On March 1, the first day I wore a pedometer, I took under 1,000 steps. Since health experts say that at least 10,000 steps a day are required to maintain an active lifestyle (5,000 steps a day is “moderately active,” and more than 10,000 a day are required in order to lose weight), I knew I had to step up my game if I was serious about changing my fitness level. The next day, I gave myself a failing grade for fitness since I took only 2,789 steps. It was an improvement over Day 1, but still not good enough.
Since then, I have increased my daily steps to over 12,000. In fact, yesterday, I took 13,179 steps, most of them the result of a 3-mile run. As you may know, I track my progress at my FaceBook Profile Page and also in my weekly Workout Wednesday events at the Indie Business Fan Page. Earlier this week, Stacy Brice, one of my FaceBook friends and an Indie Business Radio Show guest, asked me this: “What's your secret to doing so many steps *and* getting everything else done that you do?” I thought I'd try to answer that question.
Before I get to that, I must say that I am the furthest thing from a fitness authority. I am overweight and I have allowed leading my business and raising my children to get in the way of taking care of me. I have not “arrived” anywhere. I've just make a decision each day to put my extremely important self ahead of my extremely important business and my extremely important husband and children. Before making this choice, I was consistently putting myself last.
This has resulted in a healthy business and a healthy family, but an unhealthy dM who was too run down to really enjoy either. I hope something I say helps you, and that you'll forward this to a friend who may be dealing with similar issues.
- Don't speak the negative. This is not the first time I've tried to maintain a fitness routine. The reasons for prior failure are numerous, but one of them is that I spoke negatively about exercise and fitness. I would say things like, “This is so hard.” Or I would say, “I don't have time to workout and run the business at the same time.” I believe that speaking such negativity validated my decision to skip the exercise and tend to the business or whatever was easiest at the time.
My first “secret” is to avoid speaking the negative. Even when you feel it, don't say it out loud. Move as quickly as you can to the thing that moves you out of that cycle and onto the bike, into your swimsuit or whatever.
- Set specific goals. I am in the midst of this process at the moment. Knowing that I would need to move more and eat less, I knew I had to set specific goals in the area of moving and eating. Since eating is the harder of the two for me, I started with moving. My goal was to get to 5,000 steps a day. I quickly reached that goal so I upped the ante to 10,000 steps a day. Having surpassed that goal at 13,000+, I am planning to set a new goal of an average of 15,000 steps a day. Setting specific goals gives you something to aim for.
If you're not aiming for specific things, your efforts are not worthless, but they are not quantifiable, and that means they are not maximized. Exercising is great. But exercising to achieve certain goals is even better.
As a busy mom and CEO, I don't want to spend anymore time each day than I have to sitting around figuring out what I'm supposed to do. Knowing that I either hit 10,000+ steps a day or I fail makes it easy for me to just buckle down and get it done. I don't waste precious time figuring out what to do.
Set goals, decide how you will accomplish them and then make it happen.
- Make it happen. Speaking of making things happen, this is critical. I have a very long list of things to do each day. From getting my kids to school on time and helping with homework, to managing a thriving business, to being the best wife possible, it's easy for me to say I don't have time for fitness. I did in fact say that for years. It's a challenge, and the fact that I've decided to do it doesn't make it any less challenging. But I look past that to the benefits of making it happen. I refuse to let an, “It's hard and I don't have time,” mentality hold me back any longer.
For example, my planned schedule for yesterday included a phone interview with Brandon Uttley for his Web Business Freedom podcast. Early in the morning, Brandon asked me if I could do the interview in person. I had already decided that I was going to run 3 miles yesterday and I knew that changing a phone interview into an in-person interview just might interfere with that. Yet, I really wanted to help Brandon get the sound quality he wanted for his podcast, and I really wanted to take advantage of the chance to see Brandon.
I told Brandon that if he could meet me at the track, I could take a break from my run to do the interview. He agreed. So I picked my kids up from school, went to the track and got in a few laps while my kids played and did some of their homework. When Brandon arrived, I took a break to do the interview. When we were done, I went back out to the track to finish my run.
I'm honestly exhausted just reading about it, but that's the reality of making it happen. No excuses. If you want it, you'll figure it out.
You can listen to Brandon's podcast interview of me here.
- Objectively track your progress. Once you set goals, tracking progress is motivating and revealing. I talked about this a bit in my post about getting back on track after illness, but it bears repeating. On March 2, the day I took less than 3,000 steps, if you had asked me how many steps I had taken, I would have guessed at least 5,000. What a joke! Without an objective measure of my progress, I would still be fooling myself.
Use tools outside yourself to make sure you tell yourself the truth. For you, the tool may be a scale, a tape measure or a combination of many things. If too many tools is overwhelming for you, pick one or two like I did (my other one is my weekly weigh-in at the gym) and then add additional tools as you go.
If you cannot be honest about where you are, even if it's not a good place, you will not make much progress.
- Eat healthfully. This a super challenge for me, so rather than eat non-fat yogurt, dry toast and carrots all day, I decided to eat whatever I want for a while and add in healthful stuff to see how it feels. I purchased a juicer (that's my son in the picture juicing some carrots) and started turning some fresh fruits and vegetables into interesting raw foods. An example is the Avocado Grand I made a few weeks ago. I enjoy food. My problem is that I've been loving too much of the wrong kinds of foods.
Making at point of eating more fresh fruits and vegetables has forced me to discover new ways to prepare them so I don't become bored. This satisfies my natural curiosity to learn new things, plus it makes for some really cool pictures for my blog.
- Use cool toys. I love digital things that allow me to create more efficiency and fun in my life by pushing buttons and making things happen. I used to run without piping sound in through ear phones. I still do that from time to time, but I also enjoy running while listening to audio books and segments of the Indie Business Radio Show.
