never heard why it is dumb then you would never know how really dumb it is. Always ask questions, the more you know the more tools you have to use, and resourcefulness flows so nicely with accountability and integrity.

5th Pick your battles. Now that you are being resourceful, accountable and using integrity you have to be choosey. Are you gonna fight yourself all afternoon about a piece of cake you ate at lunch or can you just accept it, move on and combat it with a quick work out before dinner? If you are running behind schedule all day are you gonna fluff through a work out just to stay on top of it or are you gonna accept it, move on, and try another day with more effort than you would have? Some tips to help you decide how to pick your battles is to use integrity when deciding how to win your battle. Meaning, are you really that tired or are you making an excuse. If you really don’t have time and you really are that tired, than you need to listen to your body. However, if you are not, than find something you can work with. I like 5 push-ups during commercial breaks or a quick Tabata http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training (20 sec 100% intensity 10 sec rest, for 4 intervals in two sets with a 1 minute rest in between sets) interval 4 minute work out or sometimes I’ll put on a game of ‘Just Dance’. You HAVE to do what works for you or you will end up doing nothing for yourself.