One of my latest toys is the new super green Apple iPod nono pictured above in the collage. With it, I can take photos, record video, listen to MP3 downloads of music, books or my radio show and listen to broadcast radio.
Having something that allows me to work while I work out is important to me. Doing two things at once, and being able to do both of them well, makes a lot of sense for me as a busy business leader so I try to do it when I can. Shiny toys give me one more reason to look forward to working out. And believe me, I need all the reasons I can get!
- Get help. If you need someone to help you fit exercise into your life, then do that. I use lots of help from a variety of sources. I credit Anne Marie Faiola, an award winning CEO and IBN member, with helping me to more fully embrace the importance of fitness. Together, we started a private fitness blog and she joined me on Twitter using the #FitCEOs hashtag to track our workouts. (You can use #FitCEOs on Twitter for your workouts if you'd like to join us!)
Most importantly, my family is supporting me. My longsuffering husband forgoes time with me so I can fit in my workouts. He's also picking up more homekeeping duties. We've hired someone to help with housework. We also eat out (healthfully) a bit more than we otherwise would because I don't always have time to cook and workout.
In order to fit fitness into your life, you will probably have to make some adjustments as well. If you're like me, you won't necessarily like them all. But like everything else, it's about priorities.
The fact that I don't cook dinner does not mean that no one eats. It just means we eat food that someone else prepares. But no one can workout for me. I have to do that myself. So it comes down to work out and find a prepared meal, or don't workout and cook myself. I make my choice, and it's the right one under the circumstances.
Question: If you exercise regularly, what are your tips for fitting in fitness and still getting stuff done? If you don't workout, do the things I've shared here help you make some different decisions?
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Congratulations on realizing that, as a business owner, you are your most precious capital! Everyone has to start somewhere and you have done a fantastic job making it work for you and your life. You are more likely to stick with the changes you have made for life so you can continue to live healthy and fit.
I love you. Thank you for this, dear heart! ♥ It's shown me that I'm nowhere as committed as you are (not that I *have* to be), *and* gives me something to ponder as I consider my fitness plan moving into this glorious Spring carrying (currently) 99 lbs less than I carried last year.
You've lost 99 pounds? That's fantastic and amazing. I would love to know what your tips are for doing that!!? Congratulations, Stacy!
Thank you! 🙂 Yep — in eight months. And although part of me wishes that I'd found some way to do it myself, after 30 years of struggling, developing diabetes, and having the meds ADD weight that nothing seemed to get rid of, I chose to stop the fight, and had surgery. I had a procedure called a “vertical sleeve gastrectomy” which is more invasive than a lap band, and less invasive than gastric bypass. In this procedure, they remove 85% of the stomach. That's it (not said to downplay it, but rather to say that there's no rewiring of your innards with this!).
I now can eat about 4 oz at a time, and I eat mini meals four or five times/day depending on how long I'm up. Oh, and I'm off eight RX meds — down to just one. And that one has significantly decreased in amount, and my endocrinologist believes I won't need it at all by the time I've lost what I want to lose (40 more lbs), AND will no longer be diabetic.
For me, it was absolutely the right choice. I've been blogging about it, openly and honestly. If you'd like to take a peek, the posts are here: http://www.listeningtomylife.com/blog/anew-weig…
I guess if I have any tip to give about losing LOTS of weight, it would be this: There's no shame in someone's giving up the struggle and choosing help that, in some eyes, is radical. If health is the motive, then surgery is a really strong, viable option that should at least be considered. I put off considering it (in a seriously way) for at least six years because I was too proud to admit I couldn't do it “some other way.” And I wish, with all my heart, that I'd listened to my wise self THEN. I'd have had that many more years of health by this point. I could have been more active. I wouldn't have missed out on the part of my life that weight kept me from experiencing. To not look at the surgical option is another form of denial, and a way to stay stuck. LOOKING hurts no one. And what might be found could save a person's life, and aliveness.
♥
Thank you for sharing. My neighbor had surgery last year and she looks and feels fantastic too! Congratulations to you for doing what you know is best for you, Stacy.
It was great to be able to see you in person yesterday, and I'm glad you took the time out in addition to sticking with your plan to get your workout done! That is one of the benefits of being your own boss–you can take a beautiful Carolina afternoon off and spend it with your kids outdoors!
I was so hungry after our interview that sadly I stopped to get fries and a drink at a drive-through. So you really did put me to shame and it will motivate me to get outside this weekend! 🙂
Brandon: It will take more than a few fries to throw off your fit physique! Thanks for allowing me to be your first guest on your podcast. Can't wait to see you again, and next time, talk about the parenting and lifestyle issues we deal with. I know you have lots of tips there too!
Great post dM!!! Perfect timing for me!! I have been evading exercise for most of my adult life. Its not that I don't like being active, its just that I've just never enjoyed jogging, running or going to the gym. I always use the excuse that I dont have time and that I didnt like doing it, so why bother?? Well, a few weeks ago I started to notice that my knees were hurting when I walked and I thought that was pretty strange since I am only 28 and relatively healthy. I ended up going to the doctor and she told me that the reason my knees were hurting was a result of the way women's bodies are designed which can put a lot of pressure on our knees. I asked her what I could do about it – “strengthen you thigh muscles”….that was a bit of a wake up call!! So, starting this week, I have finally begun the process of adding exercise to my weekly routine. I am trying the Couch to 5k method which is a baby step program to get me from walk/jog intervals to jogging continuously for 30 min. It great because everything seems doable. After my first interval this week, I actually felt good (which is a first for me) and I felt like I could definitely reach my 5k goal. Yipee!!
I know I would benefit from the support of the FitCEO's so I will have to starting posting to Twitter.
Thank you for putting your insights out there!!